Dec 06/Jan 07

The METRO Group, said to be one of the world's largest retailers, has embarked on a real-time location project involving retail inventory being shipped from Asia to Germany. The initiative is called Advanced Logistics Asia, and is being developed in association with Savi, the RFID specialist in the Lockheed Martin group.

The system will make use of Savi's steadily-expanding SaviTrak network, which uses a global network of RFID readers based at key shipping locations to monitor containerised goods fitted with active RFID tags.

In METRO's case, the network includes a consolidation centre in Hong Kong, the Port of Hong Kong itself, the Port of Rotterdam, the inland Port of Duisburg in Germany and finally a METRO Group distribution centre in Unna, Germany.

The exercise has been conceived as a six-month pilot to evaluate improvements in the visibility, management and security of inventory while it is in transit. The project will also evaluate investment returns in reduced lead times and inventory, along with customer service and supply-chain and financial performance.

 

According to Dr. Gerd Wolfram, managing director of METRO's group information technology, the object of the exercise is "to move closer to our vision of having a competitive advantage through a fully digitised supply chain".

For anyone with a technical bent, the SaviTrak service is built on an open, international standards-based network platform, including compatibility with ISO standard 18000-7 for active RFID devices and draft ISO standard 18185 for electronic container security devices, both operating at 433.92 MHz.

METRO's brands include Metro/Makro cash and carry stores, Real hypermarkets, Extra supermarkets, Media Markt and Saturn consumer electronics centres and Galeria Kaufhof department stores.