Three of Marks & Spencer’s largest food suppliers
are starting to realise business benefits from using radio
frequency identification (RFID) tags in their supply
chain.
Northern Foods, RHM and World Wide Fruit have tagged the pallets
that they send to Marks & Spencer since the retailer mandated
pallet-level tagging for all 115 of its food suppliers in 2004.
The three food producers are using RFID to control the movement
of pallets through their own supply chains.
“We are now able to monitor 700,000 tags per week, via one
centralised read-and-write system, making it possible to trace
every tray from time of fill at manufacture through to the time it
is out-loaded and at which particular depot,” Northern Foods’ lead
architect and RFID project manager Paul Matthews said.
Northern Foods uses Siemens to supply its RFID system. The food
producer has used RFID readers to track the pallets at all 19 of
its production sites since April this year.
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