Supply Chain Frontiers issue #43
Grupo Éxito, the largest retailer in Colombia with 350 outlets, has taken a strategic decision to focus its research efforts on a project that is exploring the use of EPC/RFID technology as a tool to control product shrinkage.
The retailer is part of a group of visionary companies that took the challenge of creating a logistics culture in the region, by signing a partnership agreement in 2008 with the Center for Latin American Logistics Innovation (CLI). CLI is a member of the MIT Global SCALE Network.
The main objective of the project is to test and demonstrate the applicability of RFID technology under the EPC standard, in Electronic Article Surveillance implementations. The pilot´s scope is the identification of 100% of the items –involving 45,000 tags at the start of the project – displayed and stored in a new store format that is being developed by Éxito Tecno, a Grupo Éxito outlet that specializes in technology.
During the second half of 2011, Grupo Éxito and CLI worked on a model that provides real time information on the store’s products from delivery to the retailer’s distribution center in Funza, Colombia, to the point of sale. The model incorporates checkpoints at the receipt, transfer, inventory, sales, and store exit stages in the supply chain. Each of these checkpoints is designed to provide visibility, traceability, and enhanced security throughout the product supply chain.
The information capture and analysis process began on October 10, 2011, and will run until December 2011. Grupo Éxito and CLI hope to publish some of the trial results in the next issue of Frontiers.
Grupo Éxito and GS1 Colombia along with various suppliers have been developing technology-related projects since 2005. In 2010 the company collaborated with 18 of its major suppliers to initiate a plan to introduce the large-scale use of EPC/RFID technology.
For more information on the project contact Ana María Prieto, CLI Public Relations.