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Walgreens has embarked on a large-scale radio frequency identification deployment to replace all paperwork and barcode scanning during shipments. The company reported Tuesday it has deployed the RFID system in an effort to rid errors and better track the movement of goods from distribution centers to retail stores.
The company will tag items at the DC packed in totes and cages. More than 170,000 assets, spanning 45 shipping doors, dollies, and cart exit stations, at its "next-generation distribution center" in Anderson, SC. At full capacity, the DC will ship approximately 80,000 cases daily to more than 700 Walgreens stores across the Southeast.
Walgreens worked on the project for 18 months before deploying the technology in the first DC. The project has now moved to the DC in Windsor, Con., according to John Beans, VP of marketing at Blue Vector. "The readers at dock doors rise above the floor like a line of tombstones reading the information on the tags as good move from the distribution center onto trucks," he says. "The process does not require paperwork. The entire process relies on RFID."
Walgreens has more than 6,300 drugstores across the U.S. About 42% of the employees at the Anderson facility have a physical or cognitive disability. The company aims to rely on RFID to boost productivity and make it easier for workers to do their jobs.
Palo Alto, Calif., Blue Vector's edge intelligence software and infrastructure products deployed on dock door portals, conveyor stations, asset hospitals and tagging stations allow the system to verify assets, quantities, dock door and loading sequence before automatically updating Walgreens' warehouse management system.
The shipping manifest preloads onto a Blue Vector edge appliance housed within dock door portals, enabling automated tag verification, diversion, and repair processes to ensure accuracy. The logistics and distribution system at the Anderson DC scans every product loaded on trucks to alert workers of potential shipping errors.
The deployment relies on RFID readers from Motorola, UHF RFID tags from Avery Dennison, and the conveyor automation system from systems integrator SSI Schaefer.
Meanwhile, Walgreens, Deerfield, Ill., made a bid Tuesday for Longs Drug Stores, Walnut Creek, offering the company $75 per share, or $3 billion including debt, for 521 stores in California, Nevada and Hawaii.
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