UPM Raflatac’s RFID Tags Help Optimize Self-Service System
TAMPERE, Finland—Touch Automation, an industry leader in developing automated dispensing solutions for movies, music, and video games, exclusively uses UPM Raflatac RFID tags to optimize key supply chain and consumer processes.
Found in more than 1,000 grocery stores and other retailing locations across the USA, Touch Automation’s systems provide consumers with an easy, convenient means to rent or purchase entertainment CDs and DVDs, while reducing the threat of theft and shrinkage. Touch Automation’s merchandising systems also enable retailers to capitalize on the growing DVD self-service kiosk market, a segment which is expected to exceed $3 billion in annual sales by 2009. Multiple system configurations, which hold between 550 and 3,500 units of inventory, are engineered and built with state-of-the-art technology including advanced robotics, wireless WANs and RFID-tagged merchandise to provide near-real-time insights into the availability and financial performance of each system, as well as its inventory.
Touch Automation uses UPM Raflatac’s Rafsec BullsEye HF tag. Each BullsEye tag is encoded with CD and DVD stock-keeping unit (SKU) information and other metadata. No personal consumer data is written to the tags. Tags are prepared generically so that RFID-tagged merchandise can be shipped to any system located within retailers’ enterprises. Using RFID enables retailers and Touch Automation to monitor and validate rentals, returns, and purchases, while assessing inventory to fine tune stocking processes for higher revenue per system.
“We built our TE automated dispensing solution line to be state-of-the-art,” said Brian Fitzpatrick, director of engineering, Touch Automation, “and sought a partner who could deliver tags that would perform across hundreds of thousands of read cycles. Rafsec BullsEye tag by UPM Raflatac had everything we were looking for. It is an exceptional performer that was available in the right volumes, form factor, tag protocol, and adhesive combinations.”
