Anjos Baby, a Brazilian factory that makes clothing for children ranging from birth to four years of age, has adopted a radio frequency identification solution from iTag Etiquetas Inteligentes to improve its business processes. The company manufactures 700 types of clothing, with 4,500 stock-keeping units (SKUs) per collection, totaling approximately 500,000 orders per year. Since the 2016 deployment, Anjos Baby reports that it has achieved 100 percent accuracy in the delivery of orders to its retailer customers. What’s more, the manufacturer has grown by 50 percent in recent years, also thanks to RFID technology.
According to Emerson Botero, a partner at Anjos Baby, the company now has total control of parts on its production line, with a 90 percent reduction in operating time. For billing, the time required for the processing of clothes was decreased by 60 percent, with zero incidence of errors. With the RFID system in place, Anjos Baby can analyze and check sealed boxes after issuing invoices, and it intends to use the technology to boost the various stages of manufacturing, which include embroidery, stamping and sewing. The company expects to face challenges related to costs, but it foresees being able to improve its earnings.
The integration of the RFID solution with the company’s enterprise resource planning (ERP) system occurred naturally, Botero says. “In our case, it would be impossible to have the deployment without integrating the platforms,” he explains. “We use an ERP system from Emillennium, a longtime partner of Anjos Baby that has been dedicated to this project for years. Many meetings and conversations took place about this until the time came to get our hands dirty.” The database works locally at Anjos Baby’s facility.
In the packaging department, products receive RFID tags containing their specific model, color, size and production order. Various products are taken to the portal, where their tags are read and they are then placed in stock. The Emillennium ERP generates pre-billing for the products, which are separated and boxed. “Before sealing the boxes, we do the pre-invoice check,” Botero states. “At that moment, we are sure or not that the boxed products meet the order perfectly, and we release it for the issuance of an invoice.”
According to the factory’s managers, the RFID solution met their expectations. “The gains were enormous, with high efficiency gains in the sectors where the technology is being used,” Botero reports. “The employees were impressed with the results and feel extremely valued for being able to perform these functions.” Other benefits have gone beyond the factory’s expectations. “Customers who receive our products have the option of controlling the point of sale without the need to label products, since the tags accompany all items we produce. In addition, for customers who do not yet control inventory and sales via RFID, the image of a modern and revolutionary company remains.”
According to Sérgio Gambim, iTag’s CEO, the iTag Monitor middleware is responsible for intermediating configurations and readings between the ERP and the RFID reader. It is a tool that is constantly improving, he says, always bringing the latest technology updates from readers. “The tool is installed in the product entry and exit portals,” Gambim explains. Two portals, each containing a single reader, were installed at the factory. The first and largest is located at the stock entrance, where products lots are stored as they are finalized. “The challenges here were enormous,” Botero recalls. “In our process, when a certain product enters stock, it is automatically downloaded from its respective production order. For that to happen, it was necessary to customize the ERP.”
The second portal is located in the dispatch area, where the pre-selected goods for the orders are checked. “At that moment, we read the products already boxed,” Botero says. “We work with Zebra Technologies readers to print and save labels on the Zebra printer. The tags are from iTag.” To meet the reading needs, he says, it was necessary to customize and integrate the ERP with the equipment. Emillennium customized the solution, while iTag implemented it with production in progress and carried out an inventory count of the entire stock.
Before the RFID deployment, the process was based on individual readings of each piece—that is, it was necessary that every product move through a standard barcode reader. With the RFID system, however, this operation started to be used for batches of products, thanks to the speed and security RFID allows. The implantation follows GS1‘s passive EPC UHF RFID standard, bringing global benefits in the acquisition of both supplies and equipment. The experience of implementing RFID was a positive one, Botero says, but there were several challenges.
“We had to develop software and hardware integration with partners,” Botero states. “During development, it was necessary to test, validate and approve the tasks, all within the company’s production process, and often with people who were not very familiar with the new tools. The distance was also a challenge, because we are almost 500 kilometers from São Paulo, and if there was an inconsistency with hardware or software, we had a problem. We had and still have perhaps the main challenge: costs. We are talking about relatively new technology that is still not widespread—and, in our case, as labels are an integral part of the products, we had additional expenses.”