Jun 22, 2009This article was originally published by RFID Update.
June 22, 2009—Wealth and asset management firm Robert W. Baird & Co. has published the June edition of RFID Monthly. Baird has given RFID Update permission to reprint the Key Developments section (below), which offers the report highlights. For those wanting more detail, the complete 16-page document is available free here. Following are highlights:
- American Apparel Case Study Reveals Strong ROI. We evaluated American Apparel's item level RFID pilot and believe the per-store payback to be about 4.5 months given increased sales from fewer out-of-stocks and reduced labor. RFID boosted revenue by providing improved inventory visibility and automation that enabled process changes to ensure a full complement of product offerings were available on the retail floor at all times. This was accomplished with reduced labor for weekly cycle counts and inventory searches. The company expects a full rollout to begin this summer. Please see our June RFID supplement for the entire case study write-up and corresponding analysis.
- Coke Leverages RFID to Help Manage New Product. Coca-Cola has introduced a new fountain dispenser, called Freestyle, which allows significantly more consumer choice at self-service stations, primarily at fast food restaurants and convenience stores. Freestyle leverages RFID to help with several aspects of the unit operations, including shipping accuracy, unit refill, safety and usage. The data generated will help Coke drive incremental revenue by improving consumer marketing and enabling improved inventory management, thus helping key customers.
- Reducing Mis-Shipments a Sizable RFID Opportunity. Back in September 2008, we wrote about Walgreens' new distribution center and its use of RFID to reduce mis-shipments. More recently, we have written about Checkpoint's Merchandise Visibility Solution, which provides automated visibility for apparel at the item level and enables automated confirmation of shipped contents. This solution is being employed at European retailer Charles Vogele. We believe RFID solutions to reduce mis-shipments, or catch incorrect shipments early in the process, represents a sizeable market opportunity given the high cost of the problem and the large volume of goods shipped through the supply chain.
- Transportation and Federal Stimulus. As part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, also known as the "stimulus package," $1.5B has been appropriated for Grants for Transportation Investment Generating Economic Recovery, or TIGER Grants. We expect both passive and active RFID systems will be used to support tolling, dynamic pricing, rail management, intelligent infrastructure and improving transportation between modes at ports.
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