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Avery Dennison Expands RFID Adoption in Grocery Retail Industry
Avery Dennison (NYSE: AVY) announced it will begin working with The Kroger Co. to build a better associate and customer experience through RFID inventory automation technology. This collaboration makes item-level digital identification possible, enabling more frequent and more accurate inventory information to maximize freshness, reduce waste and improve the associate experience.
This strategic collaboration will begin in the bakery department, implementing RFID-embedded labels on each item, providing significant time savings and valuable data to automate inventory management and freshness optimization. It is a foundational step in delivering a more seamless customer and associate experience across all fresh categories long term.
UPS Delivers Next Phase in Smart Package/Smart Facility Initiative with RFID
After building RFID reading functionality into more than 1,000 distribution sites across its network, tracking millions of “smart packages” daily, global logistics company UPS is expanding its Smart Package Smart Facility (SPSF) solution.
UPS is in the process this summer of equipping all its brown trucks to read RFID tagged packages. A total of 60,000 vehicles will go live with the technology by the end of the year, with another approximated 40,000 coming into the system in 2025.
The smart vehicles installation is Wave 2 in a four-phase deployment of SPSF, one part of UPS’ wide scale Network of the Future (NoF) digital transformation initiative. UPS’s NoF will introduce end to end automation in its sortation facilities, including robotic systems. Within NoF is the SPSF system, for which RFID feeds data into a platform leveraging Generative AI and Digital Twins. With RFID tags on packages and reader antennas in facilities and vehicles “we’re moving from a scanning-based logistics network to a sensing-based network,” said Bell.
The average UPS sorting facility has about 155 miles of conveyor belts, sorting over four million packages every day. The seamless operation requires tracking, routing and prioritizing packages. By building the RFID sensing technology into its facilities, the company has eliminated 20 million barcode scans from daily operations. For the RFID industry, UPS’ sheer volume of packages shipped daily may make this initiative the largest implementation of UHF RAIN RFID technology to date.
Optimizing Large-Scale RFID Networks With Energy-Efficient Dynamic Cluster Head Selection: A Performance Improvement Approach
This paper uses radio frequency signals for non-contact tracking and localization utilising Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) technology. The clustering approach is quite useful when dealing with large RFID readers. This method stimulates the expansion of RFID nodes without compromising the overall network performance. The Cluster Head (CH) is the most critical node in a clustered RFID system. This research presents a method for dynamically selecting the cluster head that takes the connectivity and power of each RFID reader into account. In dynamic mode, selecting a new cluster head is based on Fuzzy Logic. Based on these data, the energy level of 0.443 and centrality of 0.809 are the thresholds at which a node has a 91.8 % chance of becoming a CH. Managing massive RFID networks is also handled, with cluster numbers increasing at different intervals. The RFID network’s effectiveness is determined by measuring throughput, accuracy, delay, success, and error rates. The network may accommodate up to a thousand nodes with 13 node leaders for improved capacity. The results show a 97.8 % success rate, 0.22 % accuracy, a 2.64 % error rate, and a 36.91 second latency.
Walmart's RFID Mandate is Lighting the Way for Retail
RAIN RFID allows retailers like Walmart to precisely track inventory and quickly restock shelves, with cost-saving implications and logistical improvements that boost efficiency and customer satisfaction. Tagging products with RAIN RFID chips like those made by Impinj allows Walmart to monitor exactly what merchandise is on its shelves or in backrooms, and track items in real time as they move through supply chains.
Walmart’s RAIN RFID expansion into new merchandise categories is part of an ongoing digital transformation across the industry. Retail experts say Walmart is doubling down on RFID to improve efficiency as it competes with online retailers like Amazon and strives to capture reinvigorated foot traffic after the Covid-19 pandemic.
It appears big-box retail’s embrace of RAIN RFID will eventually widen to include health and beauty products, and even grocery items. While retailers worldwide are already using RAIN RFID to power their digital transformations, Walmart’s mandate expansion — and its work creating tag performance standards — showcases the power of the technology, sets an example for the industry, and illuminates a pathway for adopting and deploying RAIN RFID solutions.
Ducati chooses TESISQUARE® for the end-to-end digitalisation of its Supply Chain
Ducati Motor Holding, the Italian motorcycle manufacturer based in Borgo Panigale, Bologna, and TESISQUARE®, the leading Italian company in the creation of digital supply chain solutions, have launched an innovative long-term project designed to deliver end-to-end visibility of the supply chain through the implementation of the TESISQUARE Platform.
The partnership is part of Ducati’s digital innovation programme to make its procurement and logistics processes more efficient and innovative, working from the principle that technology and digitalisation can improve the transport ecosystem. In the initial phase of the project, Ducati and TESISQUARE® implemented the Delivery Schedule and Inbound Management modules for publishing delivery plans with direct suppliers, currently numbering around 300, and managing shipment advice notes. The subsequent phase involved the launch of a pilot based on RFID and IoT technologies to monitor the 2,500 vehicles in the company’s fleet and track motorcycles in real time. This offers enormous benefits for control process automation on operations, from planning of deliveries and despatches to management of anomalies and delays through pro-active alerts.
Walmart’s Earnings Call Is A Delight For Supply Chain Professionals
After having too much inventory for several quarters, driven by supply/demand mismatches caused by COVID, they returned to inventory efficiency. The world’s largest retailer had lower markdowns, improved in-stock service levels, and lower inventory. Walmart’s U.S. inventory was down 4.5%, Sam’s was down over 8%. In the US, the company is investing in automation that they predict will lead to a higher level of inventory accuracy over the next few years. Walmart reports that investments in artificial intelligence have also improved inventory management.
Sam’s Club performed 35 million fewer tasks in the store last year. A lot of that was artificial intelligence that helped associates manage inventory better. They also report using RFID and computer vision, as well as digital displays and labels, to improve operations. New digital tools that automate repetitive tasks or eliminate heavy lifting have increased associate productivity and customers are benefiting from improved in-stock rates and associate accessibility, leading to customer experience scores up over 140 basis points in fiscal year 2024.
On the logistics front, the retail behemoth reports that they have retrofitted 13 regional distribution centers with varying levels of automated storage and retrieval systems. They are implementing technology from Symbotic in a phased deployment. The level of automation in a Symbotic solution is hard to grasp; it really has to be seen to be believed.
How Off-the-Shelf Tech Can Make Factories More Profitable
Many smart factory proponents, bedazzled by technology, overlook the biggest potential sources of value creation. We’ve seen this in visits to hundreds of manufacturing sites over the last five years: that most manufacturers make far too little use of readily available data. Labor hours, for instance; those numbers are collected for payroll, but rarely extracted from clock-in/out systems and analyzed to discover ways to operate more efficiently. Similarly, off-the-shelf RFID technology can trace scrap origins, and simple Internet of Things (IoT) sensors can deliver real-time insights into utility usage. The ability to see, analyze, and act on information immediately can have as much impact on factory profitability as advanced robotics, at much lower cost.
The best leaders for smart factory projects are experienced executives who combine manufacturing pragmatism with digital savvy. Too many balance sheets show write-offs for factory modernizations that didn’t deliver the goods — sometimes literally. In this respect, many middle market companies have an advantage over larger rivals, in that their senior leaders are closer to operations both experientially and physically.
đźšś Inside John Deere Harvester Works: Think your iPhone is cutting-edge? Try driving an X9 combine.
”Supply chain was massively disrupted last year,” said Jim Leach, the factory manager in East Moline. “We had hundreds of machines that were partially complete. We still haven’t seen a return to normal yet.” One way to minimize the wait for parts is to make them yourself. The Harvester Works has eight industrial Trumpf fiber-optic laser stations turning sheet metal into combine parts, chassis components and grain tank sides, then molding them on 10 press brakes — large industrial presses — in a process that is almost totally automated. The only need for human hands is to transfer the components from the lasers to the presses. The plant turns 60,000 tons of sheet steel a year into combine parts.
As big a challenge as making the parts is then keeping track of where they go, spread across Harvest Works’ 71 acres of floor space. Two years ago, employees were manually conducting daily inventory of which parts and aborning combines were where. Now, a large, white refrigerator-sized autonomous mobile robot purrs its way through the facility, scanning the RFID chips in various components to map the inventory down to each bin of bolts.
Assembling and checking are often done simultaneously. Michael Churchill uses an impact wrench gun containing an RFID chip that talks to Deere’s central production computer system, which knows when Churchill has tightened any given bolt enough and tells him to stop.
đźš— Using RFID Databolts in an Engine Assembly Plant
There are many types of RFID processors and network protocols to keep in mind as you’re installing your RFID system in your automotive plant manufacturing line. This blog post focuses on RFID databolts. I’ll discuss best practices for installing them, how to use RFID technology to track engine parts and components throughout the production process and how to use RFID databolts to provide instructions and to document the finished process.
The RFID databolt is a threaded device that can be embedded into a blank engine block or other component prior to production. It includes a radio-frequency identification (RFID) tag, a microprocessor, RFID antenna, and a power source, such as a battery or a connection to a power supply.
Automotive works on its mojo
Top of the list here is reducing transportation costs. In fact, transportation is the largest single cost in the supply chain for automotive, says Matt Bush, vice president of engineering and innovation at KPI Solutions. The challenge, he says, is to increase the density of parts and components inside the trailer. But as Freeberg points out, LIB components can easily weigh out a truck faster than it can be cubed out. The other challenge is to maximize the return ratio of collapsed containers on their trip back to the manufacturing plant, wherever that might be, says Freeberg. The standard ratio today is 3:1, reducing the number of trucks needed to return sustainable containers by two for every three shipments.
As Bush of KPI explains, it’s a continuing battle for automakers to manage the flow and relative state of assembly completion of parts and components lineside, where space is at a premium. For instance, a key question continues to be: Is it better to send kits of parts to the line or stage all inventory there for on-the-spot assembly? “The kitting process takes space but reduces the number of steps people must take along the line,” adds Bush.
Plant tour: Middle River Aerostructure Systems, Baltimore, Md., U.S.
Current production programs at MRAS include the LEAP-1A engine for the Airbus A320neo, LEAP-1C for the Comac C919, the CF-6 engine for multiple civil and military widebody aircraft, the Passport 20 engine for Bombardier’s Global 7500 business jet, the CF34-10A engine for the Comac ARJ21 and the GE9X engine for the Boeing 777X.
“For us, it was the integration with engineering, ERP and MRP that was key,” says Diederich. “Plataine integrates into all of this. It manages the raw materials coming in, generates cut plans per our engineering and marks the labels on the kit plies. We can dynamically nest up to 10 parts. The Plataine software uses AI to recommend which rolls of raw material should be cut next.” What is dynamic nesting? “Optimizing the nests on the fly as the software receives new inputs or when we query it,” says Diederich. “It can also send us alarms to change materials or operations. The sorted ply information is output to the Eastman systems, which have “cut and collect” software that identifies plies for kits using different colored lights. These match stacking tables at the conveyor’s end. ”
Avery Dennison’s Intelligent Logistics Solutions Optimize Supply Chains
RAIN RFID inspires new use cases in many industries every day. Few have been as creative as Impinj gold partner Avery Dennison, which has made impressive additions to its range of RFID solutions for use in supply chains.
Avery Dennison is invested in every step of the supply chain, from source to store. With its suite of Intelligent Logistics Solutions — a collection of IoT devices, connected cloud, identification solutions, and services — Avery Dennison delivers seamless efficiency at every step.
Avery Dennison uses Impinj RAIN RFID readers, Impinj reader chips, and a variety of Impinj RAIN RFID tag chips for packages, labels, and other elements within the Intelligent Logistics Solutions. Companies can use any combination of Avery Dennison’s offerings to bring the power of RAIN RFID to their workflows.
In a distribution center, warehouse, or manufacturing center, a full complement of RAIN RFID readers have the scanning range to cover every inch of space, from floor to ceiling, removing blind spots where counting errors and shrink are most likely to occur.