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Zebra Technology – RFID Solution Provider (Part 2)
Episode 2625th January 2023 • Supply Chain LEAD Podcast • Supply Chain LEAD Podcast
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Mike Graen continues his conversation with Paul Baboian from Zebra Technologies to discuss the Zebra solutions for many opportunities in the Retail Supply Chain.

Part #2 of this series series explains the driving forces for RFID in the retail supply chain and the Zebra fixed infrastructure and automated data capture technologies such as shelf scanning robots.

Transcripts

Mike Graen:

Greetings, my name is Mike Graen. Welcome back to

Mike Graen:

this week's podcast. We're gonna pick up on a conversation we

Mike Graen:

started last time with Paul Baboian of Zebra Technologies.

Mike Graen:

Paul has been in the RFID space since about 2004 working very

Mike Graen:

closely with Zebra and other solution providers in the RFID

Mike Graen:

space. We're resuming our conversation with Paul, starting

Mike Graen:

with some of the opportunities for fixed infrastructure as RFID

Mike Graen:

that relates to both asset protection purposes, as well as

Mike Graen:

upstream supply chain visibility. Let's join our

Mike Graen:

discussion that we started last time. So let's talk about the

Mike Graen:

way that that happens today. So from from a from a typical

Mike Graen:

technology, there's a lot of these pedestals that you see

Mike Graen:

outside of retail stores that are called electronic article

Mike Graen:

surveillance. They basically alarm if that particular tag has

Mike Graen:

not been deactivated, the alarm goes off. But there's absolutely

Mike Graen:

no intelligence and it's just an alarm that basically says Beep,

Mike Graen:

beep, beep. And, you know, I'm thinking, honest people will

Mike Graen:

probably turn around and go what I do wrong. But But But But

Mike Graen:

obviously, we don't know what left the store, it's sort of a

Mike Graen:

dumb tag. And what we're thinking about now is your

Mike Graen:

technology and other, obviously it's hardware providers

Mike Graen:

technology, that actually allow us to be able to have

Mike Graen:

intelligence to know what's left the store that hadn't got paid

Mike Graen:

for. Talk to us a little bit about this.

Paul Baboian:

Boy, yeah, to your point. First off, the RFID tag

Paul Baboian:

contains the UPC plus the serial number. So when there are

Paul Baboian:

readers at the exit or at the checkout, you know, in addition

Paul Baboian:

to other areas, obviously, when something goes out the door that

Paul Baboian:

is unpaid, we know exactly what went out the door. So we can get

Paul Baboian:

very specific about a what went out the door and looking at, you

Paul Baboian:

know, the dashboards that you can see. Whether it is on the

Paul Baboian:

receiving strength side, or whether it is on the exits,

Paul Baboian:

right, the exit train. You know, there's a lot of benchmarks now

Paul Baboian:

that can be provided. Number one, fundamentally, just to

Paul Baboian:

decrement the inventory, because what has exited and number two,

Paul Baboian:

being able to track for potential theft detection,

Paul Baboian:

right. And it depends on the infrastructure how that is

Paul Baboian:

tracked, it could be that there are these smart exits, that's

Paul Baboian:

referred to the RFID smart exits, in terms of tracking what

Paul Baboian:

is going out and comparing it to the POS T logs or transaction

Paul Baboian:

transaction logs or B if there's infrastructure at the checkout

Paul Baboian:

counters and at the exits, right and at maybe other exits

Paul Baboian:

throughout the store, besides customer exits. We can take a we

Paul Baboian:

can actually identify that theft, obviously, as it is

Paul Baboian:

occurring. But there may be some other interest in insights into

Paul Baboian:

understanding maybe where where items are being placed in

Paul Baboian:

backpacks, or what part of the store they may go before they

Paul Baboian:

exit or how they're being exited now with organized crime. So

Paul Baboian:

there's there certainly is a lot of insights that can be provided

Paul Baboian:

for the for the AP, you know, department.

Mike Graen:

Yep, exactly. So this chart up above is just a

Mike Graen:

mock up. It's not real data. So don't get don't get too excited.

Mike Graen:

But this top part, there's two different types of shrink and

Mike Graen:

again, shrink is again defined by unaccounted for inventory.

Mike Graen:

The first one is what did I receive versus what I expected

Mike Graen:

to receive. So it's kind of receiving in the backroom of the

Mike Graen:

store. That could be from a supplier, direct store delivery,

Mike Graen:

it could be from your own fulfillment center or

Mike Graen:

distribution center. But in this case, I expected to see 428

Mike Graen:

pairs of jeans, I only saw 426 and here's a couple that I found

Mike Graen:

that I didn't receive. So these were shortages. And then the

Mike Graen:

bottom one is is just the opposite, which is what's

Mike Graen:

leaving the store that we didn't get paid for. And again, this

Mike Graen:

tells me that hey I found a total of eight things, eight

Mike Graen:

jeans in this case and again these are just mock ups but

Mike Graen:

eight jeans that left the store that we never saw a

Mike Graen:

corresponding transaction for. And that kind of information we

Mike Graen:

would never have gotten with EAS and and again EAS served it's

Mike Graen:

time for a long time. People are starting to talk about RFID as a

Mike Graen:

potential replacement for EAS in the future.

Paul Baboian:

You know Mike if you think about it, if a big box

Paul Baboian:

is doing an annual maybe they do one annual audit. So they're

Paul Baboian:

doing one a year and then they're receiving these items

Paul Baboian:

from the DCs and there's missed shipments. And as time goes on,

Paul Baboian:

these, you know, point five seven percent of missed

Paul Baboian:

shipments continues three or four or five deliveries per week

Paul Baboian:

and that continues to that's distortion on that end. And then

Paul Baboian:

at the same time, they're staffed, and you don't know

Paul Baboian:

exactly what is going out the door, you get the doorbell

Paul Baboian:

effect, but you don't know what's going out the door. So

Paul Baboian:

there's also distortion on what's exiting the store. So

Paul Baboian:

you've got your POS as guidance, your T log transactions, but you

Paul Baboian:

can see how easily over you know, a very short period of

Paul Baboian:

time, inventory accuracy, you know, dwindles on these

Paul Baboian:

categories.

Mike Graen:

Yeah

Paul Baboian:

And that's where RFID is just, you know, so

Paul Baboian:

powerful in terms of, you know, instead of an annual audit, now

Paul Baboian:

we're doing a weekly audit, or a bi weekly audit, and depending

Paul Baboian:

on the reader infrastructure, you know, the value property, I

Paul Baboian:

see the slide here, you know, in terms of using the wands of

Paul Baboian:

course, there's there's value props for using the handheld

Paul Baboian:

wanding and cycle counting a day and using it for the Omni picks,

Paul Baboian:

or using it for markdowns or using it for recalls or for

Paul Baboian:

store transfers. But at the same time, if we've got an MVP, a

Paul Baboian:

minimal viable product solution that includes some reader

Paul Baboian:

infrastructure and the receiving area at the exits, maybe in the

Paul Baboian:

bopis reserve area, and leveraging the robots for a

Paul Baboian:

daily cycle count, wow, that's a lot of value beyond just the on

Paul Baboian:

shelf on hands inventory, now we can can take a look at other

Paul Baboian:

value props, in terms of the shrink detection, the learning,

Paul Baboian:

so coming in both inbound and outbound and, you know, tracking

Paul Baboian:

other more, let's say real time events. And then of course, the

Paul Baboian:

right hand column, where you have a full reader

Paul Baboian:

infrastructure, you know, in the back room, and the apparel pad,

Paul Baboian:

or over certain sections of the front store, and at the POS

Paul Baboian:

checkout lanes, you know, now, there's a significantly more

Paul Baboian:

value prop. Now again, you talk more about, you know, being able

Paul Baboian:

to have a breadcrumb trail of how items traveled through the

Paul Baboian:

store or out of the store. So there's a lot of interesting

Paul Baboian:

insights, you know, that can that can be gained.

Mike Graen:

This, this particular slide and the one

Mike Graen:

that follows it, I think is going to be a very interesting

Mike Graen:

transition point for both Zebra and the retailers that are out

Mike Graen:

there. Because if you want to get started quickly, from a

Mike Graen:

retailer point of view, the simplest way to do that is a

Mike Graen:

wand, an application, potentially a printer for in

Mike Graen:

store tagging kind of purposes and you're off to the races.

Mike Graen:

You're doing RFID, you're delivering the the necessary

Mike Graen:

technology to be able to live this a tag, a reader, a

Mike Graen:

software, infrastructure, pretty simple to get started. Now that

Mike Graen:

you've done that, and you're doing this on either a weekly

Mike Graen:

basis, or every other week basis, or some retailers do it

Mike Graen:

once a month, you're only as valid as the last one that you

Mike Graen:

did, right as last cycle count that you did. And so, so part of

Mike Graen:

this is okay, oh, I really like what I saw, which is ability to

Mike Graen:

see things leaving the store not getting paid for. Well, guess

Mike Graen:

what, you don't get that with a handheld unless you have

Mike Graen:

somebody standing there wanding as people leave, it's not

Mike Graen:

feasible to do that. So this to me is a very interesting chart

Mike Graen:

because it gives you an opportunity of where are you on

Mike Graen:

the hierarchy from a retailer point of view of what you want

Mike Graen:

to get done. And obviously, even if you buy the handhelds, Paul,

Mike Graen:

you're not going to get rid of them just because you start to

Mike Graen:

move to an MVP or autonomous or fixed infrastructure, you're

Mike Graen:

still gonna use them. They're not throwaway. So it's not a bad

Mike Graen:

place to start. But unfortunately, things like

Mike Graen:

shrink reporting and asset tracking and electronic proof of

Mike Graen:

delivery that requires a basically some kind of at least

Mike Graen:

minimal fixed infrastructure. And this is the chart that

Mike Graen:

probably Zebra shows a lot of times but people get, you know,

Mike Graen:

get a little bit overwhelmed with it. Tell me about some of

Mike Graen:

the stuff that's that's available for for retailers from

Mike Graen:

a from an infrastructure standpoint.

Paul Baboian:

So yeah, in terms of the reader infrastructure,

Paul Baboian:

you know, everything, jeez, 5, 6, 7 years ago, the solutions

Paul Baboian:

were really erector set the reader structure was and we

Paul Baboian:

still do offer a reader and then we've got, you know, a hundred

Paul Baboian:

different antennas that can be connected to a fixed reader. But

Paul Baboian:

at the same time, we've introduced a number of

Paul Baboian:

application specific readers or reader more of reader

Paul Baboian:

structures. So we've been very active in the retail segment,

Paul Baboian:

where we've introduced reader structures, you know, for

Paul Baboian:

retail, so cosmetically, not something, you know, that was

Paul Baboian:

made, you know, maybe initially used in the warehouse. But in

Paul Baboian:

the back room for receiving, you know, in addition to portals or

Paul Baboian:

pedestals that can be utilized in the back room, we are now

Paul Baboian:

offering conveyor so it's a conveyor with a reader system

Paul Baboian:

inside so that we can read when the cartons are, you know, put

Paul Baboian:

onto the conveyor. We can read all the items inside, you know,

Paul Baboian:

and then allows us to reconcile with what was expected. And then

Paul Baboian:

at the exits, we've got again, and we're very sensitive to

Paul Baboian:

retailers wanting it to be cosmetically, let's say at least

Paul Baboian:

neutral or attractive. So we've got overhead reader systems that

Paul Baboian:

are meant specifically for the retail, you know, customer

Paul Baboian:

client exits and for even like fire doors, or, you know, for

Paul Baboian:

employee exits as well. So, and again, you can see the Omni

Paul Baboian:

kiosk where we've got a kiosk with some antennas that are

Paul Baboian:

specifically like for focus reserve areas. And at checkout,

Paul Baboian:

we have a number of different solutions for checkout where

Paul Baboian:

we've taken basically the barcode scanner and we've

Paul Baboian:

integrated an RFID reader right into the barcode scanner for

Paul Baboian:

checkout. So doesn't necessarily mean that everything is gonna be

Paul Baboian:

RFID you know, where you're reading the tags, and you're not

Paul Baboian:

utilizing the barcode scanner. That's obviously why we built it

Paul Baboian:

in. So it can be a combination, which even today with the

Paul Baboian:

modern, you know, self checkouts now it's a camera based system

Paul Baboian:

with, you know, with RFID, as well. So a lot of different

Paul Baboian:

reader infrastructure solutions that are purposefully designed a

Paul Baboian:

for retail, but for specific, you know, use cases within

Paul Baboian:

retail like so yeah

Mike Graen:

So, so quick question regarding checkout.

Mike Graen:

When you see checkout are you just saying RFID readers at

Mike Graen:

checkout or are you thinking about the seamless checkout

Mike Graen:

experiences that we've seen at like, Amazon Go, etc. When you

Mike Graen:

say checkout here, maybe clarify which one those are?

Paul Baboian:

It's actually both Mike. So we're working with

Paul Baboian:

clients today that are leveraging, you know, a checkout

Paul Baboian:

or self checkout where they're scanning, where they're barcode

Paul Baboian:

scanning, but at the same time, leveraging, you know, RFID

Paul Baboian:

technology to read those tags as well. And with some of the our

Paul Baboian:

clients, I would say, it's more in the trend phase, there aren't

Paul Baboian:

a significant amount of installations out there yet. But

Paul Baboian:

we are literally working with clients as part of kind of the

Paul Baboian:

Go store concept where it's hands off, frictionless. Our

Paul Baboian:

items are in the cart or our items are a basket is placed in

Paul Baboian:

a particular area where they're leveraging multiple technologies

Paul Baboian:

and one of the technologies is certainly RFID because they're,

Paul Baboian:

they want to gain insight. And with the trend, you know,

Paul Baboian:

unfortunately, of theft being two x what it was, you know,

Paul Baboian:

they're really the trend is how can we identify the or potential

Paul Baboian:

theft before it takes place? Can we audit the basket you know,

Paul Baboian:

before it that order was closed out? Whether that's checkout,

Paul Baboian:

self checkout, you know RFID is playing a role in that in a lot

Paul Baboian:

of pilots as we speak.

Mike Graen:

Got it, awesome, very helpful. Just as a as a

Mike Graen:

background they all you also have a number of, oh so sorry,

Mike Graen:

you also have a really good portfolio. I'm just going to

Mike Graen:

kind of stop because because there's some stuff in here that

Mike Graen:

I didn't even know that you offered specifically in some of

Mike Graen:

the application specific readers so I think everybody knows about

Mike Graen:

tags and readers and you know some of that kind of stuff but

Mike Graen:

but but this is a not that not to not to promote Zebra but I'm

Mike Graen:

going to for a second. You have a large portfolio depending on

Mike Graen:

the business need of both tags and readers and applications as

Mike Graen:

you said before, etc. This is a little almost overwhelming if

Mike Graen:

I'm a retailer, how do I know where to get started?

Paul Baboian:

Well call me, first off.

Paul Baboian:

But we do. You're right. I mean, specifically, you

Mike Graen:

There you go

Mike Graen:

know for retail. It is it is you know in terms of the RFID

Mike Graen:

technology, there's a lot of growth sectors, but retail has

Mike Graen:

been growing significantly. And we tried to tailor our product

Mike Graen:

line, our solutions, you know, toward retail. So we've expanded

Mike Graen:

quite a bit. But as you can see, toward the bottom right, we've

Mike Graen:

got some very, you know, specific use cases in terms of

Mike Graen:

Omni pick tables, you know, those tunnels, the portals. They

Mike Graen:

were originally designed for the warehouse, but we've adopted

Mike Graen:

them into the stores, especially the back of the stores. And

Mike Graen:

we've also adopted specifically for retails retail over the

Mike Graen:

sales floor or in the back room more of a grid system so that we

Mike Graen:

can provide the real RTLS basically the the pin on a map

Mike Graen:

type of solution for the clients where they want, you know, that

Mike Graen:

value add, and they've got those additional value streams. So

Mike Graen:

we've grown our business quite significantly in the stores and

Mike Graen:

in the warehouses in terms of our product offering. And also,

Mike Graen:

again, I just want to mention that we have a number of in

Mike Graen:

terms of our software stack, we we offer software solutions that

Mike Graen:

are in retail in terms of task management, or in terms of

Mike Graen:

leveraging the big data lakes of prescriptive analytics, and

Mike Graen:

middleware, specifically RFID middleware, because when you're

Mike Graen:

used to barcode scanning, your system is used to barcode

Mike Graen:

scanning, you get the UPC. Now when you take in those RFID

Mike Graen:

reads, you're getting that SG 10, that serialized G 10, which

Mike Graen:

is the UPC plus the serial number. So retailers are getting

Mike Graen:

started, they need some middleware that can ingest the

Mike Graen:

RFID data and interpret that into UPCs and counts. And we've

Mike Graen:

got a starting point with a repository where we do some

Mike Graen:

smoothing and filtering. But we've got partners that really

Mike Graen:

focus within the retail world, um, in terms of inventory and

Mike Graen:

omni picks and others that have got, you know, great software

Mike Graen:

solutions that they offer. So hardware stack, software stack,

Mike Graen:

and rounded out, you know, with services, but it's like the

Mike Graen:

other Zebra products that retailers are buying, you know,

Mike Graen:

there's maintenance and support that our partners offer a break

Mike Graen:

fix. It's all part of most retailers current ecosystems on

Mike Graen:

the IT side.

Mike Graen:

Awesome. Well, Paul, as usual, I have about four more

Mike Graen:

questions left, and then we got about five more minutes left. So

Mike Graen:

you've done such a great job of laying all these out. We didn't

Mike Graen:

get to everything, but but that's okay. For the for the

Mike Graen:

folks who are attending, I just want you to know, I'm going to

Mike Graen:

open it up for any live questions that you may have. So

Mike Graen:

if you just want to raise your hand, and we'll have Matt unmute

Mike Graen:

you, and you can ask your question. But as we're and we

Mike Graen:

may not have any questions because I've had I've asked,

Mike Graen:

asked several of them as we've gone through here and appreciate

Mike Graen:

you guys participating with questions. As we're waiting for

Mike Graen:

potential questions, Paul, just a quick one for you, which is,

Mike Graen:

what's next? What did I miss? What what is what should I have

Mike Graen:

asked you that I didn't ask you? What do you see the trends going

Mike Graen:

in terms of the future of leveraging this technology

Mike Graen:

through a retail supply chain?

Paul Baboian:

Well, first, I would say that there is, you

Paul Baboian:

know, there's a lot of value add in terms of starting with the

Paul Baboian:

stores and most retailers in terms of leveraging RFID they

Paul Baboian:

start with the stores because of that inventory distortion that

Paul Baboian:

they're seeing in the stores, but going upstream into the

Paul Baboian:

warehouses, you know, there are the more advanced retailers who

Paul Baboian:

have been leveraging RFID who have kind of are on their

Paul Baboian:

journey are going back streaming into the distribution centers

Paul Baboian:

because there's distortion in the distribution centers as

Paul Baboian:

well, right, in terms of what's being received by the suppliers

Paul Baboian:

and auditing what's being received by the suppliers and

Paul Baboian:

correcting those shipments that are going out whether it's

Paul Baboian:

missed picks or whether it's because the suppliers carton is

Paul Baboian:

was a miss shipment is catching that on the back end. So the

Paul Baboian:

inbound and outbound of the warehouses is you know, where

Paul Baboian:

many of the more advanced or I'll say experienced RFID

Paul Baboian:

retailers are going so that's one piece of it. I would say

Paul Baboian:

comment on and then the other piece I think we spoke about it

Paul Baboian:

but it's worth just repeating that most retailers journey,

Paul Baboian:

virtually all, start with leveraging handheld RFID sleds

Paul Baboian:

to just gain the fundamental inventory accuracy on their

Paul Baboian:

shelves and cycle counting the front of the store and the back

Paul Baboian:

room and getting started with a, you know, gamified, you know,

Paul Baboian:

application that makes it not so mundane, right, that's got some

Paul Baboian:

gamification to that at least it provides some level of interest

Paul Baboian:

from the associate because that store execution, the execution

Paul Baboian:

at the store level is key when it comes to the handheld cycle

Paul Baboian:

counting. So it's getting started and the entry at a low

Paul Baboian:

total cost of ownership is key to starting your journey.

Mike Graen:

Awesome, perfect. I think the only other thing that

Mike Graen:

I would mention is, to me, what's interesting is in 2003 to

Mike Graen:

5, the RFID initiative started with the retail supply chain.

Mike Graen:

From a manufacturer, to a distribution center, to another

Mike Graen:

distribution center, to a back of a store, to the sales floor,

Mike Graen:

etc. And what's interesting is what we recognized pretty

Mike Graen:

quickly was the inventory accuracy at the store level

Mike Graen:

became the higher priority and so people kind of shifted that

Mike Graen:

way. But what's interesting, what's interesting now is what

Mike Graen:

now are now that everything is people are taking advantage of

Mike Graen:

this technology of the store, starting to look through back up

Mike Graen:

the supply chain, with with you know, opportunities of

Mike Graen:

eliminating claims, eliminating, you know, hey, I sent you this

Mike Graen:

well I didn't get it, but I sent it to you. That could all go

Mike Graen:

away because we now know with leveraging this technology, and

Mike Graen:

obviously others, that you can actually have some kind of a

Mike Graen:

checks and balances about what actually got shipped and what

Mike Graen:

actually got received, rather than just debating saying I

Mike Graen:

didn't get something or I did get something. So I think I

Mike Graen:

think that is actually going to be a big part of the future that

Mike Graen:

we're gonna see with that. And, and obviously, there was a lot

Mike Graen:

of work done at Auburn University regarding the chain

Mike Graen:

integration pilot, where we talked a little bit about, you

Mike Graen:

know, the opportunity for claims and chargebacks, etc. This is

Mike Graen:

continuing to be researched primarily by GS 1. But to me,

Mike Graen:

those are big numbers on there about counterfeiting and claims

Mike Graen:

and chargebacks and shrink, which is one of the things we

Mike Graen:

just talked about. But it's interesting that counterfeiting

Mike Graen:

and claims are actually higher than some of the shrink numbers

Mike Graen:

that are currently being getting shared there so. Paul thank you

Mike Graen:

very, very much anything in closing you'd like to share with

Mike Graen:

the audience.

Paul Baboian:

No, my pleasure, Mike. Thanks. Thanks for having

Paul Baboian:

me on, I appreciate it.

Mike Graen:

Awesome. There you go. Well, thank you very much,

Mike Graen:

everybody. Have a great rest of your day. And Paul, again, thank

Mike Graen:

you so much for agreeing to spend some time with us and

Mike Graen:

talked about what Zebra is providing from a leadership

Mike Graen:

standpoint in the retail industry. Thank you. Well, I

Mike Graen:

hope you found that podcast helpful. Again, my thanks to

Mike Graen:

Paul Baboian for spending some time with us for the last two

Mike Graen:

podcasts, talking about RFID at retail and specifically some of

Mike Graen:

the solutions that are available for Zebra Technologies.

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