Dutch bookseller unveils item-level RFID system

Books can be traced from warehouse to bookstore shelves

By Marc L. Songini

April 25, 2006 12:00 PM ET

Computerworld - Dutch book retailer Boekhandels Groep Nederland (BGN) today is launching an item-based radio frequency identification tag (RFID) tag system at a new store in Almere, Netherlands.

Eventually, BGN will deploy the system throughout its 42 stores, which carry about 2.2 million books on their collective shelves. Some 38,400 books have been tagged at the new store, and the company plans to expand the program next to a retail store set to open this October in Maastricht, Netherlands.

The $650,000 passive RFID system creates a tightly integrated and efficient supply chain by using tags on every book sold, said Jan Vink, IT director at BGN. Each tag costs the bookseller about 12 cents, he said.

The software used for the project’s transaction processing, data processing and integration requirements was licensed from Progress Software Corp. in Bedford, Mass.

Vink said the benefits of the item-based system include cutting the time it takes to fulfill orders and making it easier to locate books on store shelves.

BGN has been planning to create the item-based system since 2003, and work on the project began about six weeks ago, Vink said. The company waited until the latest generation of RFID technology was developed and could guarantee 100% reliability for tracking processes, he said.

The RFID tags were installed in the books from Netherlands-based distributor Centraal Boekhuis. The system will track a book’s shipment status from the warehouse until it arrives at the store.

BGN had previously used bar code technology to track books. The bar code system, which is still in use at the retailers’ other stores, requires workers to spend five to seven minutes scanning each title in 50-book boxes as they arrive at stores. Using the RFID technology, a box can be scanned in five seconds, Vink said.

The new system also allows customers to instantly find any book in a store using the RFID tracing capability. The automated process also cuts in half the delivery time for out-of-stock books to two days.

Eventually, BGN will deploy the system at all of its 42 stores and will have 2.2 million books tagged.

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