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OATSYSTEMS
 
Tesco has just announced that it will be standardising its RFID infrastructure with OATSystems. OAT Foundation Suite will be deployed enterprise-wide across its network of more than 2,000 locations beginning with 98 Tesco Extra Stores. This decision marks the first time any of the retailers leading the adoption of RFID technology have standardised on a single enterprise-wide RFID framework.
Cyrus Gilbert-Rolfe, OATSystems Managing Director EMEA gets the lowdown from John Clarke, Tesco’s Group Technology Director and Chief Architect.

CGR: Why radio barcodes for Tesco?

JC: Radio barcodes have the potential to be the next transformational technology change within the retail space. It supports our goal in Tesco of using technology to make life better for our customer; make life simpler for our staff; and therefore cheaper for Tesco

CGR: Why OAT for Tesco?

JC: OATSystems in our view has the credibility of being a leading player. It has the product we need and I think shares our passion that we need to do a lot more with this technology in the retail space. I think we have an equal commitment to doing it with Tesco and other players on a global scale.

CGR: Is RFID about cost savings?

JC: RFID, radio barcodes as we call it in Tesco, soon will help us with operational efficiencies. But it’s more than just cost savings. It’s about making life better for our customers, but also makes our whole operation better and simpler for our staff as well. So it’s more than pure cost saving.

CGR: What are the benefits of radio barcodes?

JC: For the customer basically it’s availability. Ensuring that the products you want are in a particular store when you want them. From Tesco’s perspective it will certainly give us greater accuracy and transparency with our inventory and that in itself is a huge benefit.

CGR: What are the integration challenges for Tesco?

JC: In the UK we already have a complex and yet very powerful legacy system so bringing the data and the transparency of what this provides into our enterprise is key. As an integration challenge it is achievable, but it’s no small task.

CGR: OAT systems is launching the OAT Pathfinder community, to bring together partners and customers into a single society for information sharing. How relevant do you think groups like this will be in the growth of RFID?

JC: We’ve already been a participant in a similar European venture. We found that it was very useful, where likeminded individuals come together to share thinking, share common challenges, and work out a way forward. So I can see it being nothing but a good thing.

CGR: What does the roadmap look like in Tesco’s business case? How long does an enterprise-wide deployment take? How long will it take to get it before you’re fully RFID enabled?

JC: Our long term view for any investment is to have a very sound business case, making things better for our customers and simpler for our staff. However, our most immediate focus is on pallet and case level tagging. That will realistically take between two to five years, depending on the on-boarding of suppliers, to have that part of our business covered entirely by radio barcodes. Even then there may still be certain suppliers who won’t be providing radio barcodes. Beyond that we’ll then start to look at more granular level, item level tagging.

CGR: What are the objectives for phase one?

JC: The objectives of phase one are to put in place a secure supply chain infrastructure. So that will mean enabling both our distribution centres and our stores with a system to ship high value items in a secure fashion, items such as batteries and electric toothbrushes.

CGR: What are you doing around the capture of RFID data? How do you address making sense of the information, storing it centrally, how does that work?

JC: As we do our phase one and we put in place the middleware essential to capturing that data, we’ll start to understand what the data is, what data we actually need, and how we use it. We’re in an explore mode right now, trying to understand just what is right to capture and keep, and what you can disregard.

CGR: What are the expectations of Tesco concerning read rates?

JC: Our expectation for read rates is that it must be 100%. We can’t be left in a situation where you still need manual intervention to cover the gaps. So our goal, challenging as it may seem, is 100%.

CGR: Which element was the key to the framework design at Tesco?

JC: I think that the infrastructure is the key, which means the middleware and then the readers because when we do an installation I plan to do it once and once only. It’s very hard to put in an infrastructure and take it out again, so it’s a one-off decision. It makes the selection of a vendor just so much more important.

CGR: How do the phase one requirements capture, control, context, etc., weigh into vendor selection?

JC: I think understanding how the vendor can help us do all those things is very important because it is likely we’ll do all three to varying degrees. Therefore, this level of flexibility and capability is important.

CGR: Is RFID a mandate at Tesco?

JC: Tesco doesn’t mandate our suppliers but what we’re trying to do is collaboration work with some key suppliers to understand what this technology is and how we best use it for our customers and our staff.

CGR: Thanks for your time John.

JC: You’re very welcome.
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