1. Item Level Tagging for Apparel and Footwear: Feasibility Assessment Under the direction of: Bill Hardgrave (faculty) Deb Armstrong (faculty) David Cromhout (lab) Note: this document is copyrighted ( 2007) and confidential; do not distribute or cite without explicit permission.

2. Project Overview Assess the feasibility of using passive UHF tags on item-level apparel and footwear –Primarily apparel/footwear –Primarily store level Phase I: use cases and feasibility assessment –May 1 through August 1 Phase II: extension of phase I and/or field trials –August 15 through December 15 Today’s discussion: Phase I

3. Use Cases Product lifecycle management Trace through supply chain Inventory management Cycle counting / PI accuracy Misplaced stock Shrinkage Where is it disappearing? Use as security device Dressing room management Putback mountain Point of sale XPrice change management

4. Items Readers Static Mobile Test Scenario II: -smart shelf -point of sale Test Scenario I: -clothes on rounder, on z-bar, in box, on shelf, on peg board, in pile - shoes on shelf Test Scenario III: - z-bar; boxes on handcart, hand-carried, on conveyor, on steel cart Not tested Test Scenarios

5. Test Scenarios / Use Cases Product Life Cycle Management Inventory Management Shrinkage Dressing Room Management Point of Sale Test scenario I: mr/si Clothes on rounder, z-bar, shelf, etc. Test scenario II: sr/si Smart shelf, point of sale Test scenario III: sr/mi z-bar, handcart, conveyor, etc.

6. Premise 3 tag types 4 mobile readers: 3 handheld, 1 non- handheld 3 static readers Tags placed over existing price tags Fixtures merchandised by retailing group on campus Realistic environment

9. Items Readers Static Mobile Test Scenario II: -smart shelf -point of sale Test Scenario I: -clothes on rounder, on z-bar, in box, on shelf, on peg board, in pile - shoes on shelf Test Scenario III: - z-bar; boxes on handcart, hand-carried, on conveyor, on steel cart Not tested Test Scenarios

10. Test Scenario I Test Description: Rounder Mobile readers used to read clothes on rounder Varied number of clothes, tag, reader Findings: achieve 100% up to 160 items

11. Test Scenario I Test Description: z-bar Mobile readers used to read clothes on z-bar Varied number of clothes, tag, reader Findings: achieve 100% up to 127 items

12. Test Scenario I Test Description: box Mobile readers used to read clothes in box Varied number of clothes, tag, reader Findings: achieve 100% up to 50 items

13. Test Scenario I Test Description: shelf Mobile readers used to read clothes on shelf Varied tag, reader; items fixed Findings: achieve almost 100% with 145 items

14. Test Scenario I Test Description: peg board Mobile readers used to read clothes on pegs Varied tag, reader; items fixed Findings: achieve 100% with 44 items

15. Test Scenario I Test Description: putback mountain Mobile readers used to read clothes in putback mountain Varied number of clothes, tag, reader Findings: achieve 100% with 75 items

16. Test Scenario I Test Description: shoes on shelf Mobile readers used to read shoes on shelf Varied tag, reader; items fixed Findings: achieve 100% with 39 pairs of shoes

17. Test Scenario I Test Description: non- handheld strapped to handcart Varied fixtures, tag; items fixed on fixture Findings: achieve 100% on multiple fixture types (fourway, etc.) up to 107 items

18. Uses Cases / Insights Inventory management: Cycle counting, items in wrong place, find merchandise Dressing room: return to shelf Demonstrated effectiveness Efficiency (o n rounder w/ 97 pieces): –9 minutes with barcode –2.5 minutes with RFID

19. Items Readers Static Mobile Test Scenario II: -smart shelf -point of sale Test Scenario I: -clothes on rounder, on z-bar, in box, on shelf, on peg board, in pile - shoes on shelf Test Scenario III: - z-bar; boxes on handcart, hand-carried, on conveyor, on steel cart Not tested Test Scenarios

20. Test Scenario II Test Description: Smart shelf Ran several purchasing scenarios Findings: smart shelf performed very well in keeping a real-time inventory

21. Test Scenario II Test Description: Point of sale Varied number of clothes, tag Findings: read tags in field perfectly; did not read tags outside field

22. Uses Cases / Insights Inventory management: Cycle counting in real time, items in wrong place, find merchandise Shrinkage: e.g., detect missing items from cabinet Point of sale: works well Demonstrated effectiveness

23. Items Readers Static Mobile Test Scenario II: -smart shelf -point of sale Test Scenario I: -clothes on rounder, on z-bar, in box, on shelf, on peg board, in pile - shoes on shelf Test Scenario III: - z-bar; boxes on handcart, hand-carried, on conveyor, on steel cart Not tested Test Scenarios

24. Test Scenario III Test Description: z-bar transport Static portals (10 feet) Varied number of clothes, tag, reader Findings: achieve 100% with 64 items

25. Test Scenario III Test Description: boxes on handcart Static portals (10 feet) Varied number of clothes, tag, reader Findings: achieve 100% with 67 items

26. Test Scenario III Test Description: boxes on steel cart Static portals (10 feet) Varied tag, reader Findings: achieve 100% with 72 items

27. Test Scenario III Test Description: hand- carried boxes Static portals (10 feet) Varied number of clothes, tag, reader Findings: achieve 100% with 30 items

28. Test Scenario III Test Description: boxes on conveyor Static portals Varied tag, reader, speed of conveyor; items fixed Findings: achieve 100% with 36 items at 200fpm (degrades with speed)

29. Test Scenario III Test Description: mixed pallet of CPG items Static portals Mixed pallet of 118 items from 10 categories Findings: read rates near 90%

30. Uses Cases / Insights Product lifecycle management: trace movement of product through supply chain Dressing room management: movement in and out of dressing rooms Shrinkage: alert of exactly what is stolen; discovery of shrinkage locations Demonstrated effectiveness Tag shadowing

31. Overall Insights Wide range of read rates based on tag / reader combo Tag type especially important Tag place probably plays a role; perhaps a need for guidelines or standards? Read rates degrade with number of items Type of clothes did not matter (caveat: with the suite of clothes we had in stock)

32. Next Steps Expand Phase I to include additional tests and/or products –and/or – (Phase II) Pilot test specific uses cases / test scenarios in one or more stores or DCs Phase III: examination of real costs/benefits

33. Bill Hardgrave bhardgrave@walton.uark.edu 479.575.6099 http://itri.uark.edu For copies of white papers, visit http://itri.uark.edu/research Keyword: RFID