The last period is less than a month, and the person in charge of the supply chain of the main supplier of Volma hopes for two years. His company is one of the world's largest consumer product manufacturers, in accordance with Walma's requirements, before January 1, 2005, he needs to deploy a system of handling electronic tags, used to attach electronic labels to Those who will be sent to the Walma store. But the person in charge of this IT knows that this task he can't finish it. However, he still posted an electronic label on some pallets to meet the basic requirements of Wal-Mart Bentonville, Ark. And Headquarters. However, even in this way, he does not assure these electronic tags to work properly due to technical reasons. This means that Wal-Mart has always hoped that the goal of improving the supply chain efficiency through RFID may not be achieved in a short time. "We have not yet carried out RFID commercial applications," said that the person in charge of the supply chain that persisted the name, "Because the standard problem has not been solved, the corresponding equipment has not been developed. Just because even equipment is still Didn't be developed, so we can't achieve Wal-Mart at all. "Wal-Mart suppliers holding similar perspectives are not a few. Although there is no supplier disclosure that it is impossible to meet the requirements before Wal-Mart, some people think that the requirements of Wal-Mart are all impossible, especially in such a short period of time specified in this retail giants. Wal-Mart's plan is always in changing. Initially, Wal-Mart adheres to its largest batch of suppliers to put electronic labels for all goods sent to their Texas Logistics Center. Now, Wal-Mart said that it hopes that its supplier can attach an electronic label on 65% (average) items. However, some suppliers believe that this ratio is too high, which may only reach 10% -15%. "Many consumer packaging companies have been committed to RFID commercial applications, but this is a very large project, because of the uncertainty of the Wal-Mart program, they also have some don't know what it is." The RFID analyst of the Forrester Research Christine said . "Wal-Mart supplier can be divided into two categories: 30% of suppliers actively cooperate, integrate RFID into their infrastructure, and the remaining 70% supplier adopts similar approaches to the front person in charge, using delay Tactics. "ODIN Technology Ceo Patrick Sweney said (ODIN Technology mainly provides RFID basic software and integrated services, and it has cooperated with the top 100 suppliers of Wal-Mart). On January 1, these suppliers will only put them from part of the container and pallets in the Nesti Warehouse in the Walma Texas Distribution Center. Thus, data integration will not be implemented, the retail supply chain will not be able to track the flow of most goods, and can only track a small part of the goods sent to Texas. There is no doubt that this situation is not Wal-Mart. The Wal-Mart RFID Strategic Manager Simon Langford said, "We are even in the Baron supplier." LangForg is not willing to do more comments, but with January 1st, Wal-Mart still can't take a public, indeed RFID program. . The world's largest retail giants have recently troublesome, unfair salary, hiring illegal immigration, and discrimination against female employees have greatly affected their reputation. There are industry experts to predict that suppliers cannot reach Wal-Mart's requirements may bring more pressure to Wal-Mart. They said that Wal-Mart's biggest mistakes are in the end, forced, forced suppliers, there is no mature RFID technology, which is currently not available to suppliers, consumers and inventory management, with RFID inventory management. Wal-Mart brings obvious economic benefits. "These suppliers are forced to adopt techniques they may not be suitable for use." AMR Research Institute RFID Analyst Kara Romanow said, "This kind of investment is still unable to see the return.
"What does Wal-Mart need? In 1999, the MIT established the Auto Identification Research Center specialized to study how to use RFID technology to help track and manage the sensor-containing goods. This center proposes electronic product coding (EPC), this is the latest identification product The way. EPC uses electromagnetic waves to identify computer chips in the implanted electronic tag. This technology will eventually replace barcodes, and the barcode needs to "see" to the UPC number to read, and RFID does not need to "see". Almost no artificial intervention is required. If the environment is suitable, the RFID tag and supporting equipment can work very well. From essentially, the electronic label system has two parts. One is an electronic tag, they may be on the size and shape Different, some like stickers and ordinary labels, there are also some thin plastic straps. Each electronic tag consists of an antenna and an embedded chip, which contains only one digital string that can be used to identify goods. The label is divided into two active and passive. Active tags with batteries, and passive tags can be used from devices (readers) with emission antennas (readers), readers are more useful. Recognition They. When the reader is close, the electromagnetic wave generated by the reader antenna activates the passive tag, and the electronic tag issues digital information in electronic product coding, which is read into the computer system through the reader. This is to let Wal-Mart and the US Department of Defense, etc. Many organizations believe that the essence of electronic labels for the world's supply chain. Most logistics experts also predicted that RFID will provide unprecedented tracks for product transportation and warehousing, and eventually block the black hole of the retail supply chain. "Today's supply chain often occurs, misuse and loss of items," Gillets parallel parallel relations manager Paul Fox said. Gillette and Procter & Gamble are supporters of RFID, and they are also automatic identity of MIT Members of the Identification Center. "Due to the low efficiency of the supply chain, a large amount of funds are occupied by inventory. "Fox believes," RFID will tell Gillette something is placed in the warehouse, what is this item, how many items we have. No need to manually pay, don't handle everywhere, no one item is missing, and there will be no calculation errors. Once you have a clearer understanding of the location of the warehouse, this information will become invaluable. "For Wal-Mart, the value of RFID is reflected in ensuring the low price of goods." RFID will help us to improve satisfaction in the short term and ultimately play an important role in cost control and continuing to maintain low prices. "Vice President of Wal-Mart, CIO Linda Dillman released in a statement released on April 30, 2004. This day Wal-Mart began its RFID test. 8 suppliers sent Wal-Mart to embed RFID chips A small batch of goods, these 8 suppliers are: Gillette, HP, Johnson & Johnson, Kimberly-Clark, Kraft Foods, Nestle Purina Petcare, ProCTER & GAMBLE, Unilever. "You should praise the attempt of Walma," SIMON Ellis, the person in charge of the Unilever's supply chain said that unilever is a company specializing in health and beauty products). "If no one goes first, we can only wait for it. "Langford said that RFID brings the return of Wal-Mart to be double: on the one hand, RFID will reduce Wal-Mart inventory, and on the other hand, Wal-Mart can ensure that the goods are not out of stock, so it can improve sales." The goods take the shelf from the warehouse, we can more efficient, which will be very meaningful for us.
"Bentonville Conference Wal-Mart announced in June 2005, many suppliers were shocked. At that time, some suppliers didn't even know what RFID was, but there were some suppliers to think that this is Wal-Mart to make a show. When Wal-Mart In November 2003, the top 100 suppliers were invited to Bentonville, and more carefully discussed the plan about RFID, many suppliers and industry reporters also thought that Wal-Mart will postpone this deadline. But this is not happening. In this meeting, Wal-Mart The person in charge clarifies what EPC is, Wal-Mart will accept what kind of chip, which three logistics centers will first use RFID. The supplier has heard it, and a supplier who participated in this meeting said that the atmosphere is like Attend a dialogue about nuclear physics. There is no doubt that "Wal-Mart is just clarified," a person in charge of the supply chain at the meeting at the time, "they did not postpone. Wal-Mart reaffirmed this deadline again, and Wal-Mart won't give any discounts on any price that follows this period of suppliers. "There is no one to raise hands, can I not exceed the exception? "The person in charge of a supply chain recalled. The meeting has been in the past year, and his ear can recall the words at the time. The technology is immature, lack of unified standards, increasingly adjacent deadlines, all this Let him be very depressed, "I can't see the benefits right away." He said, "I am doing something I don't really want to do. "A label in the end" plan starts from the beginning, the high price of EPC label is the most deadition of RFID into the retail area. Before entering the 21st century, the cost of each label has been between $ 1-2. Enter the 21st Century After that, I finally broke through the threshold of $ 1, reached 20-75 cents, and the changes mainly depends on the amount of purchases. However, the supplier believes that the price of RFID will drop again. "For economic considerations, RFID Still too expensive. "AMR's Romanow said. Follow the current situation, provide a container with RFID tags, suppliers to spend 50 cents for this (according to some suppliers, each label cost 20-30 cents The cost 20-30 cents of paste labels). Forrester's Overby estimates if a supplier supplies $ 12 billion goods to Wal-Mart a year, he has an additional $ 76,000 label on a container and tray every year. Cost (here assumes 40 cents per label). Some suppliers and analysts believe that in addition to cost issues, there is also a "one label in the end" of Wal-Mart. In Wal-Mart, Gilmmall and razor, HP There is no difference between printers and a box of 12 listening Coke. Each container on each tray must be filed with electronic tags. Unfortunately, as the clothes exhibited on the Wal-Mart shelf have a large and small different models. Among these Wal-Mart suppliers, there is a small and medium-sized supplier supplied to low-cost small commodities, and there is also a big or large vendor supplied to high-value large items. Romanow called this "hand paper and toothbrush" problem, "if the product is TV , DVD and video games, the cost of label is nothing, "she said," But for small objects like hand paper and toothbrush, there is no label on the container and tray, which has a very large impact on its final sales cost. . "How much is the frequency? RFID has another problem, there is no unified technical standard. No place is more depressed than the world's unified standards than in RFID, it is more depressed. Currently, all The label and reader can communicate with each other. Therefore, in Wal-Mart's warehouse, more than one reader may be required to handle different labels produced from different hardware providers, such as some from Matric, and some from Alien.
Kevin Ashton, the partner of the MIT automatic identity center, the vice president of the market department of Reader Manufacturer Thingmagic is compared with the current situation. "Whether you buy Sony or Panasonic TV, you all know that TV can work very well, because they are all in line with the Play Standards of the International Television System Committee." He said that RFID equipment has not yet this standard, so It is also impossible to ensure communication between various hardware devices. As a technical-based radio wave, it also brought trouble for those pioneers. Odin's Sweney, the authors of this upcoming new book "RFID for Dummy" recalled the "torment" of RFID technology providers, and its RFID recognition rate is the highest in the supply chain. However, in a project, the identification rate of this technician's RFID does not meet the requirements, so its engineer keeps increasing power, adding more antennas and more readers, but the identification rate is still less than 50 %. "People can easily think of adding more antennas, providing greater power, but this will only make things worse," he said, "It is obvious that this can not be submerged by other readers." And this is another company in the RFID field. An important attribute of radio is close to some things, such as liquid, metal, and loose objects. Mike O'Hea, this Kimberly-Clark RFID strategic manager has encountered trouble when identifying a baby towel. "Baby towel absorbs radio signal," he said, "our packaging engineers have to redesign the antenna, looking for the best position to prevent electronic labels on items to ensure the best recognition." Unilever's Ellis has also encountered The same trouble, "Liquid and damp things are more difficult for us, and liquid flow is inevitable in goods." Ian Robertson, the manager of this HP RFID project office and his team for HP inkjet The identification problem of the print cartridge of the printer has made a large number of tests, and their ink cartridges have metals and inks, and wrapped with metal paper. The work made by Robertson on the ink cartridge can be counted as a successful example of these RFID suppliers in Wal-Mart, but this is because HP himself is a technical provider who provides solutions to other suppliers who want to use RFID. And HP has been studied in this area since 2002. The pain of the supplier is trying to meet the requirements of Wal-Mart for a descent of Wal-Mart for the person in charge of the supply chain operation of the name. First of all, the most widely used, the cheapest RFID cannot be used in his products because some of his products can cause RFID radio frequency distortion, so he must use more expensive labels. He expects to solve the new generation of labels he presents now. It is likely that it cannot be seen in the market before July 2005, and the headache is that there is no one if there is anything that predicts the price of a new generation of labels. When I talked about the warehouse RFID trial, this should I started to start the project, "he said," Frankly, we didn't open the door of the warehouse. "The person in charge of the supply chain believes this technology now Not mature, he said, "RFID technology needs to be truly put into use in two years." Another supply chain manager that is also not desirable to be named agreed, and his company is also Wal-Mart 100 Position supplier. "Our test results show that" he said, "said," he said, "said," said, "said," said, "said," The performance of labels and readers can still solve longer. "Suppliers must consider some alternative methods. If they are hesitant, waiting for RFID to ripe, using this technology to reduce costs, support all kinds of market activities, they are worried that they will be annoyed, while it will lead to unfavorable positions in competition.
Therefore, their way is that these trays use electronic tags when they follow Wal-Mart: Only trays have to send warehouses that have local Wal-Mart distribution centers. Once there is such a cargo to be sent the next day (these goods are usually packaged, and they have already installed the tray), they must open the original packaging overnight, move the goods from the tray, write the electronic label, and post On, then re-put it on the tray, pack it, and finally you can run away. Even so, the supplier is still worried that these RFIDs cannot work properly because of the mechanical failure. "The problem reflected in these situations is that a technology that is still immature is still in research, and it is necessary to invest large-scale industrial applications." The supply chain manager concluded. There is also a supply chain manager that is worried about electronic tags. His company is almost all types of RFID tags on their own products. He found that many of the electronic tag quality is very poor. When their products are sent out (usually scrolling), 30% of labels cannot work properly. "While we didn't pay for this part of the electronic tag, but the processing efficiency ..." He stopped and sighed. He also worried about the efficiency and accuracy of the electronic label for handmade trays and containers. These suppliers are still not considering how to integrate RFID data and historical data, "RFID needs to completely change the past," Deloitte Global RFID Technology Integration Group, John Greaves, "said" We are saying goodbye to those historical legacy systems. "Langford said he understood the difficulties of these suppliers. "We have conscious, for some suppliers to reach 100% post label, current technology and electronic label costs them are hard to bear." He said that Wal-Mart will work with these suppliers to solve this problem. Langford acknowledges that every vendor can meet the requirements before January 1. "We have begun to work with those head 100 suppliers who can't meet the requirements before the deadline to find a variety of ways." Langford said, "We will communicate with each supplier, carefully analyze why can't reach standard The reason. "Is it impossible plan? Although Wal-Mart has never changed, many analysts and suppliers believe that Wal-Mart has alleviated a lot of attitudes in standard implementation. Wal-Mart himself also admits that there is no way to ensure 100% of the goods from the Texas Distribution Center to attach the electronic label. Langford said he hopes that there is a 65% container and pallet on the Texas Distribution Center in January next year. But the suppliers said that under private, Wal-Mart is negotiating with those suppliers who have no way to even meet this requirement. Several suppliers said that the end result of negotiation is far below this ratio. However, if many suppliers continue to even reach Wal-Mart reduced the expectations, what is the result? Is this planned abortion give Wal-Mart? This depends to a large extent on how this retail giant handles the relationship before the efforts to achieve the supplier of the specified requirements, whether it is expected to comply with the supplier who cannot meet the requirements for economic punishment. ? Langford does not give penalty penalty, "We will consider each supplier, and communicate with them." No matter how Wal-Mart handle this thing, there is a little bit of certain, for most suppliers, the most Will only try to meet the requirements made in Bentonville and will not do more. "We also think that after using RFID, we can greatly improve the efficiency of the supply chain." The supply chain manager said, "Our problem is that we do not have the ability to implement the RFID system.
