Zebra Technologies Selected by Wilson Sporting Goods to Implement its RFID Compliance Labeling Project

Logistics Insight Asia - Industry News, 22/5/2008

Zebra Technologies has announced that Amer Sports selected Zebra’s EPC Gen 2-standard labeling system for its RFID compliance labeling project for shipments of its Wilson Sporting Goods brand. Zebra’s best-of-breed RFID printer/encoders help manufacturers and distributors comply with UHF Gen 2 mandates while providing superior track and trace capabilities for total asset visibility throughout the supply chain.

The Zebra R110Xi is XML-enabled, so it allows for seamless integration into existing enterprise systems. At Wilson, the R110Xi printer/encoders interface directly with applications running on an SAP Auto ID Infrastructure (AII) via an IBM AS/400 host to receive the order information necessary to produce the shipping labels. Wilson was able to create XML smart label formats and load them onto the R110Xi printer/encoders. The AS/400 applications push the deliveries to SAP AII and then SAP AII pushes XML to printer/encoders, which process the information and create the smart label. Each label includes human-readable text, a bar code and an EPC number encoded in a Gen 2-standard tag. The labels are hand-applied to the cases and pallets, which are then routed past fixed-position RFID readers to capture the shipment information.

Another challenge for Wilson was that the company was undergoing a major change of their systems to SAP’s enterprise resource planning system. Because the compliance system had to be running before the SAP migration would be complete, Wilson chose to run its RFID labeling system independent of SAP with plans to migrate to the new infrastructure upon its completion. Since the Zebra R110Xi printer/encoders support AII and have exclusive features that allow them to connect directly to SAP systems, Wilson will be able to integrate the printer/encoders to the SAP system following the upgrade.

When the new SAP system is complete, Wilson plans to integrate RFID data further into its operations so that it can encode additional information into its shipping labels, such as ship-to address, SKU number and item quantity. “As the system grows and we make additional use of the RFID data that is captured, we plan to install more Zebra printer/encoders at other facilities,” said Matthews. “We’ve had a good relationship with Zebra and excellent support, so I am confident that the products will be seamlessly integrated into any future RFID protocols we implement.”

Amer Sports Corporation, www.amersports.com
Zebra Technologies, www.zebra.com