NP Collection implements RFID technology with UPM Raflatac UHF Tags

Published: 14 November 2007

The RFID tags are attached to NP Collection’s garments at the manufacturing site to enable tracking and data collection throughout the supply chain.

NP Collection has become the first fashion company in Scandinavia to pilot an RFID-based total supply chain solution. The pilot started in June 2007 with the aim of improving the efficiency of the company’s supply chain logistics. As NP Collection is in the process of opening its own chain of stores and expanding its global purchasing network, it needs a powerful supply chain administration tool.

The RFID tags are attached to NP’s garments at the manufacturing site to enable tracking and data collection throughout the supply chain. In the first phase of the pilot the garments are RFID-tagged at a manufacturing site in Europe. Starting January 2008, garments manufactured in China will also be tagged, enabling NP Collection to track all of its garments with RFID technology.

With RFID technology, NP Collection is able to follow each stage of the supply chain in real-time, which results in significant cost savings and increases accuracy both in logistics and manufacturing. The company knows exactly what garments are being manufactured, which are on their way to Finland and which retail shops are expecting shipments.

“We’ve been following the development of RFID technology for many years. By this spring we’d become convinced that now is the right time to implement it,” says Risto Rosendahl, Managing Director of NP Collection. “Thanks to our state-of-the-art RFID solution, the product handling rate has improved tenfold and human error has been eliminated. We expect to reach ROI in six months.”