Forging a Stronger Chain

When your suppliers are scattered all over Asia and your store shelves are spread across Europe, it can be difficult to maintain an optimal level of visibility over a supply chain. Shipments can be lost in transit, orders often can’t be confirmed until they reach the destination, and the large distances involved means that just-in-time inventory management can grow quite difficult.

METRO Group has worked with Checkpoint Systems to create an easy-to-use RFID-tagging system that allows for total transparency throughout a segment of its supply chain. From the time a pallet is packed at a supplier’s warehouse until the time it reaches the retailer’s conveyer belts, METRO can see the selected products’ every move.

By introducing RFID into its operations, the retailer has been able to accelerate incoming and outgoing goods processes, optimize the process and improve the accuracy of shipment documents.

METRO Group operates 2,100 stores in 32 countries under banners such as Metro/Makro Cash & Carry, Real, Media Markt, Saturn and Galeria Kaufhof. Its stores stock everything from electronics to wholesale groceries and the wares typically found in a department store.

In 2002, METRO and a number of partners, including Checkpoint Systems, founded the Future Store Initiative to boost efficiency and provide customers with greater convenience. Checkpoint, in particular, has more than 35 years of experience helping retailers implement technology-based solutions to resolve challenges ranging from streamlining inventory management to maximizing the effectiveness of in-store promotions.

With the assistance of Checkpoint’s advanced RFID knowledge and integration services, METRO introduced the RFID “Tag It Easy!” program as part of its Advanced Logistics Asia (ALA) initiative to improve logistics processes with Asian suppliers. As an exclusive third-party solutions provider, Checkpoint supplies pre-printed RFID labels and services to vendors in the region.

“Tag It Easy! has been expanded to include about 175 suppliers in China, India, Hong Kong and Vietnam. “By using the technology in the supply chain from Asia to Europe, we want to optimize the processes and improve the accuracy of shipment documents,” says Gerd Wolfram, head of CIO-Office for METRO Group, which now uses RFID technology to process more than three million RFID-tagged pallets annually at more than 400 locations throughout Europe.

One of the keys to the program’s success is creating and delivering RFID in a way that is cost-effective for manufacturers and suppliers, says Paul Cataldo, vice president of global marketing for Checkpoint. By not requiring a lot of investment, labor overhead or changes in processes, the ease of implementation makes it more attractive to suppliers and more likely that they will adopt the program.

Tag it Easy! “has really eliminated a lot of the challenges of bringing RFID into the process … on the manufacturer level,” he says. “It’s about removing those barriers.”