Shogakukan Reduces Waste with RFID
Japanese publisher Shogakukan Inc. implements RFID technology in its operations to substantially reduce the return ratio of unsold books. A reduction in waste volumes was also critical. Shogakukan estimates that annual financial losses in Japan would exceed $1.5 billion if some 25 percent of returned books were disposed of as waste. The RFID implementation has also had a marked affect on distribution accuracy.
In the first phase, Shogakukan has tagged its recently published Home Medical Dictionaries with UPM Raflatac's UHF EPC Gen2 Crab inlays. The complete solution has been developed by Suuri-Keikaku Co. Ltd.
Shogakukan itself has developed a binary sales system which it uses for RFID-tagged books. The aim is to motivate bookstores to better plan their purchasing operations by offering two alternative sales systems. Bookstores can choose consignment sales, where unsold books can be returned to publisher without expense. With the non-consignment option the margin offered to bookstores is higher, but returning unsold books to publisher means additional costs. Data concerning the choice of sales system is written to the RFID tags. Shogakukan reports that the new RFID-assisted sales system has been accepted by bookstores with good results. In the beginning stage, 50,000 copies of Shogakukan's Home Medical Dictionaries were sold through non-consignment sales. Total sales reached about 70,000 copies.
In the first phase, Shogakukan has tagged its recently published Home Medical Dictionaries with UPM Raflatac's UHF EPC Gen2 Crab inlays. The complete solution has been developed by Suuri-Keikaku Co. Ltd.
Shogakukan itself has developed a binary sales system which it uses for RFID-tagged books. The aim is to motivate bookstores to better plan their purchasing operations by offering two alternative sales systems. Bookstores can choose consignment sales, where unsold books can be returned to publisher without expense. With the non-consignment option the margin offered to bookstores is higher, but returning unsold books to publisher means additional costs. Data concerning the choice of sales system is written to the RFID tags. Shogakukan reports that the new RFID-assisted sales system has been accepted by bookstores with good results. In the beginning stage, 50,000 copies of Shogakukan's Home Medical Dictionaries were sold through non-consignment sales. Total sales reached about 70,000 copies.