RFID in the Factory-Source Data, Source tagging
Today, Big Data is generated in almost all walks of life in any industry and includes both human generated data and machine generated data. Industries that in the past relied heavily on human handling and processing of records have switched to electronic records. A good example of this is item level packing in the factory.
In steady streams the data is fed into data repositories for further storage, processing and analytics. These processes keep getting more sophisticated and can process both real-time and historical data, as well as combinations of the two. Likewise, it is fast becoming mainstream to combine relational, i.e. structured, data with various kinds of unstructured data to derive insights based on the combinations of the two. This strong combination represents never before seen insights and market opportunities.
An RFID enabled Retail store is only as good as the previous points in the supply chain, mainly the DC and the factory. The product originates in the factory as well as most data attached to the product. Hence source tagging in the factory is essential for a successful item-level supply chain implementation.
ComponentSoft pioneered the item level RFID packing process and develop a unique item-level RFID packing system. This has now been modified to accommodate the needs of today’s most demanding retailers.
The ItemSight Cloud in the factory allows detailed purchase orders to be received from corporate at various manufacturing facilities anywhere in the world. Item, carton, and palette tags are generated on site in each individual factory. Items are packed in cartons to purchase order specification, then palatalized. The process continues with container packing for overseas delivery. All data from original purchase order is transmitted electronically through the supply chain from factory, to distribution center to retail store providing end to end supply chain visibility and 100% inventory accuracy. The process of receiving, validation, and re-aggregation for specific Store deliveries takes place in the distribution center which ultimately is received in the back end of the store then distributed to the retail store front.