Background & Application
The apparel and retail industries are developing very rapidly. New demands will continue to promote the development of products and technologies. The requirements for product circulation speed and accuracy are also constantly increasing. RFID technology can be perfectly adapted to the apparel and retail industries. It can provide consumers with more diverse product information, improve the interactive experience in the purchasing process, and thus enhance customer satisfaction. At the same time, through the sold products, the information obtained can be interactively integrated with the big data platform, which is helpful for enterprises to locate popular product types, optimize production plans, and improve economic benefits. The intelligent level solutions that RFID technology can provide have been recognized and applied by a large number of apparel and retail companies.
1. Application of apparel warehouse management
Many clothing companies use traditional manual inventory management methods. However, the large number and variety of apparel raw materials and accessories make the management work complex and the warehousing process has problems such as low efficiency and high error rates. In order to better connect the enterprise's warehousing and production links, an RFID management system that is simple to use, highly integrated, and has a clear structure can be established. The system enables dynamic control of inventory status and minimizes warehousing costs. Set up RFID readers at the entrance and exit of the warehouse to read uploaded data. Before the raw materials are put into storage, information is obtained from the ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) system and the corresponding raw material information is written into the RFID tag; then the RFID electronic shelf space allocated by the ERP system is bound to the raw material tag ID again and uploaded to the central database for processing Confirm the warehousing operation. When leaving the warehouse, workers can send a radio frequency signal through the RFID reader and enter a material requisition. When insufficient inventory is found, the RFID electronic shelf will issue a warning to prompt the company to replenish it in time.
2. Application of apparel production and processing
The main processes of apparel production include fabric inspection, cutting, sewing and post-finishing. Due to the need to process multiple types of orders, enterprises face higher requirements for production management. Traditional paper work orders can no longer meet the needs of production management and planning. The application of RFID technology in apparel production can enhance the monitoring and traceability of the entire process, improve the management capabilities of multiple orders, and improve production efficiency. Before cutting the fabric, the RFID tag of the material will be scanned to obtain the specific cutting requirements. After cutting, bind accordingly according to the obtained dimensions and re-enter the information. After completing these steps, the materials will be sent to the sewing workshop for the next step of production. Materials that have not yet been assigned production tasks are stored in the warehouse. The entrance and exit of the sewing workshop are equipped with RFID readers. When the workpiece enters the sewing workshop, the reader will automatically mark that the workpiece has entered the workshop. Sew the customer's required RFID tags (in the form of collar tags, nameplates or wash tags) onto the garments. These tags have positioning tracking and indication functions. Each workstation is equipped with an RFID reading and writing board. By scanning the clothing tag, workers can quickly obtain the required information and change the process accordingly. After each process is completed, we scan the tag again, record the data and upload it. Combined with the MES software system, production managers can monitor the operating status of the production line in real time, discover and correct problems in a timely manner, adjust the production rhythm, and ensure that production tasks are completed on time and in quantity.
3. Application in retail industry
A large retail company once stated that solving 1% of the product out-of-stock problem can bring in sales revenue of US$2.5 billion. The problem facing retailers is how to maximize the transparency of the supply chain and make every link "visible". RFID technology is a non-contact identification, suitable for cargo tracking, can dynamically identify multiple tags, has a long identification distance, and can simplify all aspects. Such as inventory management: use RFID systems to improve access, picking, and inventory efficiency. Provide upstream suppliers with inventory visibility and timely supply. Connect with the automatic replenishment system to replenish goods in time and optimize inventory. Self-service management: Cooperate with RFID tags and readers to update sales information in real time, monitor shelf merchandise and layout, facilitate replenishment, and achieve timeliness in planning and execution. Customer Management: Focused primarily on self-checkout and improving the customer's in-store shopping experience. Security management: Focus on commodity theft prevention, using RFID identification to replace passwords to control access rights to IT equipment or important departments.
Analysis of Product Selection
When selecting products, we need to consider the dielectric constant of the object to be attached, as well as the impedance between the chip and the antenna. In the general apparel and retail industries, smart RFID tags will be combined with woven tags, hang tags, etc., and they will not be exposed to extreme temperatures or humidity environments for a long time. In the absence of special requirements, the following requirements are required:
1) The reading distance of RFID labels is at least 3-5 meters, so passive UHF tags are used (there are also NFC labels used for mobile phones to directly obtain product information and anti-counterfeiting traceability).
2) Information needs to be rewritten. Ensure that RFID clothing tags can be rewritten and compiled multiple times in accordance with the rules of the apparel and retail industries to achieve product management functions.
3) Group read response needs to be implemented. Most of the time, clothing is folded and stacked in batches, and retail goods are also placed in rows. Therefore, in application scenarios, it is necessary to be able to read multiple tags at one time to improve inventory efficiency. At the same time, it is required that the performance of RFID electronic tags will not change significantly when they are stacked and read.
Therefore, the required tag size is mainly determined based on the woven tag and hangtag size required by the user. The antenna size is 42×16mm, 44×44mm, 50×30mm, and 70×14mm.
4) According to different application scenarios, the surface material uses art paper, PET, polyester ribbon, nylon, etc., and the glue uses hot melt glue, water glue, oil glue, etc.
5) Chip selection, choose a chip with an EPC memory between 96bits and 128bits, such as NXP Ucode8, Ucode 9, Impinj M730, M750, M4QT, etc.
XGSun Related Products
The advantages of passive RFID clothing and retail labels provided by XGSun: high sensitivity and strong anti-interference ability. Following the ISO18000-6C protocol, the label data reading rate can reach 40kbps ~ 640kbps. Based on RFID anti-collision technology, the number of labels that the reader can read simultaneously reaches about 1,000 in theory. The reading and writing speed is fast, the data security is high, and the working frequency band (860MHz-960MHz) has a long reading distance, which can reach about 6m. It has large data storage capacity, easy reading and writing, strong environmental adaptability, low cost, high cost performance, long service life and wide application range. At the same time, it supports the customization of multiple styles.
