January 2007: Before it ever reaches the consumer, a product will already have traveled through a number of steps in its supply chain. When it comes to fresh vegetables, short lifespans make an efficient supply chain essential. In May 2005, Dutch retail organization Schuitema (C1000 supermarkets) kicked off ‘Vers Schakel’ (Fresh Link), the first European project to apply RFID in the pre-cut vegetables supply chain.
Vers Schakel’s goal was to get even fresher products onto supermarket shelves. It also wanted to reduce wastage and improve availability and transparency in the supply chain. And by demonstrating the benefits of RFID to the Dutch government as well as the rest of the industry, the company also hopes to stimulate the uptake of contactless identification nationwide.
The project started with a pilot involving several thousand crates and a selection of high-profile partners including NXP Semiconductors, Heemskerk (supplier of the fresh-cut vegetables), Capgemini for the project management, Wageningen University and Research centre, CBL (branch organization of Dutch supermarkets) and service provider KPN.
Express vegetables
At the Heemskerk site, the crates used for transporting the cut vegetabes were equipped with RFID tags. These tags are based on NXP’s UCODE Gen 2 ICs, the first ever developed in line with the new EPCglobal standard.
“The tags are read at various points in the supply chain: when the crates leave the Heemskerk site; at Schuitema’s distribution center; and finally at the participating C1000 supermarkets,” says René Bakker, Director of Logistics & IT at Schuitema. “All data is immediately sent to the central database at the KPN Cybercenter, so any of the participants can easily check a crate’s location at any time.”
In addition to the RFID tag, some of the crates were also fitted with a temperature logger. These are used to track temperature changes through the chain, an important factor in the fresh food world – and also in the RFID world! This made it possible to see where temperature variations occurred by matching the temperature log with a crate’s RFID track.
It also gave the partners an opportunity to see how temperature affected the performance of the tags. “Tag performance can be influenced by many things including for example the contents of the crate,” René informs us. “But moist, cold surroundings can also have a significant influence on the reliability of a reading.”
Impressed jury
At the ECR Nederland Congres (Efficient Consumer Response Netherlands Congress) on 8 June 2005, Vers Schakel was awarded the RFID Innovation Prize 2005, along with a € 50,000 check.
As the first project to apply RFID along the whole supply chain for fresh cut vegetables, the jury was won over by the project’s innovative character, its use of the EPCglobal standard, the combination of RFID and temperature measurement, and the introduction of the brand-new ‘First Expired, First Out’ model. They were also impressed by the spirit of cooperation – the fact that so many companies had come together to make the project a success, bringing consumers higher-quality products at lower prices.
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