Playing Freeze Tag

As a cold storage third party logistics provider, Atlas Cold Storage was on a mission to accomplish what was once perceived to be a rather chilly RFID endeavor: Tagging product in sub-zero conditions. "Atlas recognizes that this is an important emerging technology that many of our customers are going to need to supply products to many of the largest retailers in North America," says Hugh Cope, chief information officer, Atlas Cold Storage. "Applying RFID technology in a harsh environment such as our frozen warehouses has its challenges and we are pleased that we can now offer this critical value added service to our customers."

The First Critical Step

The first implementation at Atlas' Sikeston, Missouri facility was driven by a request from one of Atlas' largest ice cream customers to service Wal-Mart's Texas distribution centers.

In mid-November, Atlas began testing the system by sending tagged shipments to Wal-Mart, and on January 2, 2006, the company began to use it on a regular basis. The only issue left to be resolved with the implementation, according to both companies, is to develop a better epoxy glue to hold the tags to the cartons and pallets.

Atlas is currently working with another customer on a second RFID implementation in the Midwest and has more planned for the future as demand develops. "As a 3PL service provider, Atlas now provides its customers with the capability of satisfying the mandates of their customers along the supply chain," says Darryl Peacock, senior manager of IT for Atlas. "We do not have any immediate plans to integrate RFID with our back-end WMS unless the volumes increase and it becomes beneficial to automate some of the manual processes." One Atlas facility is expecting to increase receiving activity. The company developers are currently considering scanning inbound pallets via a dock-door portal.

"There will likely be some development with EDI requirements for exchanging tag data," says Peacock.

Facing the Cold

The main RFID challenges facing a cold environment are the quality of the label adhesive; reliability of mechanical components in a harsh environment; the high moisture content of the product; and the high levels of humidity on the docks at some sites. Overcoming these obstacles in a cold and frozen environment, in addition to utilizing product tags that can be read without operator intervention, is vital to success.

Atlas uses Ship-2-Save's slap-and-ship application with a few customizations to handle reporting and process flow variations. Ship2Save specializes in creating logistic solutions for the transportation, manufacturing and retail industries. The application is currently not integrated to the back-end WMS, and is only used for outbound case picking applications. However, future projects are in the works that are expected to expand on the basic functionality.

"Ship-2-Save offered very good pre-sales knowledge directly from the developers of the applications," says Peacock. "They also offer a test site which is used to demonstrate the actual equipment and software that they install at customer locations. Their 'turnkey application', which included all components of the system, was very fairly priced, and support was guaranteed at all of our sites. The company is also partnered with the major equipment vendors in the industry."

RFID's First Big Wave: What Have We Learned?

By Erik Michielsen, Director of RFID and Ubiquitous Networks, ABI Research

In its discussions with RFID end users and developers, ABI Research finds many common themes across 2005 adopter experiences. With stronger technology and significantly more experience available for hire, the next Wal-Mart 100 suppliers are in line to make compliance decisions. Moreover, the first 100 are poised to scale operations considerably in 2006 as Gen 2 product and networked infrastructure mature to meet demand driven by Wal-Mart's aggressive RFID adoption. What did the first 100 learn through their implementations and, more importantly, what questions need to be asked and addressed in the 2006 RFID planning and execution processes?

What's the goal?

First, a company should ask what it is trying to accomplish with its RFID implementations. Too many times in Top 100 deployments, this question was evaded in favor of focusing more on how the technology works. It is critical that companies understand how RFID projects and resources tie into the overall corporate strategy. End users should decide where they want to sit on the innovation curve and what it will take to achieve and maintain that position.

Second, end users should carefully consider not only selecting RFID team members, but also selecting the environment within which they will work. A common resource management mistake made across all RFID projects is to dedicate a team that focuses on RFID in a lab environment. This has nearly always resulted in throwaway experience and results. Rather, companies should be focused on pilot activities, using internal staff or external services organizations to better understand how the technology works in the context of the overall business operations and processes.

Be Interdisciplinary

Third, RFID pilot staffing should be cross-functional ABI Research clearly stated this in early 2004 and continues to see cases where the IT team owns the project or where the operations team owns the project. As with laboratory environments, these projects result in few transferable benefits. Cross-functional teams move projects along faster and ensure that technology, business processes and business scenario planning are involved and integrated into the pilot's goals and deliverables.

Finally, pilot and early deployment metrics and goals do count. One way to ensure that cross-functional teams work are working properly and are monitored according to hybrid goals across technologies, processes and planning, is to put someone with profit-and-loss product management experience at the helm of the project. These managers remain less concerned with the RFID components and are more concerned with getting non-technical staff the information they need to make better business decisions and drive revenue growth and profitability. With so many constituents trying to get things to work, it is important that leadership continually reminds the team why and how the solution can do more than merely cut costs and reach compliance. Product managers can do this.