WEGMANS PUTS RADIO TECHNOLOGY IN DEPOT

DENISE ZIMMERMAN

ROCHESTER, N.Y. -- Wegmans Food Markets is putting radio-frequency technology to work beginning this week in its grocery distribution center. The company has begun mounting stand-alone radio-frequency units on the 20 or so forklifts that circulate throughout its 400,000-square-foot grocery warehouse here in a bid to boost operating efficiency, said Mike Bargmann, Wegmans' director of warehousing and distribution.

"What it does for us is put our forklift operations in an on-line mode with our computer system," said Bargmann. The decision to move forward with the devices followed an 18-month test at Wegmans' general merchandise warehouse facility. "Inventory accuracy has improved dramatically" at the test site," he said.

The cost of installing the radio-frequency devices in the grocery warehouse is about $200,000, he said.

With the radio-frequency system, forklift operators will enter pallet location data right into an on-board keypad as soon as they complete their assignments. "They'll record where they put that pallet, and that information will then be immediately available in an on-line mode to the rest of the people in the facility. It updates our systems in a real-time situation," Bargmann said.

"Previously," he continued, "what we did was record it on a piece of paper and process it in a batch mode. We had to go around and pick up pieces of paper two or three times a day and then have a computer operator input that data into the computer."

Bargmann said he expects the paperless system to pay big dividends, especially in the area of continuous replenishment.

"We have over 50% of our grocery inventory on continuous replenishment," he noted. "When you get to that point, you're moving product very quickly, and you have to get it on your system for the stores to draw on. You have to know where product is in your facility because product ends up moving much, much quicker than it did even a year or two ago."

Later this fall, Wegmans will bring radio-frequency technology to its grocery receiving operations also, Bargmann added.

"We'll have hand-held devices to be used by receivers [on the dock] and they'll be entering the data on-line. All that product, -- as soon as the receiver verifies that we have the merchandise -- will be on-line."

Wegmans may also bring radio-frequency technology to its other warehouses, but only after it first evaluates the system's performance in the grocery facility, Bargmann said. "We're kind of excited about the whole process right now."