Aug 27, 2019Sports shoe store Authentic Feet, part of Xambre Group, has automated the management of most of its stocks thanks to a radio frequency identification solution from iTag Smart Tags. The facilitating factor was the use of RFID tags in shoes supplied by Nike, which represents approximately 60 percent of the store's sneaker inventory.
According to Leonardo Xambre, Authentic Feet's CEO, the successful deployment has raised operational demands and improved inventory control, especially for Nike products. "With Nike's initiative to ship its RFID-tagged products," he explains, "we had the idea to take this opportunity to manage our inventory of its products with the same technology."
The results have been satisfactory, Xambre reports, as the technology has made it possible to manage incoming and outgoing stocks quickly. "Another positive point will be the next step of the project," he adds, "which will be to manage product breakage in the sales area, as 60 percent of the stores' shoes are Nike brand. Thus, it will be possible to monitor the exposure of items with more efficiency."
Since March 2019, RFID has been used in the company's inventory and sales processes, including the in-store receipt and verification of products. The GS1 standards used in the products are EAN13, SGTIN-96 and EPC Gen 2. "To use this standardization, iTag has developed a tool that converts EPC to EAN13 to perform product tracking at the time of goods entry via data collector," explains Sérgio Gambim, iTag's CEO.
"The project aims to extend to all Authentic Feet branches, initially with Nike products, thanks to the use of state-of-the-art technology not only in shoes, but also in logistics process, with their representatives," Gambim states. "Currently, the RFID process is well adjusted for receiving and inventory."
Nike sends invoices in XML format, and the Authentic Feet system, integrated with iTagAlert 2.0, completes the receipt via an RFID reader. The solution points out any divergences and forwards that information so stock can be managed in real time. The inventory-management process uses Zebra Technologies' 8500 RFID reader, integrated with an enterprise resource planning system and iTagAlert 2.0, which selects the products to be localized.
"Because RFID codes are unique, we can do the deal smoothly by pointing out all divergences and what is missing in the sales area," Xambre says. "The next step will be to use RFID tags to make sales and transfers between branches via RFID, thus making management much better and more agile."
The tags utilize Monza R6 chips from Impinj. In addition to the 8500 RFID reader, Zebra is also providing its ZD500r interrogator.
