Marks & Spencer has announced plans to launch the world's
biggest Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) tag roll-out.
The tagging of 3.5 million food trays will speed data capture in
the supply chain by up to six times, enable real-time logistics
tracking and give instant access to product data.
Marks & Spencer also aims to drive use of RFID down into
supplier companies.
RFID tags are read automatically as pallets or cases of goods pass
through warehouse readers. They have been used for some time in
motor manufacturing and are set to replace manually scanned
barcodes in the packaged goods industry.
Analyst Simon Bragg, of ARC Consulting, said, "RFID will allow
greater visibility in the supply chain, better traceability,
forecasting, security and automation. More finely-grained knowledge
of what is where in the supply chain will give the ability to move
staff accordingly, help to take out excess inventory.
"The downside is that as it becomes economically viable to RFID
label smaller units it will create ever greater amounts of data and
become a challenge to scalability," Bragg said.
Simon Mackinder, warehouse systems manager at Geest Prepared Foods,
a supplier to M&S, said, "We expect to benefit from automatic
proof-of-delivery and dispatch information being fed into our
systems."