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Online Grocer Tracks Orders Via RFIDSpanish company Tudespensa.com can ensure that goods picked and loaded with an automated system are delivered properly, by reading RFID tags on the totes in which those items are packed, using technology from RFID Dipole.
Dec 14, 2012—Tudespensa.com (Your Pantry), a Spanish online supermarket, delivers food, household cleaning supplies, toiletries and other products to customers throughout Spain, from its central warehouse located in Madrid. To ensure that the high volume of goods are delivered quickly, and at the scheduled time and place, its warehouse employs radio frequency identification to help it load ordered goods into the proper delivery vehicle and in the correct sequence, according to Jose Vicente Caballero, the logistics manager of DLR, a provider of controlled temperature-storage and order-picking services. The solution, supplied by RFID Dipole, includes passive EPC Gen 2 ultrahigh-frequency (UHF) tags affixed to reusable totes that travel to customers, as well as to suppliers, that are tracked via readers at the dock doors. Dipole's RFID software suite collects and stores read data on Tudespensa's database, and shares that information with the company's Microsoft Navision enterprise resource planning (ERP) system.
Spanish customers who lack the time or transportation to shop can order goods online. Tudespensa will then deliver the ordered items in cooled vans within 24 hours, if so requested by a customer. 
Tudespensa installed Impinj RFID readers and antennas at each of its dock doors, to read the tags on its totes as they are shipped out or returned.
Tudespensa's warehouse manages two types of orders: normal flow and tense flow. Normal flow consists of groceries, as well as beauty and cleaning products, stored within the company's warehouse. Tense flow products include fresh goods—such as fruit, meat, fish and vegetables—that are received by the warehouse on a daily basis and are very quickly loaded directly into customers' orders. The products arrive from suppliers in Tudespensa's plastic totes, which are typically unpacked, and are then repacked with goods for customer orders, after which the reloaded tote is transported to the customer's door and back to Tudespensa. Customers place their shopping orders on Tudespensa's Web site, choosing a delivery time for the order within the 24-hour period. The firm's dispatching staff categorizes the orders according to delivery time and geographic location, and then assigns them to delivery vans, to be loaded in a specific sequence that follows the delivery route. In this way, drivers can simply remove each order from the back of the vehicle, rather than having to search for the correct goods at every delivery point. When an order is placed, the company orders its "tense" items, such as fresh fruit or meats, while automated equipment begins picking goods already stocked (normal flow items) and placing them in plastic totes on dollies, in an automatic process known as "dolletyzing." The entire process takes place under controlled temperature, Caballero explains. Login and post your comment!Not a member? Signup for an account now to access all of the features of RFIDJournal.com! |
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