Wal-Mart to rollout RFID-enabled forklifts

Wal-Mart is close to rolling out a fleet of RFID-enabled forklifts that will allow the retailer to gain further efficiencies from deploying the technology. Speaking at the first RFID Academic Convocation at MIT this week, Simon Langford, Wal-Mart's chief RFID strategist, said he expects the forklift units?currently still in the pilot stage?could be in use at approximately 100 Sam's Club stores sometime this year.

The potential exists for the RFID-enabled units to be used in distribution centers we well. Forklift enabled RFID lift trucks are generally considered a lower-cost alternative to the RFID readers and portals designed for dock doors, a strategy that Wal-Mart has followed during its RFID rollout.

Companies using the mobile systems, which can identify and track products onboard a forklift from loading to unloading, report improvements in picking and shipping accuracy, enhanced productivity and better vehicle utilization.

Langford also noted that this year Wal-Mart will begin to use handheld RFID scanners in back rooms at retail locations to identify product it needs to restock shelves. However, Langford has a long high-tech wish list, including the need to go beyond mobile lift trucks and scanners to portable wearable mobile units, which would further decrease the cost of deploying the technology.

"We need to get mobile devices out there so that people can go about their every day jobs while the system can just give them work to do while they do their jobs," says Langford.

Wal-Mart is already in the process of accepting RFID-tagged product from its "next 200" suppliers. Only one in that group?Texas Instruments?is shipping product with Gen 2 equipment. TI began doing so in December. The deadline for the group is the end of January, although many vendors have been granted delays, mostly due to lack of availability when it comes to Gen 2 equipment. Langford would not comment on how many of the suppliers are already shipping to Wal-Mart's five DCs equipped to handle incoming RFID-tagged cases and pallets.

Langford says that Wal-Mart has Gen 2 equipment in place, and that the new version of the technology shows great promise. "Gen 2 is showing a real step change in performance," he says. "But we still need to drive for cheaper, faster, better."

Also speaking at the event was Dick Cantwell, vice president in charge of RFID for Procter & Gamble and Gillette. P&G is in the process of identifying which products it should concentrate on for RFID adoption. Cantwell detailed how P&G used RFID to boost sales over the holiday period for fast moving display items like Duracell batteries, Braun electric shavers, Mach 3 shavers, and its popular Tag body spray. P&G tagged each display case and shipped them to 500 stores where they could be tracked for promotion compliance.

P&G discovered that RFID enabled displays generated a 91 percent sell through rate, as opposed to the 71 percent chain wide average. "This shows the impact of EPC being used to make sure product display got to the selling floor on time," says Cantwell. "By applying RFID tags to these displays we were able to significantly impact the ability to move these displays to the selling floor, which resulted in increased sales for the retailer and the manufacturer. It doesn't make any sense to put a 10 cent tag on a 35 cent can of beans, but if you take a 10 or 20 cent tag and put it on a display case with 50 or 100 items, the cost value ratio becomes much better."