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Zebra Technology – RFID Solution Provider (Part 1)
Episode 2511th January 2023 • Supply Chain LEAD Podcast • Supply Chain LEAD Podcast
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Mike Graen sits down with Paul Baboian from Zebra Technologies to discuss the Zebra solutions for many opportunities in the Retail Supply Chain.

Part #1 of this series explains the driving forces for RFID in the retail supply chain and the Zebra Handheld solutions available today.

Transcripts

Mike Graen:

Greetings. My name is Mike Graen. Welcome to

Mike Graen:

another conversations on retail and the University of Arkansas

Mike Graen:

Supply Chain Management Department. Focus on on shelf

Mike Graen:

availability. I am super excited today to welcome my good friend

Mike Graen:

Paul Boyden from Zebra Technologies. Obviously, Zebra

Mike Graen:

is a industry leader in lots of different applications, lots of

Mike Graen:

different technologies. But today we're going to be focusing

Mike Graen:

primarily on the RFID technology to talk about how you

Mike Graen:

specifically leverage some of these solutions in retail. My

Mike Graen:

name is migraine, and I appreciate the opportunity to

Mike Graen:

spend some time with you. Before we get started too far into

Mike Graen:

this, I want to introduce my good fault friend Paul Boyan.

Mike Graen:

Paul is in the incredibly warm town of Chicago, Illinois. 10.

Mike Graen:

Paul, what's the temperature there right now? About 10? By

Mike Graen:

10. And he just got back from a little bit of family time in

Mike Graen:

Florida. What was the temperature down there, Paul?

Paul Baboian:

Oh, about 75?

Mike Graen:

Mm hmm. You went the wrong way. It went the wrong

Mike Graen:

way. For sure. For sure. So, Paul, give us a little

Mike Graen:

background on yourself. I know you've been with Motorola, and

Mike Graen:

then zebra and in the space for a long time. So how about a

Mike Graen:

little introduction about yourself and kind of your role

Mike Graen:

at Zebra?

Paul Boboian:

Yeah, sure. Thanks, Mike. Pleasure to be

Paul Boboian:

here. I've been supporting RFID projects for virtually all of my

Paul Boboian:

career in the 90s, I was more on the industrial factory

Paul Boboian:

automation side and really focused on semiconductor and

Paul Boboian:

electronics manufacturing, when the majority of electronics and

Paul Boboian:

semiconductors were manufactured here in the States and

Paul Boboian:

leveraging more of a proprietary RFID system. And then, in the

Paul Boboian:

early 2000s, when the DOD and Walmart, you know, made a big

Paul Boboian:

splash with EPC RFID, this, you know, new technology disrupter

Paul Boboian:

in terms of a very low cost RFID solution, I joined on with

Paul Boboian:

Zebra, and supported all of the Walmart, primarily the Walmart

Paul Boboian:

suppliers. And that was my first entry into the, you know,

Paul Boboian:

passive RFID and expensive interoperable systems. And since

Paul Boboian:

then, have been supporting manufacturers and transportation

Paul Boboian:

logistics companies. And within the last five years or so, I

Paul Boboian:

have strictly been supporting retailers. So retail stores and

Paul Boboian:

distribution centers. So a lot of experience in terms of

Paul Boboian:

supporting implementations out there. So glad to be with you

Paul Boboian:

today. Thank you.

Mike Graen:

Well, I'm glad to finally find somebody who's

Mike Graen:

actually been in the RFID space longer. And I have I got

Mike Graen:

involved in about 2005 When Walmart and P&G started talking

Mike Graen:

about leveraging RFID at the case of power level, I didn't

Mike Graen:

realize you actually had experienced before that that's,

Mike Graen:

that's tremendous. That's tremendous. Well, we're gonna go

Mike Graen:

ahead and get started with us. And the first just as a

Mike Graen:

introductory, we're going to have the the folks on the line

Mike Graen:

who who have are interested in questions, just raise your hand

Mike Graen:

or put something in the chat function. Matt and myself will

Mike Graen:

be kind of monitoring that chat function for any questions that

Mike Graen:

you guys may have. And we will certainly open up give you an

Mike Graen:

opportunity to answer the question via chat. If you'd

Mike Graen:

prefer to ask your question live, just raise your hand and

Mike Graen:

again matter or I will unmute you and allow you to ask your

Mike Graen:

questions directly from Paul. Just want to again thank for

Mike Graen:

conversations on retail, a great platform for for sharing

Mike Graen:

information about the retail platform. This one happens to be

Mike Graen:

on on shelf availability. But Matt has done a great job of

Mike Graen:

building out lots of different things and you can go see his

Mike Graen:

his website for that a conversations on retail. And

Mike Graen:

then of course the University of Arkansas the number one Gardner

Mike Graen:

rated undergraduate supply chain department, I always have to

Mike Graen:

plug that for the folks at the University of Arkansas but our

Mike Graen:

two LinkedIn profiles, myself and Paul's are right below and

Mike Graen:

without Without further ado, we're just going to kind of go

Mike Graen:

into what we want to talk about here. So before we before we

Mike Graen:

jump into the actual content of RFID. Paul, I have I have a

Mike Graen:

personal question that I love to ask my guests because in

Mike Graen:

addition to a retail supply chain and RFID expert, you're

Mike Graen:

also a customer and you order things from stores you order

Mike Graen:

stuff online. Tell me about a time over the last call three

Mike Graen:

three to six months where you are disappointed by a potential

Mike Graen:

purchase as a Customer, tell me a little bit about what

Mike Graen:

happened. You don't have to name the retailer if it was a bad

Mike Graen:

experience or if it was a good experience. But this whole idea

Mike Graen:

that we are actually customers as well, I think is really

Mike Graen:

important. And it's always interesting to hear what kind of

Mike Graen:

experiences my guests have had.

Paul Boboian:

There's, there's one in particular I can think

Paul Boboian:

of, which was before Thanksgiving, and it's a fairly

Paul Boboian:

well known housewares retailer where we were having a family

Paul Boboian:

get together, and we needed to replace some glasses. And we

Paul Boboian:

ordered from the local retailer local store online, and they're

Paul Boboian:

not right down the street. So it was a drive to head out that

Paul Boboian:

way. And did a little bit of shopping and a few other stores

Paul Boboian:

nearby and stopped by that retailer. And oh, by the way,

Paul Boboian:

when we were when we were online shopping, you know that the

Paul Boboian:

products were, you know, were available, they indicated that

Paul Boboian:

they were available on the line items. And so, you know, when I

Paul Boboian:

went in the store to pick them up, I started, you know, showed

Paul Boboian:

the email and said, Hey, I've got this order, it should be in

Paul Boboian:

the queue. But, you know, I ordered a few hours ago, I

Paul Boboian:

assume they they'd be ready by now. So they went and looked and

Paul Boboian:

came back and said, Oh, I'm sorry, we don't have those, you

Paul Boboian:

know, in stock. And I was like, Well, when I was online, and I

Paul Boboian:

ordered them, you know, they were available. And they just

Paul Boboian:

apologized and said, Well, we we should we bring them in from

Paul Boboian:

other store. So it doesn't mean that they're here in the store.

Paul Boboian:

And that was really disappointing. Maybe because it

Paul Boboian:

was a bit spoiled at some of the other retailers that do a better

Paul Boboian:

job and you know, focus more on what's in their store inventory.

Paul Boboian:

But yeah, that was disappointing. And of course, we

Paul Boboian:

had our get together and we were missing some, you know, some

Paul Boboian:

glasses, so we, you know, we we couldn't get them in time? Hmm.

Mike Graen:

Not a good experience.

Paul Boboian:

Not a good experience. No, very, very

Paul Boboian:

disappointed. Very disappointing.

Mike Graen:

You know, I've yet to ask that question yet, where

Mike Graen:

somebody has given me a tremendous experience, it's

Mike Graen:

usually always a negative experience. So I had

Paul Boboian:

some were, you know, during COVID, while well

Paul Boboian:

out of retailers, you know, weren't quite there yet. I had

Paul Boboian:

some really good experiences, you know, and a number of

Paul Boboian:

different retailers. You know, I don't do it now. So much. But

Paul Boboian:

you know, during that time being in a parking slot, and waiting

Paul Boboian:

for my, you know, delivery I it was it was impressive. So there

Paul Boboian:

are a lot of retailers, you know, there that are getting it

Paul Boboian:

right. But boy, when you get disappointed like that, it's you

Paul Boboian:

remember?

Mike Graen:

Well, I don't think that could have be a better

Mike Graen:

segue to the slide that I'm about to show. Because the

Mike Graen:

world's biggest retailer feels your pain. We got a quote here

Mike Graen:

from Doug McMillon. Mr. Sam actually had one like this as

Mike Graen:

far but this one's a more recent one from Doug McMillon, the CEO

Mike Graen:

of Walmart, it's really simple. If you're not meeting the wants

Mike Graen:

and the needs of the customer, you're done. There's not a lot

Mike Graen:

of loyalty there. Because I would imagine Paul with whatever

Mike Graen:

retailer you were doing business with, if there was another

Mike Graen:

option for another retail or you wanted those glasses, and you

Mike Graen:

would have found a way to get those glasses. So I think people

Mike Graen:

don't have loyalty to a specific retailer anymore. They have they

Mike Graen:

have loyalty to the products that they want. So with that as

Mike Graen:

a backdrop, what I think is really important is to just to

Mike Graen:

speak a little bit about the business drivers behind this

Mike Graen:

technology. And I've showed these before, but I think

Mike Graen:

they're always worthwhile looking at IHL a few years ago,

Mike Graen:

I did one that says retailers are missing out on a trillion

Mike Graen:

dollars in sales. Because they don't have what they want on

Mike Graen:

hand what the customers want to buy. Amazon Prime facing empty

Mike Graen:

shelves are 52 Prime members are more likely 52% more likely to

Mike Graen:

take out their phones and buy what they need online. And

Mike Graen:

what's ironic is you're actually using the retailer Wi Fi to

Mike Graen:

order it from another competitor, which I think is as

Mike Graen:

a little bit ironic. In the last day 24% of Amazon's current

Mike Graen:

retail comes from customers who try and buy it. I've shared

Mike Graen:

these before but I always think they're they're worthwhile

Mike Graen:

going. I've also updated this one so this one's a pretty

Mike Graen:

interesting one. This is from insider intelligence. The box on

Mike Graen:

the left hand side is the percentage of retail sales

Mike Graen:

that's coming from E commerce and E commerce could be buy it

Mike Graen:

online. Have it delivered to your home, buy it online, pick

Mike Graen:

it up in store, otherwise known as bogus. There's a there's a

Mike Graen:

term Paul that the bell Hargrave from the University of Memphis

Mike Graen:

has coined called repurpose, which I think is interesting,

Mike Graen:

which is research Which online pickup in store, that's where

Mike Graen:

you look online to see if it's available and then drive to the

Mike Graen:

store, you may not place the order, but you actually do the

Mike Graen:

research ahead of time, before you go to the store. As you can

Mike Graen:

see on the right hand side, and this is the new one, this is

Mike Graen:

this is continuing to grow. These are the percentages of

Mike Graen:

growth in these various categories that are going to be

Mike Graen:

doing online. So that doesn't mean real retail stores are no

Mike Graen:

longer gonna exist, they absolutely are. But they're also

Mike Graen:

going to turn into more fulfillment center kind of

Mike Graen:

opportunities. And in order to be able to do that you you

Mike Graen:

definitely have to know what you have and where it's located. And

Mike Graen:

again, I'll share this last screen and then open it up for

Mike Graen:

Paul for a couple of comments here. But this kind of inventory

Mike Graen:

accuracy, where it says the store says I have on the top

Mike Graen:

one, four, and I actually have four, if those would have been

Mike Graen:

your glasses, Paul, we would have been fine. Right? It said

Mike Graen:

you have four, you ordered four, we're all good. The problem is

Mike Graen:

too many times we are thinking we have them like the bottom

Mike Graen:

one, three pairs of jeans, and we actually don't have any at

Mike Graen:

all. And therefore you buy them online. And then you go to pick

Mike Graen:

them up. I'm saying we sorry, we can't find them. Not only do you

Mike Graen:

not sell them, but because the reorder point is to over the

Mike Graen:

right hand side. When he kept his bad to to order more from

Mike Graen:

the supplier? Well, guess what? It's never gonna go down to two

Mike Graen:

because the on hand things I have three, I don't have any. So

Mike Graen:

I'm not going to sell any I'm not going to worry any. So

Mike Graen:

that's that is the that is the game that we are focusing on

Mike Graen:

from a retail perspective. And obviously apparel as part of

Mike Graen:

that, but we're seeing Paul, we're seeing we're seeing some

Mike Graen:

companies kind of expand outside of apparel, correct?

Paul Boboian:

Absolutely. Yeah. Categories are expanding quite a

Paul Boboian:

bit.

Mike Graen:

Well, I Paul, Paul was nice enough to send me this

Mike Graen:

slide. I think this is really a good slide. And he actually just

Mike Graen:

updated it with a couple of things. Paul, walk us through

Mike Graen:

this, what are some of the retail trends that you're seeing

Mike Graen:

in the industry?

Paul Boboian:

Well, I won't go through each one, I think you

Paul Boboian:

can, you know, take a read through these, but I'm gonna

Paul Boboian:

pick out a few that I think, you know, there's a lot of insight.

Paul Boboian:

You know, first off in terms of the customer experience, really,

Paul Boboian:

in today's, you know, marketplace, the retailers, you

Paul Boboian:

know, the ability to compete in today's world with the

Paul Boboian:

customers, you have to expose accurate, you know, inventory

Paul Boboian:

onto your web or within your application, because as you

Paul Boboian:

mentioned earlier, you know, customers, a lot of

Paul Boboian:

sophisticated customers are utilizing their phone while

Paul Boboian:

they're in the store and they're looking for information. Or

Paul Boboian:

prior to going to the store, they want to know which store

Paul Boboian:

has that inventory as I you know, as when I my experience,

Paul Boboian:

so that loyalty the loyal customers is definitely the

Paul Boboian:

fusion of being in the store and leveraging that data and needing

Paul Boboian:

accurate data, that's really a retailers right to play. And if

Paul Boboian:

they're not doing that, then you know, they're not on an equal

Paul Boboian:

footing with others out there, the more advanced that are doing

Paul Boboian:

it, that's number one. And number two, we'll just talk

Paul Boboian:

about the E commerce picks. I think, now that a lot of

Paul Boboian:

retailers are picking from their own inventory, and in most

Paul Boboian:

cases, they're picking from their shelves, they're on store,

Paul Boboian:

you know, for sale shelves, they're actually feeling the

Paul Boboian:

impact, they're getting no picks because of the out of stock. So

Paul Boboian:

it's affecting, you know, their processes firsthand, which is

Paul Boboian:

new, you know, which is really new with ecommerce and Omni

Paul Boboian:

hitting within the last couple of years. The last piece is the

Paul Boboian:

profitability pressures. I think, you know, it's now a lot

Paul Boboian:

of reports, actually, in the most recent IHL report, they

Paul Boboian:

indicated that, you know, on the fulfillment is between a five to

Paul Boboian:

15% burden on margins. So in terms of operational

Paul Boboian:

efficiencies and figuring out what makes sense in terms of on

Paul Boboian:

the fulfillment from stores from a local micro fulfillment center

Paul Boboian:

in the backroom, you know, how to handle that, that those

Paul Boboian:

processes are still being refining because, you know, they

Paul Boboian:

need to improve that bottom line. And I guess the last I'll

Paul Boboian:

speak about is the theft. This is you know, recent, you know,

Paul Boboian:

we've seen an increase in theft to x from 2021. And, you know,

Paul Boboian:

the input the feedback from customers, they don't like the

Paul Boboian:

security vaults, right? There's been a lot of vaults installed.

Paul Boboian:

There's been a lot of now checking receipts not just at

Paul Boboian:

the clubs, but at retailers. Many retailers were checking on

Paul Boboian:

receipts going out and this is a big issue that we are all trying

Paul Boboian:

to get, you know our arms around you can see there's you know,

Paul Boboian:

there's There's the supply chain constraints. And of course,

Paul Boboian:

labor not going away. But I'll leave it at that this will be in

Paul Boboian:

the deck, take a look at that.

Mike Graen:

Awesome. Awesome. The other the other piece of

Mike Graen:

this, which is, I think, really fascinating, which is, and

Mike Graen:

we've, we've said this quote before, but if, as a retailer,

Mike Graen:

you're turning your brick and mortar stores into fulfillment

Mike Graen:

centers. Yeah, I don't know that they were necessarily ever

Mike Graen:

designed to be fulfillment centers. But that's the

Mike Graen:

migration is going on. And that means you've got to make the

Mike Graen:

product available for the brick and mortar shoppers as well as

Mike Graen:

fulfillment centers and building on that profitability pressure.

Mike Graen:

You're paying your associates or your team members not only to

Mike Graen:

stock the product, check out the customer, but also to pick

Mike Graen:

product for customers, so that costs from a profitability

Mike Graen:

becomes a bit of an issue from a retail perspective as well.

Mike Graen:

Well, from a from a solution perspective, sorry, I'm going

Mike Graen:

the wrong way. From a solution perspective, I guess the

Mike Graen:

question is, well, what's the what's the role? And what

Mike Graen:

exactly is RFID? Technology play? Paul, how does RFID play a

Mike Graen:

role in helping to become a disrupter?

Paul Boboian:

Yeah, it is, you know, for sure, a disrupter.

Paul Boboian:

Because as you can, you know, no, knowing what you have, and

Paul Boboian:

where, yeah, where it is, with little or no labor involved, is

Paul Boboian:

that's that's a disruption to what has typically been, you

Paul Boboian:

know, in terms of inventory accuracy in the back room, or on

Paul Boboian:

the shelves of 50, maybe generously 65%, inventory

Paul Boboian:

accuracy to a 95% Plus, let's say high 90s percent inventory

Paul Boboian:

accuracy, that that is a game changer, right. So first off,

Paul Boboian:

it's, it's fixing that distortion in terms of what's

Paul Boboian:

incoming, what's coming in from the distribution centers at the

Paul Boboian:

store, and what is going out, you know, what is paid for, but

Paul Boboian:

just as important in terms of inventory levels, what is unpaid

Paul Boboian:

for those going out the doors as well. And that's, that's really

Paul Boboian:

key. That's the critical, the fundamental of RFID in the value

Paul Boboian:

provides is the inventory levels. And then of course, at

Paul Boboian:

the same time, I'm just reducing those mundane tasks because of

Paul Boboian:

the automatic data collection that RFID provides. It reduces

Paul Boboian:

time on tasks, and in some cases, it eliminates those time

Paul Boboian:

on tasks. And of course it at the same time supports on the

Paul Boboian:

channel. So it's Yeah,

Mike Graen:

well, what I really like about this is the way

Mike Graen:

you've you've laid out these business challenges. I believe

Mike Graen:

that all of the folks whether it's a tag provider, whether

Mike Graen:

it's a solution provider, whether it's a software

Mike Graen:

solution, whether it's a hardware solution, they have to

Mike Graen:

work together, these are pieces of the puzzle. And I think that

Mike Graen:

to really lay out what some of the business drivers factors are

Mike Graen:

is really important for folks to do, the way I try and look at it

Mike Graen:

as a triangle. This is the way I call kind of the business value

Mike Graen:

triangle. And usually, it was interesting before this year,

Mike Graen:

everybody always said, Well, it all starts with on hand

Mike Graen:

accuracy, knowing what you have knowing where it's located at a

Mike Graen:

high degree of accuracy. I've started to see a little bit of

Mike Graen:

some of the retailers actually jumping involved in actually

Mike Graen:

bypassing the on hand accuracy benefits and going right into

Mike Graen:

asset protection, which we'll talk about in a minute. But But

Mike Graen:

Paul talks about honesty and accuracy, I think we got a

Mike Graen:

couple slides here, which kind of demonstrate some of the zebra

Mike Graen:

solutions for this on here and accuracy walk us walk us through

Mike Graen:

what some of these would look like.

Paul Boboian:

So high level in terms of reading, you know,

Paul Boboian:

tagged items, to gain that that unhand accuracy that we all

Paul Boboian:

start with starts out with tagging that source. So in other

Paul Boboian:

words RFID tagging merchandise at at Factory. And the RFID tags

Paul Boboian:

are integrated into the price tags integrated into you know,

Paul Boboian:

the informational tags into the tickets. And it's it's a

Paul Boboian:

basically the RFID tag data has a UPC plus a serial number so

Paul Boboian:

that that's key, so that we can differentiate the same item the

Paul Boboian:

same UPC if there's five pairs because of that unique serial

Paul Boboian:

number. On every item we can differentiate when we read these

Paul Boboian:

tags and the infrastructure. The reader infrastructure can be a

Paul Boboian:

handheld device that's leveraged with what the associates use

Paul Boboian:

today a handheld computer or it can be fixed readers or fixed

Paul Boboian:

mounted Leaders, they're installed at strategic

Paul Boboian:

locations, at transitions, or over sales far in the back room,

Paul Boboian:

or most recently, within the last couple of years, we've

Paul Boboian:

seen, you know, we're now trending where we're leveraging

Paul Boboian:

RFID readers or on robots for autonomous vehicles. So RFID,

Paul Boboian:

instrumented AMRs. And all of those reads, basically are

Paul Boboian:

pushed to a data repository. And from that data repository, the

Paul Boboian:

inventory management system that consumes that data, so the so

Paul Boboian:

the on hands are consumed, so that, you know, we can provide

Paul Boboian:

dynamic replenishments or, you know, insight in terms of

Paul Boboian:

upstream processes.

Mike Graen:

Absolutely. Perfect. And so when we think about the

Mike Graen:

zebra rollin this, yeah, do we think about Zebra is a kind of a

Mike Graen:

one stop shop for all of these pieces? Or do you guys

Mike Graen:

particularly specialize in a specific one of these portions

Mike Graen:

of this?

Paul Boboian:

We, we provide we are, I would say, we're almost a

Paul Boboian:

one stop shop. So we press a hardware layer very well. And

Paul Boboian:

for those retailers who are more of app developers or do it

Paul Boboian:

yourselfers, we, you know, we work closely with them, but at

Paul Boboian:

the same time, we have partners that are very laser focused on

Paul Boboian:

RFID inventory management, or RFID, for retail solutions that

Paul Boboian:

provide commercially off the shelf, you know, RFID solutions,

Paul Boboian:

so whether it's in terms of inventory scanning, or Omni

Paul Boboian:

picking, or replenishments, that tie to their back end system. So

Paul Boboian:

it we we are to some degree, one stop shoppers veer off what I've

Paul Boboian:

called the do it yourselfers, but at the same time, for those

Paul Boboian:

who are looking for, you know, commercially off the shelf

Paul Boboian:

shrink wrap software, because they want to get started quick.

Paul Boboian:

You know, we have a lot of partners out there that you

Paul Boboian:

know, focus on this market as

Mike Graen:

well. Yep. So it may not be something you provide,

Mike Graen:

but you work very collaboratively with label

Mike Graen:

providers, software providers, etc. And I guess the other

Mike Graen:

question would be okay, well, but zebra probably doesn't talk

Mike Graen:

to all retailers just because of the number of retailers are out

Mike Graen:

there, the big ones, the small ones, etc. I believe you work

Mike Graen:

very closely with other companies like marketing, etc.

Mike Graen:

If they have a retailer that doesn't have the amount of

Mike Graen:

buying power, that they can collaboratively work with you

Mike Graen:

for that equipment as well, correct?

Paul Boboian:

Yes, absolutely. Yeah. Very significant ecosystem

Paul Boboian:

of even independent software providers, and also, you know,

Paul Boboian:

value added resale partner. So

Mike Graen:

awesome. Awesome. Well, I think we've got a, we

Mike Graen:

think we've got a quick piece of this, which is actually shows

Mike Graen:

some of the results in these results. We don't have to read

Mike Graen:

these. But the bottom line, Paul, you put this together,

Mike Graen:

this is from Auburn zipper project study. But some of these

Mike Graen:

are amazing. I mean, the inventory accuracy was just what

Mike Graen:

we go back to what we said before 60 to 65%. And now we're

Mike Graen:

up to 9599. It was interesting, we had a interesting debate on

Mike Graen:

LinkedIn the other day, which is what is the expected on hand

Mike Graen:

accuracy. And somebody says, well, we shouldn't expect

Mike Graen:

anything less than 99 point something percent. And I was

Mike Graen:

like, wow, that's really hard to get 99% Probably, you could

Mike Graen:

probably do it, but there's a lot of pieces, but even getting

Mike Graen:

it from the point was even getting it from 65 to 95 is a

Mike Graen:

huge, huge benefit. So

Paul Boboian:

I wouldn't say this, that the genesis of you

Paul Boboian:

know, really RFID and retail, the genesis was apparel, and

Paul Boboian:

apparel is relatively speaking as our transparent so it is very

Paul Boboian:

high 90s You know, 9899 at the same time, now, a lot of

Paul Boboian:

retailers, you know, the more advanced, it's within general

Paul Boboian:

merchandise, or even tagging food. So there are some physics,

Paul Boboian:

you know, challenges there. But I would say on average, what I'm

Paul Boboian:

seeing out there, you know, is when it comes to general

Paul Boboian:

merchandise and food included, is at a minimum mid 90s. So it's

Paul Boboian:

it's even with adding, you know, a number of new categories that

Paul Boboian:

are beyond, you know, the RF transparent apparel, the tags

Paul Boboian:

have become much more sensitive, and the reader technology in

Paul Boboian:

terms of being able to read these tags, there's a lot of new

Paul Boboian:

knobs that we can turn over the last, you know, three or four

Paul Boboian:

years that enables us to really get dialed in, in terms of

Paul Boboian:

reading item, you know, level tags, so

Mike Graen:

yep. And we've actually got a video of while

Mike Graen:

some Folks at Auburn we're just using this is a RFD 8500 device

Mike Graen:

from Zebra with, I believe your RFID 123 application. What's

Mike Graen:

interesting here as it's counting the number of unique

Mike Graen:

tags, which is the big number in the middle, the 285 286. But you

Mike Graen:

look at the number of tags that read, duplicate many, many

Mike Graen:

times. So 40 629 tags that read over 250 tags per second, that's

Mike Graen:

just amazing compared to line of sight, kind of kind of things.

Mike Graen:

So we actually have a question from our good friend JW from

Mike Graen:

from barcoding. We hear so much about big retailers adopting

Mike Graen:

RFID. But what is the adoption rate or market opportunity with

Mike Graen:

small to mid sized retailers? Let's say less than 100? Store?

Mike Graen:

Locations, Paul, any perspective on that?

Paul Boboian:

Um, less than 100 stores? So yeah, that would

Paul Boboian:

definitely that'd be in the small category. Ideal

Paul Boboian:

significant with the larger, you know, with the big box and some

Paul Boboian:

of the boutiques that fall into the 500 store or more at the 100

Paul Boboian:

store level, there certainly is opportunity, they faced the same

Paul Boboian:

challenges in terms of scaling out it there, you know, there

Paul Boboian:

may, they may, there may be more of an interest in leveraging,

Paul Boboian:

you know, for example, that handheld technology and relying

Paul Boboian:

on more of the cycle counts value proposition versus being

Paul Boboian:

able, you know, to provide the infrastructure like, you know,

Paul Boboian:

reader infrastructure throughout. So just because of

Paul Boboian:

the total cost of ownership, and usually the stores investment,

Paul Boboian:

but yeah, there certainly is opportunity there.

Mike Graen:

Yeah, I think JB I would agree with that. The only

Mike Graen:

thing I would add is I think one of the challenges the smaller

Mike Graen:

retailers have is the ability to influence source tagging. So if

Mike Graen:

a lot of their product is coming from, from suppliers, CPG

Mike Graen:

companies that already do tagging, and they've already

Mike Graen:

kind of hit that tipping point that says, hey, I'm tagging for

Mike Graen:

all the big ones, I'm just gonna go ahead and tag everything,

Mike Graen:

then it makes a lot of sense for the smaller retailers to jump

Mike Graen:

involved. But if you're a small retailer with under 100 stores,

Mike Graen:

and you somehow have to influence your particular

Mike Graen:

suppliers that don't do RFID with anybody else, that becomes

Mike Graen:

a bit of a challenge and opportunity. So you got to kind

Mike Graen:

of balance that because again, to Paul's point, you can tag it

Mike Graen:

the DC, you can tag at the store every time you get closer or

Mike Graen:

farther away from source tagging, you introduce errors of

Mike Graen:

people tagging incorrectly not tagging everything, double

Mike Graen:

tagging, etc. And then you have a bad you know, the merchandise.

Mike Graen:

And that's why I think 99% is really a tough hurdle to make.

Mike Graen:

Because that makes a big assumption almost everything is

Mike Graen:

tagged correctly. Everything is double tagged, nothing's Miss,

Mike Graen:

you know, all those other kinds of things that we work with GS

Mike Graen:

one and Auburn on and software, etc. So hopefully that answers

Mike Graen:

the question. So let's keep going here, Paul. I guess the

Mike Graen:

next thing is, all right. So here's a couple of the solutions

Mike Graen:

that we saw in the actual video, we didn't see the printer. But

Mike Graen:

those are the ones that actually allow you to scan and print but

Mike Graen:

but this is kind of your normal portfolio when it comes from for

Mike Graen:

hey, I want to I want to get started in RFID. Tell me about

Mike Graen:

the various roles that this stuff plays.

Paul Boboian:

Yep, the journey typically starts with the

Paul Boboian:

handheld cycle counting. And you know, the associates are

Paul Boboian:

familiar with a zebra, you know, handheld computer that's

Paul Boboian:

utilized and by literally Bluetooth pairing, the RFID

Paul Boboian:

reader the sled that's on the bottom with a handheld computer.

Paul Boboian:

So the application resides on the handheld computer, you're

Paul Boboian:

SACU counting, you're collecting data, there might be a couple of

Paul Boboian:

clicks in terms of if you're in a particular section of the

Paul Boboian:

store or the front of the store or the back room. But you're

Paul Boboian:

automatically collecting that data as we saw in the video. So

Paul Boboian:

cycle counting, or there's a find it function as well, for

Paul Boboian:

for both as pickers or on the pickers, we can use the Geiger

Paul Boboian:

counter function. And then for items if their returns and the

Paul Boboian:

tickets missing or the RFID tag is missing, for exception

Paul Boboian:

praying, you know, we have a portable RFID printer. So while

Paul Boboian:

it's printing the label, it's also encoding the RFID tag. So

Paul Boboian:

we want that RFID tag, you know to be the UPC, again plus the

Paul Boboian:

serial number, so they're printed on demand for those

Paul Boboian:

particular items, but it's a you know, simple relatively speaking

Paul Boboian:

to get started your investment is relatively low. To get into

Paul Boboian:

RFID

Mike Graen:

Paul, thank you very much for sharing that

Mike Graen:

information with us. really do appreciate it. will join us next

Mike Graen:

time we're going to go back to our discussion with Pavel

Mike Graen:

Boyens. speaking a little bit more about fixed infrastructure,

Mike Graen:

and some of the supply chain and asset protection opportunities

Mike Graen:

with RFID and Zebra Technologies. We'll see you

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