This article was originally published by RFID Update.
February 23, 2006—RFID solutions provider ODIN technologies today announced a deployment for Roex, a leading manufacturer and distributor of nutritional supplements. The deployment accomplishes two goals for Roex’s supply chain: increased visibility and enhanced quality control. RFID Update spoke with Ben Hosseinzadeh, Roex’s director of IT, and Bret Kinsella, ODIN’s vice president, about the roll-out.
“The reason we chose RFID is so that we could have exact quality control and know where our products are,” said Hosseinzadeh. The quality control aspect of the deployment offers Roex key competitive differentiation in its industry and an added benefit beyond supply chain visibility, which is often the sole driver of an enterprise’s decision to deploy. By tagging the raw materials as they arrive at Roex’s manufacturing plant, the company can arrive at improved quality of product. According to Kinsella, “There are a bunch of checks built into the system so they can ensure higher quality control than they have today.”
The supply chain visibility provided by RFID offers Roex the ability to better manage the occasional surges in demand for particular products. Rod Burreson, company founder and one-time professional body builder, hosts a weekly radio show about nutrition. Based on topics discussed during the show, certain Roex products may become momentarily very popular. RFID allows forward visibility into where Roex has product in the pipeline, enabling the company to better manage such demand spike. Said Kinsella, “They have up-to-date information to very quickly respond to changes in demand.”
Unlike the deployments of so many other manufacturers, Roex’s is not compliance-driven. The company chose to deploy based on the practical benefits it saw RFID could provide. As the technology matures and prices continue to fall, it is the industry hope and expectation to see the number of such internally-motivated deployments increase considerably throughout 2006.