Jan 30, 2015German casual apparel company Marc O'Polo has adopted a radio frequency identification solution to track its products across the entire supply chain, from its distribution center to 86 of its stores throughout Europe. The company finished installing the system at all 87 sites by September 2014, and is now expanding the deployment to include the tagging of products by manufacturers, thereby enabling the retailer to track its merchandise from the point at which they are made. The company is using Detego Suite 4.0, provided by Enso Detego, to capture and manage RFID read data from each tagged item. The system has been taken live at all of Marc O'Polo's retail stores. Enso Detego was able to accomplish the fast deployment with the help of several third-party solution providers: Meco Group, Knoblauch and Tailorit.
Marc O'Polo, headquartered south of Munich, in Stephanskirchen, owns and operates 110 stores worldwide that are dedicated to selling its casual clothing made from natural materials. The company also sells its apparel through 165 franchise stores, 1,190 retail partners and 1,320 multi-brand stores. Its products, which include eyewear and other accessories, cater to young consumers. At its headquarters, the firm operates a DC that receives garments manufactured by third-parties and ships them to its stores as needed. Marc O'Polo reached out to Enso Detego for an end-to-end solution that would increase its supply chain visibility and product availability on the sales floor.
"We wished to overcome several challenges," says Jana Hildenbrand, Marc O'Polo's director of sales support and head of the RFID installation project. "Firstly, RFID was implemented to make processes in logistics and stores more efficient, but also to increase time for customer services." By freeing the sales staff from the task of time-consuming inventory tracking, she explains, the system could allow those employees to spend more time with customers. "We wanted to have a higher goods' availability. And last—but not least—we, of course, planned to have an increase in
turnover."
Marc O'Polo started with a pilot in its boutique at the company's headquarters in 2013, in order to test the system's functionality in a real-world setting. The RFID solution deployed at the boutique provided the ideal environment for testing and approving features and updates, according to Michael Goller, Enso Detego's CTO, and enabled Enso Detego to quickly customize the solution to meet Marc O'Polo's needs.
With the RFID system installed at its distribution center and 86 stores in Europe, the retailer is now encoding a unique ID number to each RFID tag at its headquarters and shipping batches of them to the individual manufacturers. Factory workers are applying an Avery Dennison AD-380 tag to each item. The tagged products are then shipped to the company's DC, Goller says, where they are identified upon receipt via a highly sophisticated RFID infrastructure based on Impinj RFID readers and Kathrein antennas. Beyond the identification at the inbound stage, the Detego Suite 4.0 software provides additional modules to support the individual processes at the DC, such as picking, pack verification and outbound shipping.
At the stores, sales associates use Nordic ID handheld readers to identify received goods and perform reconciliation against the shipping notice. The product's status is automatically updated as it is received at the store, and the store's inventory record is updated as well. Personnel also utilize the Nordic ID readers to perform periodic inventory checks on the store shelves, in order to quickly update the inventory count in the software.
In addition, each store has a Nordic ID reader installed at the point of sale. When customers bring products to the sales counter, a worker uses the device to capture the tags' unique ID numbers, and the Detego Suite 4.0 software then removes that item from the inventory record. The real-time inventory update enables a timely management of replenishment orders, the company reports, thereby increasing product availability and customer satisfaction.
The final RFID tag read takes place at the store exit. Here, Enso Detego's StoreGuard+ solution provides full item-level electronic article surveillance (EAS) functionality, using an Impinj reader with Kathrein antennas and an advanced camera system. The system is triggered when shoppers leave the store, and confirms that they are carrying products whose tag IDs have been removed from the inventory list by means of a transaction at the checkout desk. If the solution detects an item still on the inventory list—thus indicating that it has not been purchased—an audible alert is triggered to notify a shop assistant. Additionally, the system provides real-time replenishment alerts to store management for stolen items, thereby offering personnel the opportunity to increase product availability.
Marc O'Polo plans to expand the RFID solution's deployment to the 17 factory outlet stores during February 2015.
One of the greatest challenges facing this deployment, Goller says, was the speed at which the system was rolled out across the distribution center and stores. "We're very proud that we were able to get this project done on time," he states.
The RFID technology enables Marc O'Polo to obtain real-time, accurate inventory data, making it possible for consumers to find what they need while shopping at the store. Ultimately, the company reports, the RFID system is considered a major building block for future omni-channel activities, by which customers can order an item online and pick up that product at the nearest store, based on inventory data in the system that indicates the item is in stock.
According to Hildenbrand, the solution is providing the increased efficiency that Marc O'Polo had sought with regard to logistics and in-store inventory tracking. "We have finished the rollout in September 2014," she says, "and are still busy improving processes step by step."
