May 13, 2011Hosiery and intimate apparel manufacturer Kayser-Roth is providing item level RFID UHF EPC Gen 2 tagging of men's socks packaging as the products are shipped to one of its customers. But rather than simply applying the tags merely to meet the retailer's mandate, Kayser-Roth is testing and verifying them as well during product audits, using RFID readers at three specific points of manufacture to verify that the tag is working and to ensure that the correct tag has been applied to each product.
Kayser Roth manufactures variety of hosiery and intimate apparel bearing the Hue and No Nonsense brands, as well as private label products. Kayser-Roth is the maker of products such as No nonsense and HUE. It manufactures its products at four facilities in North Carolina and Tennessee, and has its headquarters in Greensboro, N.C.
In January 2010, the unnamed retailer mandated that Kayser-Roth apply RFID tags to each package of a private-label product (manufactured specifically for that retailer) each of which contains three pairs of men's socks manufactured at—and shipped from—Kayser Roth's facility in Burlington, N.C. Kayser-Roth says it already had been tagging pallets and cases of products destined for that retailer for nearly five years. The item-level mandate was due July 2010, at which time Kayser-Roth began applying the tags. The testing of those tags, to ensure they are attached to the appropriate product and can be read, began in late July.
When the company received its directive to apply EPC Gen 2 tags to the packaging of its men's socks, it looked for something more than a "slap and ship" tagging approach because such an approach would provide for Kayser-Roth with limited benefit and no guarantee that the ID number on the tag accurately reflected the product to which it was attached. Instead, it developed a tagging system that enables it to read each item's RFID inlay at three separates points following manufacturing to ensure that each item is tagged correctly, and has a foundation that will allow the manufacturer to track when products are packed for shipment and ensure the right products are sent to a customer.
Kayser-Roth's socks are identified by means a bar-coded number printed on a paper label attached to each consumer package of three pairs of socks and linked to a SKU number in the company's database. Three packages are then packed in a poly bag creating a total of nine pairs of socks in the bag (three packages of three pairs each).
Kayser Roth began applying a UPM RFID ShortDipole tag (made with Impinj Monza 3 or Monza 4 chip), to each three-pair package of socks. The company uses a Zebra Technology RZ400 RFID printer-encoder to encode each tag with a unique serial number and print it with the socks' SKU and color name, as well as the tag's serial number. The tags are read and their ID numbers linked to the SKU in Entigral's TraxWare software installed on Kayser-Roth's database.
A Kayser-Roth worker attaches an RFID tag to the packaging of each three-pair package of socks, as the socks are manually placed in plastic packaging after manufacture. Three of the three-pair packages are then placed in the poly (plastic) bags. About 12 to 24 poly bags fit in a case with 20 cases loaded on a pallet, totaling 720 to 1,440 tags per pallet. (Some products are also made in China, and there tags are also being similarly encoded and printed, then applied to the packaging.)
Two weeks after installing the system in June, Kayser-Roth began auditing the tags at three different points to ensure they were working properly and not affixed to the wrong product (such as a tag linked to another SKU representing a different size, color or style). Entigral and Kayser-Roth built a 12-inch insulated cube known as a "hot box" and installed it installed on a cart that auditors take with them as they pass through the manufacturing floor. The auditor randomly selects a consumer package with three pairs of socks and examines the packaging and, in some instances, the quality of the three pairs socks bundled together. Then, she tests the tag by reading it with a Motorola MC9090-G RFID handheld. Because there are so many tags in the vicinity, the hot box's aluminum lining allows the auditor to ensure that the only tag she reads is the one she is attempting to read. First she places the reader and the package of socks into hot box. She reads details on the handheld to compare the SKU against the product in front of her. If the tag has read properly and the data is correct, she approves it.
A second audit location is an offshore facility, which uses a Motorola MC9090-G RFID handheld to audit random selections of the socks before shipping to ensure the tags are accurate and can be read. The third audit location is at receiving in the distribution center next to the manufacturing facility, where staff can read tags attached to products arriving from the offshore manufacturer to ensure the tags are readable and match the SKU.
One of the greatest benefits of item level tagging, according to Kayser-Roth, is knowing that the retailer will be reducing the risk of out-of-stocks by using the RFID tags to manage inventory when the product arrives at the retailer's warehouse, and when the product is placed on the shelf and then sold.
However, the company now has the foundation for what it calls other scanning opportunities. For example, in the picking line, when cases are packed with multiple kinds of socks for an order to the customer, currently auditors open random cases and examine the order to ensure it is correct. In the future, however, the company expects to install a fixed reader portal to read the tags inside the boxes after they have been packed, confirming that all the items are packed according to the order, while an alert can be displayed if there are any errors. This process eliminates the need for auditors to open cases of products that have RFID tags attached to them. This application, however, is still a future goal and the date to install it has not been determined.
