KOOKAÏ boosts supply chain visibility with Avery Dennison tech
Fashion retailer KOOKAÏ says that it has cut inventory counts from a few days to 30 minutes as a result of implementing radio frequency identification (RFID) from Avery Dennison at its manufacturing facilities in Fiji and Sri Lanka.
Ultimately, all clothing and stores will be equipped with RFID enabling it to precisely track all items within its supply chain, speed up check out times, enable online orders to be fulfilled from local stores and provide consumers with extra information about the products they enjoy via new interactive experiences.
KOOKAÏ has tagged all the garments it manufactures with an integrated RFID Printed Fabric Label (PFL) catering for multiple languages.
In partnership with the Sensormatic Solutions TrueVue Cloud platform, Avery Dennison has been able to offer an RFID solution that is able to capture and manage the item level data, enabling the brand to track the inventory process from production to quality control and then to finished goods.
At the Fiji factory, KOOKAÏ data indicates that 30,000 items can be counted in 30 minutes – a process which used to take a few days. KOOKAÏ is also experiencing benefits in store by reducing its out-of-stocks and gaining visibility into inventory levels so that re-stocks can be increased ahead of time for fast selling items.
Amelia Adey, Loss Prevention and Compliance Manager at KOOKAI Australia, says: “We wanted to remove any customer dissatisfaction due to out-of-stock items or missed sales due to inventory not being accurately represented in our stock file.”
“Stocktakes can be done daily now instead of on a twice yearly basis which enables us to provide accurate stock updates to our customers in real time. Having control over the majority of our supply chain due to owning our own factories, made the implementation of RFID an obvious choice in achieving these goals.”
Adey adds: “By digitising the stock receipting process we can eliminate the need for manual counting of deliveries, leaving our sales assistants free to put the focus back on the customers rather than administration.”
“We have been able to significantly reduce our stock availability buffers on our “Find in Store” function online, with confidence that the stock will actually be available.”
Future stages of this project include integration into the KOOKAÏ Point of Sale system, so barcodes are replaced by RFID at the till, completing transactions in seconds with no scanning required.
KOOKAÏ is also exploring the possibility of RFID readers in the changing rooms to provide further customer service, and to collect metrics on product sell through.
Longer term, KOOKAÏ is assessing the use of RFID to enhance the traceability of its production and raw materials and to be able to convey its ethics and sustainability story to its customers.
