News

European hypermarket Auchan adopts RFID to track produce

October 4, 2011

Orange Business Services is providing Auchan Group, the 12th largest food retail group in the world, a real-time tracking solution to monitor the complete routing of plastic crates carrying fruits and vegetables in its French hypermarkets and supermarkets. Headquartered in France, Auchan has more than 1,300 hypermarkets and supermarkets in 12 countries.

Using plastic crates with RFID chips, Auchan will track its produce throughout the distribution chain -- from the truck farm to the logistics platform, in the stores and through the washing station. The platform application developed by Orange Business Services enables 24-hour-a-day access in a cloud mode (Software as a Service) through an ergonomic and secure Web interface. Using this application, both the Auchan produce distribution chain manager and the plastic crate renter can see in real time the entire route of the containers and can anticipate their immobilization or loss.

The application from Orange Business Services retrieves RFID data detected by the chip-reading systems supplied by partner IER, which are portals for bulk reading in warehouses or PDAs for producers. This closed-loop supply chain means that the distribution cycle repeats once the crates are cleaned after use.

In addition to optimizing the logistics chain by increasing container rotation and monitoring the crates, this solution enables Auchan to reap additional business benefits:

• greater security for the warehouse employees by reducing accident risk connected with handling wooden crates;
• reduction in crate loss thanks to geolocalization;
• quick win in sustainable development by saving more than 150 tons of waste by reusing plastic RFID containers, representing a 30 percent decrease in carbon emissions;
• more consistent presentation of the products in stores leading to better success with consumers;
• solution is fully compliant with European regulations for fresh produce food hygiene.

"Thanks to this trackability solution, we now have the possibility of ensuring real-time supervision of the entire produce distribution chain," said Francois Laveissiere, director of IT Innovation for the Hypermarkets Division, Auchan. "Our improved logistics chain allows us to simultaneously achieve savings and protect the environment, which is a strong focus in the group's policy."