RFID idea

[azure]

As we all know finding clothes is terrible. We have no idea if they are on the sales floor and where they are or if they are in a repack in the back. If you have worked at that store for a while you probably start learning where items are but there are countless situations with team members not being able to find items or spending too much time waiting for that rfid gun to beep. Finding clothing is absolutely horrible but I might have an idea that could make it much faster and easier. Each rfid tag has a unique code that is paired with a DPCI. The rfid scans until it detects a code that is matched to the right DPCI. All zebras are actually able to know exactly where they are in a store. Apparently they might actually make it so they can be tracked live which is kind of creepy but is pretty cool and would be good for finding missing devices. Items are constantly being scanned and my idea is it just simply logs exactly where every rfid code was scanned. Then when you have to find a clothing item you can check a map and see where the items were last scanned. Every time a rfid tag is scanned it would automatically update the systems location as well in case the item gets moved. All clothing items are probably detected by the rfid gun multiple times daily and this would improve our inventory and make finding clothing items 10x faster. They could probably even add a feature that just scans all rfid tags nearby and automatically updates the locations. Even if someone was scanning for a item, every item that rfid gun reads that may not actually be the item they are looking for will still get its location updated. I’m pretty sure the scales also have rfid readers that could detect exactly which item from which location was sold and then remove it from the map. It would definitely be hard to make but if done correctly I think this could absolutely change the way we find clothing. Thoughts?

 

[BurgerBob]

So from a teammember who dealt with the clothes rfid standpoint I'm loving your idea.

From a programmers stand point.
The only issue I'm running into is a scalability maintenance perspective on your last point of when the items sold you remove the location... but instead? Why not color code the dots on the map? Blue last 30 minutes-2 hours Green being this item was seen here in the last 2-6 Hours, orange being 6-12 hours yellow 12-24 , red being 1 to 7 days ago and black meaning 7 -30days and after that the item location drops off the map entirely.

 

[azure]

So from a teammember who dealt with the clothes rfid standpoint I'm loving your idea.

From a programmers stand point.
The only issue I'm running into is a scalability maintenance perspective on your last point of when the items sold you remove the location... but instead? Why not color code the dots on the map? Blue last 30 minutes-2 hours Green being this item was seen here in the last 2-6 Hours, orange being 6-12 hours yellow 12-24 , red being 1 to 7 days ago and black meaning 7 -30days and after that the item location drops off the map entirely.

The color coding idea is perfect and you can also click on the dot that has the last location and it says the exact time it was seen. The scale part would be complicated but it’s just something to help keep track of inventory and isn’t necessary for my main idea. It’s mainly so then it can be more sure about items we have and then prioritize those in the target app.
I think the way they would have to program it however is by logging the gps location which updates automatically every 5 seconds and then logs the rfid tag code and the gps location. Then it puts it in a dataset which just gets added to a massive dataset every minute. If the device tried updating the system and gps every second it would be too slow. If a items rfid code isn’t detected for 7 days it removes the item from the database.
I’m not sure if this is part of the new pos but they would also have to make it so when guest services does a return and it doesn’t have a tag it has them scan a rfid sticker so then when they make a new tag they can attach the sticker to it and make sure that can be tracked.

 

[BurgerBob]

The thing is just remove having the item talk to the pos. Cause targets not going to pay the money to get all new rfid tags to support this feature. But flex wanders around a lot. And if your departments staying current with their Rfid sweep everything should be getting a weekly update any way.