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By Mel Duvall
Fashion retailer American Apparel announced Monday it is launching a wide-scale item-level rollout of radio frequency identification (RFID) technology, with a plan to tag clothing in 17 of its New York City area outlets.
The retailer says its decision is based on results achieved in a trial conducted last year in New York at its Columbia University location. The retailer found that it could maintain on-floor product availability of 99% through the use of the technology, and that weekly inventory could be conducted by two people in two hours, compared to four people over eight hours prior to implementing RFID.
"We look to move forward to deploying the technology on a larger scale so that our entire organization can leverage the value of RFID to improve overall inventory management processes and enhance our customers' shopping experience," Zander Livingston, the retailer's RFID technology director said in announcing the initiative.
American Apparel is working with Motorola, which is supplying RFID readers and antennas; Avery Dennison, which is supplying tags and printers; and Vue Technology, which is supplying hardware and software that will allow American Apparel to incorporate RFID information captured in its stores and warehouses into its core supply chain systems.
The American Apparel deployment is one of a number of initiatives expected to be announced this week as the RFID industry holds its largest annual conference in Las Vegas. The technology, which employs tags embedded with computer chips and antennas to transmit product information, was expected to be widely deployed after Wal-Mart embarked on a major initiative in 2003. However, while the technology has moved forward in some areas, it has not been adopted as quickly or as widely as initially thought.
But there are signs that the technology may have turned the corner. Last week aircraft manufacturer Airbus announced it was moving forward with a multi-million dollar, multi-year project to use the technology across its supply chain operations.
Stephanie Brush, Motorola's director of RFID business development for the apparel market, said the American Apparel initiative could prove to be a turning point for the highly competitive fashion industry. "This is hugely important . . . a lot of companies have been dabbling with RFID, but the question has always been 'who else is doing it?' Now we have a major retailer moving forward with a full-scale deployment."
Brush, who worked with American Apparel in its Columbia University location trial, says lessons were learned in how to handle the tags, but for the most part the technology worked smoothly. One lesson learned, for example, is that staff had to be careful in how they handled clothing when transporting items from the stock room to the sales floor. In the past, personnel might simply grab 50 items in a bear hug and carry them out to the floor. That tight grip, however, could cause problems in reading the tags as they passed readers at the sales floor doors.
"There were a few wrinkles, but nothing that couldn't be overcome by adopting certain procedures," she added.
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