Oct 12, 2021Ed. Note: A version of this article originally appeared at IoP Journal.
Women's fashion apparel brand Lado Avesso, headquartered in Maringá, Brazil, this year adopted radio frequency identification (RFID) technology from iTag Etiquetas Inteligentes following a successful period of testing in 2020. Thanks to the implementation, says Veridiana Silva, the company's information technology manager, the firm has attained greater agility and control of several processes. "The use of GS1's standard is arousing the interest of our customers in the use of RFID technology," Silva states.
The company's initial objective for adopting the technology, Silva explains, was the need to streamline its delivery and billing processes, in addition to tracking products throughout its supply chain. "The improvement in label costs made the project viable for us," she recalls. "We started testing in early 2020 and turned the key from 2021 to 2021, when all our companies started producing and billing through RFID technology."
Lado Avesso has adopted an RFID system from iTag to track its women's apparel line.
The most challenging part of the deployment, according to Veridiana, involved operational processes, "because you work with all sectors of the company, from cutting, production and development to the final part, which involves the company's revenues." She adds, "The collaboration of the entire business is very important for the success of a project like this," and even stylists were impacted by the new technology.
"We print all our tags, without using an external bureau," Veridiana states. "The warehouse process, for example—the separation of supplies for the factory—underwent changes. The tags, which initially used only barcodes, started to be manufactured at this internal bureau, which required staff training for the new methods." One benefit of changing to RFID was the unification of the tags that are put into garments. "We kept the volume of parts in circulation, with speed gains in our processes. Another benefit involved the method of checking goods at the factory, a process we developed together with iTAG."
With approximately 1,600 direct and indirect employees, 2,000 customers, and sales throughout more than 1,500 cities in Brazil, Lado Avesso is a brand that, according to its founders, "has, as its main characteristic, a modern and elegant aesthetic attitude that values the woman." In the market for more than 30 years, the brand is known for the quality of its jeans, the company reports. By analyzing world trends and consumption profiles in the Brazilian market over time, the firm expanded its brand's reach to the fashion segment.
Veridiana says the benefit of having full visibility over inventory has resulted in gains that extend from the production line, since products now receive RFID tags as soon as they are manufactured. Thanks to a good relationship with iTAG and its specialized technicians, she adds, Lado Avesso's RFID project has been successful and a positive experience. "If I were asked if I would start the whole RFID deployment process all over again," she states, "I would certainly say 'yes.'"
According to Lado Avesso's website, the company is among the country's fastest-growing women's apparel brands. "We owe it to our trajectory," the site proclaims, "where we are always concerned with delivering a high-quality product with a bold design and a fair price. As a result of our work, each season we bring an even more impeccable collection, always linked to the latest fashion trends and the consumption desires of our target audience."
