TRACK AND TRACE
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Blue Vector portals, like the one in use at Walgreens, include Blue Vector Edge Manager, RFID reader, antennas, photo eyes for direction sensing, warning buzzer, user feedback/request controls, and LED display.
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Walgreens has taken steps to streamline distribution by employing RFID at its new distribution center (DC) in Anderson, SC. Blue Vector Systems (Palo Alto, CA) has announced that Walgreens is utilizing Blue Vector software and infrastructure at the next-generation DC.
Walgreens aims to achieve “100% shipment accuracy from distribution center to retail store,” Blue Vector reports. At full capacity, the DC will ship approximately 80,000 cases daily to more than 700 Walgreens stores across the Southeast.
So far, Walgreens has tagged more than 170,000 assets with RFID. Reusable shipping containers with UHF Gen 2 RFID-enabled labels from Avery Dennison are detected by RFID-reading shipping doors, dollies, and cart exit stations. With a water-resistant film coating, the RFID labels are being used over and over again.
Container loading onto trucks is tracked in real time. Any mistakes are immediately called out to operators to avoid shipping errors. Blue Vector’s edge-intelligence software verifies correct assets, quantities, dock door, and loading sequence before automatically updating Walgreens’ warehouse management system, Blue Vector reports. Enabling automated tag verification, diversion, and repair processes, Blue Vector edge-intelligence processing is performed locally at every shipping door. Each trailer’s shipping manifest is preloaded onto a Blue Vector edge appliance housed within dock door portals, to ensure accuracy and rapid error detection.
At RFID World in Las Vegas in September, Blue Vector’s vice president of marketing John Beans spoke about how retail distribution centers and distributors that the firm
is working with are finding immediate returns on investment (ROI) in serializing products using RFID. “Putting a unique identifier on some object [allows companies to] react to its history, presence, condition, or movement immediately,” he told attendees of the pharmaceutical conference track. Without serialization, companies can only “track populations of items,” and they may not be able to pinpoint item “origin and history.” As a result, “supply-chain performance is hard to improve.” In addition, “counterfeiting and diversion are hard to investigate, let alone prevent,” he added.
There are five steps on the path to achieving serialization ROI, Beans explained to attendees. They are defined as follows:
- Put identifiers on each item.
- Build an infrastructure to read those identifiers.
- Modify manual methods and procedures to incorporate the reading of identifiers.
- Automate procedures to react to those identifiers.
- Implement new capabilities and services.
Trends driving serialization that Beans noted include increasing globalization, which demands diversion safeguards and better logistics performance; patient safety, which calls for better identification of doses and recalls; demand for better service, in real time; demand for better logistics, inventory keeping, and faster information; and demand for faster reimbursement to improve cash management.
A few of these trends could be influencing Walgreens’ RFID deployment, which Blue Vector calls one of the largest RFID deployments. “Walgreens has a long tradition of pioneering breakthrough technologies in the industry,” said Randy Lewis, senior vice president of distribution and logistics for Walgreens, in a press release. “Today, we’re leading the charge to revolutionize our distribution center systems and processes to drive significantly higher efficiency, accuracy, and ultimately higher margins. With the help of Blue Vector, we’re making significant progress toward the next-generation of automated and intelligent distribution and logistics systems.”
Given Walgreens’ size, with more than 6300 drugstores across the United States, and its goal of 100% accuracy in shipping, logistics performance is critical. “As companies look for ways to improve their performance, their attention turns from installing strong planning systems to bridging those systems with the physical world and day-to-day activities—to detect deviations from plan as they occur, and correct them immediately when it is fastest and easiest,” said Mike Gardner, Blue Vector president and CEO, in a recent press release. “Blue Vector is uniquely positioned to help companies like Walgreens meet these challenges, and we’re honored to help the company work toward its goal of 100% shipping accuracy.”
Beans adds that Blue Vector is helping Walgreens outfit another new DC in Windsor, CT. The Anderson and Windsor DCs will be the only two of Walgreens’ now-15 major DCs to utilize RFID. Next steps for Walgreens could be to extend RFID-reading capabilities to its stores and to its existing DCs.
Walgreens’ deployment should be good news for product manufacturers, says Beans, because some of the common concerns about RFID and serialization are being addressed. “Walgreens is showing that a smooth integration with IT is possible, existing warehouse management systems can be worked with, and business value can be achieved. Now that compliance is not an immediate issue, companies may want to focus on achieving shipping accuracy and solving warehouse problems. Instant reconciliation and faster reimbursement are possible.”
