Metro and Checkpoint to come together for RFID pilots

29 Jul 2009

Checkpoint Systems, a multinational manufacturer and marketer of technology-driven integrated solutions provider including RFID based solutions for merchandise identification, tracking and security joins hands with Metro Cash & Carry India to further expand the latter’s ‘Tag It Easy!’- RFID program into India and China.

Checkpoint began working with Metro Group in 2007 for the expansion of retailer's RFID program, during several pilots conducted in these two major nations. The company reports that the next phase of its work with Metro Group will involve more than 75 Chinese and Indian consumer goods suppliers, in addition to 100 manufacturers already in the program from Hong Kong, China and Vietnam. Participants will apply ultrahigh-frequency (UHF) EPC Gen 2 RFID labels to shipments bound for Metro Group's distribution centers (DCs) in Germany.

As a third-party solutions provider, Checkpoint will provide pre-printed RFID labels and services to the participants. The Checkpoint-supplied RFID labels store the Serial Shipping Container Code (SSCC), which is then read at several points along the supply chain between the Asian and Indian regions and Germany. Metro Group receives an electronic advance shipping notice detailing the contents of each shipment, and the participants receive automatic proof-of-delivery notifications. Metro Group also utilises UHF Gen 2 tags and interrogators to track pallets of goods it ships from its DCs to its stores.

--IndiaRetailing Bureau