Metro Group, one of the world`s largest retail groups, has selected Intermec to provide a range of RFID inventory tracking systems for its Metro Group Innovation Centre, recently opened in Neuss, Germany.
The Innovation Centre is designed to give Metro Group`s suppliers access to live RFID demonstrations, systems and products. Intermec is supplying RFID forklift, conveyor and dock door readers for the centre, as well as RFID-enabled mobile computers and printers.
The partnership builds on Intermec`s RFID participation in Metro Group`s Future Store in Rheinberg, Germany, which demonstrates how emerging technologies can benefit retailing operations from inventory to point of sale. Intermec provides RFID case and pallet-level tracking capabilities to the Future Store.
"We`re pleased to be a part of Metro Group`s continued commitment to RFID innovation," said Stuart Scott, Intermec`s Director of Marketing & Business Development, EMEA. "At its new Innovation Centre, Metro Group is again demonstrating how retailers and retail suppliers can harness the powerful business benefits of RFID to make their supply chains even more responsive and productive. That increases business profitability and customer satisfaction. "
Areas of profitability improvement from supply chain RFID include: reduced shrinkage and loss of inventory, reduced out of stock conditions at store level, more efficient transportation and logistics, less inventory and lower labour costs associated with receiving.
"Verifying the business advantages of new technologies such as Intermec`s RFID has vividly illustrated how retailers can increase system-wide efficiency and inventory accuracy while at the same time increasing profits," said Dr Gerd Wolfram, executive project manager of the Metro Group Future Store Initiative.
"An RFID pioneer, Intermec knows RFID. Its participation in this groundbreaking innovation environment is one way Metro Group is ensuring the suppliers receive accurate and essential information on how best to integrate RFID into their own supply chain systems."
RFID is a complement to industry`s current bar code-based tracking systems, allowing companies to automatically track inventory throughout an entire supply chain. RFID automatic data collection typically does not require line of sight or manual scanning as do most bar code-based systems. For example, information from RFID-tagged cases on a pallet can be read automatically using fixed, mobile or handheld readers rather than requiring individual bar code scanning.
ProScan Systems is the sole value-added distributor for Intermec`s range of products in southern Africa.
Share
Intermec Technologies Corp, a UNOVA Inc (NYSE:UNA) company, is a leader in global supply chain solutions and in the development, manufacture and integration of wired and wireless automated data collection, RFID (radio frequency identification), mobile computing systems, bar code printers and label media. The company`s products and services are used by customers in many industries to improve productivity, quality and responsiveness of business operations, from supply chain management and enterprise resource planning to field sales and service.
ProScan
ProScan Systems is a leading distributor of a wide range of barcoding, data collection, RFID, wireless networking, GSM/GPRS communication and mobile technologies for a wide range of industries in southern Africa, including retail, fast-moving consumer goods, transport and logistics, and manufacturing.
As the sole value-added distributor for Intermec and the preferred value-added distributor for Datamax for Sub-Saharan Africa, ProScan has the expertise and resources to deliver the best systems to a wide range of industries through its extensive accredited national network of channel partners.
ProScan markets and supports a complete line of data collection hardware, including retail and industrial barcode scanners, RFID products, barcode printers, labels and ribbons, wireless local area networks (LANs), mobile computers and GSM/GPRS data communications. The company manufactures a broad range of original barcode labels and ribbons for a wide range of barcode printers at the company`s head office in Jet Park, Gauteng.
Editorial contacts