Food safety encompasses the origin, processing and packaging of food so that consumers don’t get sick from the food they buy. Increased food production, growing market demand and faster delivery are just three of the many challenges companies face in trying to keep food safe all along the food supply chain.

RFID increasingly provides the most effective means to solve these challenges and to ensure compliance with recently enacted legislation designed to protect consumers.

The MIT Enterprise Forum is bringing together key experts for a panel discussion of the major issues, technologies, and business cases surrounding the RFID-enabled food chain. Come and hear for yourself how RFID is making food safer and food-borne illness easier to trace.

Moderator: John Greaves, President and CEO, SSI

John Greaves has been actively involved in AIDC (Automatic Identification and Data Capture) including RFID for many years. His pioneering work in the area of global logistics, inventory management and the returnable transport Items sector with both active and passive RFID has led to the significant adoptions occurring in supply chains, health care and security.??He was the founding chair of the US RFID standards group, led the European Spectrum Initiative, was the leader of the GTAG program for EAN.UCC, and developed — among many significant RFID implementations worldwide — the one-tag-per-pallet UHF solution with CHEP.

Click here to register for this event!

Precor Home Fitness depends on NetSuite for financials, inventory management, point-of-sale (POS), quotes, tax management, reporting and analytics. With NetSuite, Precor Home Fitness can open more new locations and become profitable more quickly, thanks to the real-time visibility and efficiency NetSuite provides. The company can also easily analyze the profitability of the retail and commercial operations separately, and monitor the performance of each arm of the business.

Precor Home Fitness, is the American dealer arm for fitness equipment manufacturer Precor USA (www.precor.com). The company focuses on both commercial and retail sales. When Precor Home Fitness expanded to retail sales through acquisition, it standardized on the retail operation’s archaic AS/400 system ¬¬— a decision the company quickly realized would not satisfy its needs.

Within weeks, the severe limitations of the outdated, legacy on-premise software became clear. Reporting was haphazard and remote access was virtually impossible. Even generating simple sales quotes proved extremely difficult. After two months, it was clear that Precor Home Fitness needed a better solution.

Fully leveraging the power of NetSuite, Precor Home Fitness is quickly realizing the benefits of cloud computing through NetSuite. The company relies heavily on special orders from the manufacturer — an area where NetSuite’s quoting and ordering system excels. Workflows are once again uniform and streamlined, and every employee has full access to crucial business data through the Internet, no matter where they are. As a result, sales and services decisions are more informed with real-time access to inventory data, purchase histories and warranty records.

“Our outside sales reps were absolutely lost on the legacy system and we had no visibility into past purchases or freight activity,” said Bill Byrne, President of Precor Home Fitness. “Our hands were so tied by the old software that we couldn’t get our work done. Today, with NetSuite, our quotes are faster, our reporting is clearer and our work environment is better. NetSuite was the best move for the growth and long-term sustainability of our company.”

To streamline the conversion of the retail stores’ data and ensure that Precor Home Fitness could leverage NetSuite as quickly as possible, the company turned to NetSuite solution provider Explore Consulting for assistance. Explore Consulting was able to quickly translate SKU and customer data from the AS/400 system into NetSuite, enabling both commercial and retail sales to standardize on NetSuite in just 30 days. “Our consultants were able to quickly break down Precor Home Fitness’s complex inventory into groups and classes and ensure a clean, rapid transition back to NetSuite,” said Jeremy DeSpain, COO and Partner, Explore Consulting.

Today, more than 10,000 companies and subsidiaries depend on NetSuite to run complex, mission-critical business processes in the cloud globally. Since its inception in 1998, NetSuite has established itself as the leading provider of enterprise-class cloud ERP solutions for divisions of large enterprises and mid-sized organizations seeking to upgrade their antiquated client/server ERP systems. As the leading provider of cloud-based solutions for wholesale distributors and retailers, NetSuite’s solution excels at streamlining business operations. As demonstrated by the 2011 CODiE Award for Best Financial Management Solution as well as a recent Gartner study naming NetSuite as the fastest growing financial management systems vendor in the world, NetSuite has continued its success in delivering the best cloud businesses solutions to businesses around the world, enabling them to lower IT costs significantly while increasing productivity as the global adoption of the cloud is accelerating.

Follow NetSuite’s Cloud blog, NetSuite’s Facebook page and @NetSuite Twitter handle for real-time updates.

For more information about NetSuite, please visit www.netsuite.com.

NOTE: NetSuite and the NetSuite logo and where business is going are service marks of NetSuite Inc.

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Authored by transportation consultant Rosalyn Wilson of Delcan, Inc., the report has tracked and measured all costs associated with moving goods through the U.S. supply chain since 1988. This year’s report presents an overview of the 2010 economy, the industry’s key trends, and the total U.S. logistics costs for 2010 and their percentage of the U.S. GDP. It also examines which sectors of the industry recovered as well as those that didn’t, and which areas can be targeted for increased profit and growth. The research concludes with industry indicators for the future.

This year’s report revealed that the cost of the U.S. business logistics system jumped up 10.4 percent in 2010, making up for more than half of last year’s decline. Business logistics costs rose to $1.2 trillion, an increase of $114 billion from 2009. Inventory carrying costs increased 10.3 percent last year due to higher costs for taxes, obsolescence, depreciation, and insurance, which were offset by a further drop in the inventory carrying rate and warehousing costs.

Transportation costs were up 10.3 percent from 2009 levels, with trucking lagging behind the performance of other modes, rising only 9.3 percent compared to an average of 15.4 percent for the other modes combined. Manufacturing and business spending were the bright spots during much of 2010, while consumer goods production was almost flat. Industrial production was up 5.3 percent in 2010, after declining 11.2 percent the year before. The recovery from the recession has been elusive and more prolonged than any other in U.S. history, with the slow growth presenting another year of challenges for the logistics industry.

“As the economy recovers, those companies that use the statistics and industry insight contained in this report will be better prepared for their business activities ahead,” said Rick Blasgen, CSCMP President and Chief Executive Officer.

“This research is a key source of information that not only identifies macro trends and how the logistics discipline is impacted, but also details ways that company leaders can capitalize on the recovery as it occurs,” Blasgen said. “Having this knowledge helps supply chain leaders move forward in a more proactive and fact-driven way.

“Penske’s continued sponsorship of the report underscores the significant contribution that quality research makes in driving thought leadership and innovation in the logistics and supply chain industries,” Blasgen stated.

“We’re pleased to be part of this important report,” said Joe Gallick, Senior Vice President – Sales for Penske Logistics. “Over the last 12 months, we’ve seen a slow and steady improvement in business globally. We’ve also witnessed the resilience and importance of how well-managed, dynamic supply chains help companies drive down costs, manage inventories, respond to recalls, and adjust to sudden economic shifts and global crises.”

A panel of supply chain executives and government representatives from the U.S. Department of Transportation, Penske Logistics, Macy’s, Adelante SCM Corporation, BNSF Rail and Fortna, Inc., today discussed the implications of the report’s findings on their companies, the industry, and their significance in the coming months.

The “State of Logistics Report®” is available to CSCMP members free of charge as part of their member benefits at http://cscmp.org/memberonly/state.asp. The price of the report is $395.00 U.S.

About Penske Logistics
Penske Logistics is a wholly owned subsidiary of Penske Truck Leasing. With operations in North America, South America, Europe and Asia, Penske Logistics provides supply chain management and logistics services to major industrial and consumer companies throughout the world. Penske Logistics delivers value through design, planning and execution in transportation, warehousing, and international freight forwarding and carrier management. To learn more visit www.PenskeLogistics.com and our “Move Ahead” blog.

About CSCMP
Founded in 1963, the Council of Supply Chain Management Professionals (CSCMP) is the leading worldwide professional association dedicated to education, research, and the advancement of the supply chain management profession. With over 8,500 members globally, representing business, government, and academia from 63 countries, CSCMP members are the leading practitioners and authorities in the fields of logistics and supply chain management.
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“METRO GROUP is very optimistic about RFID-based EAS,” said Dr. Gerd Wolfram, managing director at METRO SYSTEMS. “We’re confident that RFID builds on the usability of traditional RF EAS both for loss prevention as well as inventory visibility, enabling us to better serve our customers.”

RFID Overhead EAS is a key component of an integrated solution delivering real-time inventory and related benefits, while serving as an enhanced EAS system, improving operations at the point-of-exit. It leverages open-standards RFID technology and delivers several new, important benefits for apparel retailers:

• Leverages a single RFID tag for inventory visibility and loss prevention. The Overhead Solution uses one tag for multiple purposes, increasing efficiency at point-of-sale and cost-effectiveness over the long-term.

• Provides an open entrance. Installed either suspended from the ceiling or fully concealed within it, the Overhead Solution enhances the store entrance’s appearance.

• Enables retailers to know what was stolen. The Overhead Solution enables retailers to actually know what was stolen, the quantity and the dollar value, helping them to maintain shelf availability and respond smarter to a theft event.

• Enables retailers to fight all sources of theft. Apparel retailers now have the potential to distinguish among the actions more typical of a casual shoplifter from a professional thief or organized retail theft group, enabling them to take action based on the size and scope of the event.

• Enhances theft deterrence. Combined with Checkpoint’s Merchandise Visibility Solution™, apparel retailers can enhance deterrence by displaying an image or description of the items that were stolen, warning shoplifters of the presence of a more sophisticated system, and causing them to recalculate the risk.

• Increases alarm integrity. By leveraging encoded tags, retailers benefit from the Overhead Solution’s ability to “ignore” tags from other retailers, helping associates respond confidently to alarms, and increasing customer satisfaction.

The RFID Overhead EAS Solution builds on the success of Checkpoint’s high-performance series of RF and dual RF/RFID systems, and encompasses hardware, software and tags. A key advantage is a unique combination of patented hardware and software technology called Wirama Radar™, which ensures data integrity by eliminating stray reads. This technology uniquely enables Checkpoint to deliver unprecedented accuracy and context in reporting the location and directionality of movement of tagged merchandise, providing insight much like commercial radar informs air traffic controllers, meteorologists and the military, while adhering to EPCglobal standards.

The RFID Overhead EAS Solution joins the previously announced Handheld Visibility and Open EPC Number Management Solutions as part of Checkpoint’s solutions portfolio to deliver increased Merchandise Visibility to apparel retailers. Beyond this point-of-exit solution, Checkpoint plans to add several additional solutions in the coming months to provide value for the growing number of apparel retailers that seek to leverage RFID to reduce out-of-stocks, reduce working capital, increase sales, as well as enhance loss prevention and the customer experience.

Checkpoint developed its RFID Overhead EAS Solution to address apparel retailers’ needs to leverage RFID both to maintain inventory at the speed of fashion, as well as to reduce shrink, notable for the apparel industry due to its #2 rank among all retail verticals for shrink as a percent of sales, according to the Global Retail Theft Barometer.

“The ability for a single RFID tag to deliver benefits both for inventory management as well as loss prevention is an important advantage for apparel retailers seeking to maximize the value of their RFID investment,” commented Dr. Bill Hardgrave, dean of Auburn University’s College of Business. “Determining the static location and dynamic directionality (movement) of merchandise are essential to truly addressing data integrity and loss prevention.”

“As apparel retailers increasingly adopt RFID to increase sales, reduce out-of-stocks and reduce working capital, they are also considering the impact that this technology can have on their loss prevention practices,” noted Per Levin, Checkpoint Systems’ worldwide president, Merchandise Visibility Solutions. “We’re providing apparel retailers with solutions that offer a pathway to achieve promising benefits, independent of their individual starting point.”

The RFID Overhead EAS Solution is now being field-tested by major retailers, and will be available in early Q3.

About Checkpoint Systems, Inc.

Checkpoint Systems is a global leader in shrink management, merchandise visibility and apparel labeling solutions. Checkpoint enables retailers and their suppliers to reduce shrink, improve shelf availability and leverage real-time data to achieve operational excellence. Checkpoint solutions are built upon 40 years of RF technology expertise, diverse shrink management offerings, a broad portfolio of apparel labeling solutions, market-leading RFID applications, innovative high-theft solutions and its Web-based Check-Net data management platform. As a result, Checkpoint customers enjoy increased sales and profits by improving supply-chain efficiencies, by facilitating on-demand label printing and by providing a secure open-merchandising environment enhancing the consumer’s shopping experience. Listed on the NYSE (NYSE: CKP), Checkpoint operates in every major geographic market and employs 5,600 people worldwide. For more information, visit www.checkpointsystems.com.

CONTACT:
George Cohen (for Checkpoint)
GCC, Inc.
617-325-0011
george@gccpr.com

NetSuite Demand Planning provides flexibility for building an operational demand plan. Businesses can use sales forecasts to build an inventory plan and even augment the plan with special predictions, such as marketing input on new product launches. Alternatively, inventory plans can even be built using statistical forecasting models such as linear regression, moving averages and seasonal averages, based on historical sales data. As part of a fully integrated supply chain, these projections can even be automatically delivered to upstream providers, ensuring that the entire flow from raw materials to end customer is managed with minimal disruption and optimal inventory levels at each step in the chain.

In today’s competitive world, businesses need to run lean in the current economy. But, only one in five companies has adopted a demand planning solution (source: Gartner, “Business Case for Demand Planning,” March 18, 2011), demonstrating the weakness and difficulty legacy ERP tools have had in addressing this key business concern. Businesses have struggled with legacy disconnected ERP, inflexible tools, and out of date spreadsheets to try and management demand. The result has meant high IT overhead, and infrequent, inadequate and out-of-date plans.

According to the Gartner study, intelligent, integrated demand planning can increase inventory availability up to 30 percent, reduce obsolescence by up to 15 percent and boost gross margins up to 5 percent.

“NetSuite’s new Demand Planning capabilities will allow Valutek to automate our previously manual spreadsheet-based planning exercises, allowing us more timely forecasts and better inventory management,” said Kirk Mathers, VP of Finance, Valutek. “Demand Planning specifically leverages the power of the suite based approach allowing us the ability to closely align sales forecasts with our inventory planning.”

“Demand Planning is essential for all product companies that are trying to effectively manage inventory to maintain a competitive edge in the global business community,” said Cindy Jutras, Principal, Mint Jutras “NetSuite continues to add functionality that enables customers to succeed in gaining a competitive advantage.”

NetSuite Demand Planning enables companies to:
• Improve inventory forecast accuracy – by automatically building inventory forecasts from real time data, businesses can reduce demand planning cycle time, lower risk of error, and operationalize the demand planning process.
• Reduce excess inventory or risk of stock outs – by ensuring the right amount of inventory is kept on hand to effectively meet demand rather than having to tie up unnecessary capital in inventory.
• Minimize manual restock processes – by automating the actual inventory replenishment plan and creating the necessary purchase orders and work orders to meet anticipated demand, NetSuite demand planning frees up stakeholders to focus on more strategic activities.

“With NetSuite’s latest addition of new Demand Planning capabilities, NetSuite serves notice that our leading cloud ERP solution continues to evolve at a pace that leaves rivals behind, and is able to pass innovations swiftly to our customers automatically,” said Jim McGeever, NetSuite COO. “The power of NetSuite Demand Planning is in tightly integrating historical and sales forecast data, together with inventory and replenishment processes. An integrated business management suite across front and back office provides the critical foundation for this kind of tight collaboration and orchestration, and when combined with advanced demand planning, businesses gain flexibility, innovation, and a competitive advantage that’s hard for competitors to match.”

Follow NetSuite’s Cloud blog, NetSuite’s Facebook page and @NetSuite Twitter handle for real-time updates.

For more information about NetSuite Inc., please visit www.netsuite.com.

NetSuite and the NetSuite logo are registered service marks of NetSuite Inc.

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The report was issued today by Norbert J. Ore, CPSM, C.P.M., chair of the Institute for Supply Management™ Manufacturing Business Survey Committee. “February’s report from the manufacturing sector indicates continuing strong performance as the PMI registered 61.4 percent, a level last achieved in May 2004. New orders and production, driven by strength in exports in particular, continue to drive the composite index (PMI). New orders are growing significantly faster than inventories, and the Customers’ Inventories Index indicates supply chain inventories will require continuing replenishment. The Employment Index is above 60 percent for only the third time in the last decade. While there are many positive indicators, there is also concern as industries related to housing continue to struggle and the Prices Index indicates significant inflation of raw material costs across many commodities.”

PERFORMANCE BY INDUSTRY

Of the 18 manufacturing industries, 14 are reporting growth in February, in the following order: Apparel, Leather & Allied Products; Petroleum & Coal Products; Transportation Equipment; Electrical Equipment, Appliances & Components; Machinery; Chemical Products; Fabricated Metal Products; Computer & Electronic Products; Textile Mills; Food, Beverage & Tobacco Products; Printing & Related Support Activities; Paper Products; Wood Products; and Miscellaneous Manufacturing. The four industries reporting contraction in February are: Plastics & Rubber Products; Primary Metals; Nonmetallic Mineral Products; and Furniture & Related Products.

WHAT RESPONDENTS ARE SAYING …

* “A continued weak dollar is increasing the cost of components purchased overseas. It is going to force us to increase our selling prices to our customers.” (Transportation Equipment)
> “We continue to see significant inflation across nearly every type of chemical raw material we purchase.” (Chemical Products)
> “Our plants are working 24/7 to meet production demands.” (Fabricated Metal Products)
> “Prices continue to rise, while business limps along at last year’s pace.” (Nonmetallic Mineral Products)
> “Overall demand is off 10 percent.” (Plastics & Rubber Products)

Link to full report and statistics on the ISM website

SCM has received more mainstream attention this year than ever before. Not that it has been a cover story in the media, but within both public and private sector organisations the SCM body of knowledge is being recognised and used to facilitate post-recession recovery efforts. As Trevor Miles of Kinaxis wrote, “Supply chain is becoming known as the sweet spot for affecting competitive advantage and operational and financial success.” In that spirit, here is our Weekly Link Top 10 of 2010:” Link to full article on Bangkok Post

Demand-driven value networks sense and shape demand to deliver the profitable demand response. This is a stark contrast to traditional supply chains that match demand with supply, but are blind to profitability and true market demand. Companies that are demand driven, sense and align the value network for demand changes five times faster, and they are better at balancing growth and efficiency goals. But, how do they do it? What steps do they take? Here are my observations:

1. Design for demand variability: Sounds simple, but it is not. Traditional supply-based network design techniques optimize costs, but do not account for demand variability in the design of networks. Companies that have done this well are Coors and Dow Chemical. If demand variability is not accounted for there are two primary issues:

a) Is the design feasible? The strategic optimization engines give an average response, that may or may not be a feasible response. Simulation tools help to see if the strategic network design technologies are giving a feasible response. For supply chains with demand swings, this is an important check.

b) Does it reflect the best design? For companies seeking to be demand-driven, what if analysis needs to include the probability of demand and the impact of demand ranges and patterns for important products. Demand variability is a strong determinant of push/pull boundaries. Currently, I only see 15% of companies including demand variability in network design calculations.

2. Focus on market-drivers: These leaders model the ship-to environment (not the traditional ship-from SKU-location) based on market drivers (weather, consumption drivers, consumer take-away, etc.) Great examples of companies making this transition are Cisco, Del Monte and DuPont. I loved Peter Murray, DuPont quote at the S&OP IBF conference in May in Chicago, “ The hardest change was changing to focus on market drivers. When we did this, our work on S&OP reversed a 12 year slide in margin. The downturn made us believers in strong horizontal processes at the executive level.”

3. Get clear on baseline forecasts. Increasingly, organizations are turning to supply chain to own the forecast. It has bounced around in organizations from function to function over the past ten years, but there is now a trend to return it to the supply chain function. Why? Marketing and sales groups tend to have a greater bias, and the supply chain group is seen as able to be a better litmus test of the true forecast. Best in class groups focus on understanding the baseline forecast–true market demand if there is no demand shaping (price, trade promotions, or marketing programs)– and become great modelers on true lift predictors. In calls, 95% of companies struggle with an accurate representation of baseline forecasting.

4. Take a holistic approach to demand shaping. For 40% of companies, price is managed separately than trade promotions, and new product launch has a significant percentage of trade promotion and marketing activities. Look at the impact of the multiple demand-shaping techniques through the use of strategic modeling tools like M-Factor, Thinkvine or the Henry model from IRI (now Symphony).

5. Move away from rules-based consumption: Traditional Advanced Planning Systems used rules to split a monthly forecast into smaller “buckets” for expected daily demand. However, supply chains are unruly. The spread of the forecast is hard to predict through fixed rules. As a result, 21 Fortune 500 companies have substituted statistical engines like those from JDA, Oracle, and Terra Technology to get a better predictor of daily demand. This has improved daily item forecast accuracy at a distribution center by at least 30%.

6. Give your Data a Scrubbing: Like a spring and fall cleaning, order and shipment data needs continual cleaning to align history, account for returns, and item changes. Clean data is an important foundation for demand-driven initiatives.

7. Where possible use Channel Data: Channel data helps to reduce demand latency (the time to sense true consumption in the channel). The more steps that a company is back in the value network, the more important to take this step. I was recently at a conference with a downstream data pioneer. I asked the question, “which technology have you had the most success with in the use of downstream data?” She laughed. Her reply surprised me. She said, “the magnitude of improvement from the use of downstream data is a step change. The differences between the technologies that use the downstream data is slight.” Want to improve the demand signal? According to her, “…jump right in. Use channel data.”

Oops. Plane is landing in Arizona. Gotta run.

When it comes to being demand driven, what do you think? Do you agree with this approach? Is there something that you would add? I look forward to hearing from you!

Coming up, I will be speaking at the GMA IS committee on the use of retailer data and next week, I am on a panel at MIT to discuss the use of retailer data. Seems that interest is growing in the industry…. Just in time for me to finish my December report on the use of downstream data in the supply chain.

Lora Cecere

SAP Supply Chain Response Management allows companies to react to demand and supply changes by rapidly re-prioritizing and re-planning demand and supply in a matter of minutes. The solution also allows companies to perform “what-if” analyses of demand upsides and supply disruptions. It is able to propose the most efficient and beneficial allocation and additional supply based on user-defined business rules. The planning speed and the rule-based allocation of short materials reduces manual efforts and enables highly-efficient business processes, resulting in improved customer service, increased revenues and reduced inventories.

“In today’s fast-paced market environment, many companies are achieving a competitive advantage by increasing the responsiveness of their supply chains,” said Lori Mitchell-Keller, senior vice president, Line of Business Solution Management, Idea to Delivery, SAP. “SAP Supply Chain Response Management will enable our customers with complex, multi-tiered supply chains to respond quickly to shifting demands more efficiently while better utilizing existing materials and capacities.”

SAP Supply Chain Response Management by ICON-SCM offers one of the most powerful and fastest tools available today. The product not only handles multiple and complex constraints, but also delivers comprehensive plans and reports within seconds. The system’s flexible planning tools can take unforeseen issues, analyze the data, re-configure and produce a new plan within minutes, allowing companies to quickly respond, adjust and move forward.

“Having SAP as a global reseller of the ICON-SCM solution allows us to provide our innovative products and offer tightly integrated supply chain solutions for the many customers around the world who rely on SAP software solutions,” said Spencer Miller, CEO of ICON-SCM. “We are thrilled to be working with SAP to deliver one of the fastest and most powerful supply chain response management solutions on the market.”

Availability
SAP Supply Chain Response Management by ICON-SCM is available immediately worldwide. Interested customers can contact SAP Sales in EMEA at +49 180 534-34-24 or in the United States at 1 (800) 872-1SAP.

About ICON-SCM
Founded in 1992, ICON-SCM provides technology and manufacturing companies with supply chain planning and collaboration software that is widely regarded as the fastest and most intelligent available. A CSCMP 2009 Innovation Award honoree and a SupplyChainBrain 2010 Great Supply Chain Partner distinctive award winner, the company helps customers such as Hewlett Packard, Foxconn, Sanmina-SCI and Western Digital have unprecedented capability to plan their global supply chains in minutes or even seconds, providing the necessary agility to accurately plan and react to changes in today’s dynamic environment. ICON-SCM is headquartered in Karlsruhe, Germany, with offices in San Jose, CA and Chennai, India. For more information, please visit www.icon-scm.com.

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SAP and all SAP logos are trademarks or registered trademarks of SAP AG in Germany and in several other countries.
All other product and service names mentioned are the trademarks of their respective companies.

SAP Forward-looking Statement
Any statements contained in this document that are not historical facts are forward-looking statements as defined in the U.S. Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Words such as “anticipate,” “believe,” “estimate,” “expect,” “forecast,” “intend,” “may,” “plan,” “project,” “predict,” “should” and “will” and similar expressions as they relate to SAP are intended to identify such forward-looking statements. SAP undertakes no obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statements. All forward-looking statements are subject to various risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from expectations. The factors that could affect SAP’s future financial results are discussed more fully in SAP’s filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”), including SAP’s most recent Annual Report on Form 20-F filed with the SEC. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements, which speak only as of their dates.

Press Contact:
Jane Gideon
Incendio International
Tel: 415-682-9292
jane@incendiopr.com

Since the announcement that Wal-Mart was introducing item-level tagging into their operations to manage their apparel inventory, item-level tagging has been an increased conversation for retailers of all types. For many retailers, the ease of re-stocking and immediate availability of the product a customer is looking for is crucial to their business and building a loyal customer base. According to AMR Research, products are out of stock between seven and 20 percent of the time. Item-level tagging can help to decrease or almost eliminate this problem with accurate inventory counts. In a post-recession economy, building a loyal customer base is top of mind for many retailers. By reducing the amount of time salespeople spend taking inventory or in the stock room, item-level tagging also allows staff to spend time working with customers to understand and pinpoint the exact location of a product the customer needs in order to generate more sales.

As a market leader in RFID and printing and labeling technologies, Zebra Technologies’ vast experience with item-level tagging technologies and customers introducing the solution has allowed them to see and be a part of the increased adoption and implementation of this inventory management solution. As the RFID market continues to undergo a shift from compliance-based tracking to more item-level tracking, retailers will have a unique opportunity to take advantage of a technology that can save them time, money and provide enhanced visibility into their inventory.

Carolyn Ricci
Product Manager,
Zebra Technologies