After several years of piloting the technology to prove it can bring automated inventory visibility to its stores, the fashion retailer is expanding MetraLabs’ TORY robotic technology this summer, with plans to equip all 175 shops by 2021.

Jul 01, 2019

German clothing store chain Adler Modemärkte is expanding its use of RFID technology with a tag-reading robotic system that now tracks inventory at 20 of its stores, with plans to deploy the system across 45 locations—about one-third of the retailer’s sites—by September 2019. The system consists of a robot known as TORY, which has a built-in UHF RFID reader and antenna array that collects RFID data during stock-taking trips throughout the stores. The technology was provided by RFID technology company MetraLabs (see MetraLabs’ TORY RFID Inventory Robot Celebrates First Jubilee).

Adler is one of the largest retail chains in Germany, with stores throughout that country, as well as in Austria, Luxembourg and Switzerland. It mostly sells its own brands for women, men and children, though around 25 percent of its goods come from external brands. For years, it has applied UHF RFID tags to its branded products and incoming external brands in order to better manage inventory counts as items move through its distribution center and stores, thereby reducing the risk of goods going out of stock at any specific site. The tags were periodically read at the stores via handheld readers. Workers walked throughout each of the 177 stores on a weekly basis to capture the EPC UHF RFID tags, enabling the company to regularly update its inventory count.

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Source: Adler Modemarkte Rolls Out RFID Robot Across 45 Stores – 2019-07-01 – Page 1 – RFID Journal