Unilever Realizes RFID Pallet Labeling with SATO FlagTagSolution™

Brussels - SATO, the world’s leading manufacturer of label and barcode printers and a specialist in data collection systems (DCS) and radio frequency identification (RFID), has delivered UHF pallet labeling solutions to several of METRO’s biggest suppliers. Now, the German Unilever Group with headquarters in Hamburg has also chosen SATO’s RFID solutions for their Home & Personal Care (HPC) Business Unit.

Within the framework of this pilot project, Unilever has been tagging pallets with RFID technology and shipping them from their distribution center in Mannheim to METRO’s Cash & Carry central warehouse in Unna, Germany, since March 2005. Unilever’s HPC product range is rather diverse and ranges from liquid detergents and shower gels to spray cans and powders. Each of these products influences the readability of the RFID tag in a different way, due to the composition of the goods, for instance, liquids within the product itself or metals used in the packaging.

After several days of intensive testing together with SATO RFID specialists, it became clear that SATO’s FlagTagSolutionsTM (patent pending) were the most suitable way to guarantee consistent readability of pallets containing such a multitude of products and materials.

What makes this FlagTag™ (a joint development of SATO and UPM Rafsec) so unique is that, after printing, the narrow area of the paper label containing the UHF-RFID tag is automatically (or manually) folded along a perforation creating the FlagTagTM. In this way, the narrow RFID tag with the integrated antenna sticks out perpendicularly from the surface of the pallet – as the word implies, just like a flag. This way, read and range problems, which occur with flat RFID labels, can be avoided.

The FlagTag TM is encoded and printed on SATO’s RFID UHF printer CL408e. Among the other parties involved in the project besides SATO, is Siemens Business Services (SBS) who were responsible for integrating the RFID solution into the existing Supply Chain Management system.

Ralph Löffler, Project Manager RFID at Unilever said, “There were two points in SATO’s favor: SATO had the necessary technology “know-how”, and SATO was very familiar with the specific customer’s requirements. The “Go Live” of our RFID Identification for the METRO Cash & Carry markets was in March. Since July, the technology has run very satisfactorily, reaching readability rates between 93 and 100%”. Mr. Löffler also stated: “The challenge that the SATO RFID specialists had to face with the pallet labeling was the lack of read range of RFID tags that were applied flatly onto the pallets. In theory, modern RFID-UHF labels have a readability range up to 3 meters, but extensive practical testing has shown that the actual range is heavily influenced by the content of each pallet. Cans, glass, foil or aluminum packaging, and solid or liquid content – all of these effect the resonance frequency of the RFID tags as well as the reading performance. With flatly applied RFID-UHF labels, one sometimes cannot obtain any read at all. In order to achieve a trouble-free consistent performance of the RFID UHF tags on any and all type of pallets, the SATO RFID specialists have chosen to use the FlagTagSolutionTM for our application.

“Unilever Germany decided to start a pilot trial with METRO, in order to increase the existing efficiency and growth potential in the area of On-Shelf-Availability, Promotion Effectiveness and Supply Chain Efficiency. On the basis of pallet tagging, we already have positive results which make us optimistic about improving the above mentioned business processes permanently.”

About SATO
SATO is a pioneer in the Automatic Identification and Data Collection (AIDC) industry, and the inventor of the world’s first electronic thermal transfer barcode printer. It revolutionized the barcoding industry by introducing the Data Collection System (DCS) & Labeling concept – a total barcode and labeling solution providing high quality barcode printers, scanners/hand held terminals, label design software and consumables. SATO is one of the first in the industry to introduce a complete, multi-protocol EPC compliant, UHF RFID solution.

SATO is publicly listed on the first section of Tokyo Stock Exchange in Japan. It has worldwide offices in United States, Belgium, France, Germany, United Kingdom, Poland, Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand and China. For the fiscal year ended March 31, 2005, it reported revenues of US$575 million. More information can be found at www.satoworldwide.com