06/02/22 Piemaker breaks radio silence (Kelly Mills)

IN a first for the frozen foods sector, Australian pie-maker Patties Foods will begin testing new tracking technology next month.

Recipe: Patties co-owners Richard, left, and Harry Rijs have become the first in the frozen food sector to use RFID technology Picture: Shaney Balcombe
The pilot will be a landmark trial of the benefits of radio frequency identification (RFID) technology for the sector and, in a wider context, of the advantages of next-generation tags and readers.

Patties Foods purchasing and supply general manager Joe Rettino said testing of Gen2 readers and tags supplied by technology vendor Matthews had been completed successfully.

The tests centred on survey work in the premises, especially around the freezer panels, where the greatest amount of interference was expected.

"Gen2 tags are definitely better for the freezing environment," he said.

Currently, Patties uses standard barcodes on pallets, but during the pilot a high-frequency Gen2 RFID tag will be embedded in the serial shipping container code (SSCC) labels.

The pilot will really get under way next month when the trial is rolled out to a freight company and then tested at various points along the supply chain.

The data capture element, involving Montague Cold Storage and VeriSign, should be completed by March 15.

During April, Dyers Transportation will join the pilot.

Mr Rettino said Dyers had been impressed by the success of RFID tags at DHL and was keen to be part of the trial.

No retailer had been recruited for the pilot yet, Mr Rettino said.

"It's too early for a retailer to be involved now.

"Retailer participation is the last link, we see it as the final hurdle," he said.

Nevertheless, he anticipates there will be no shortage of volunteers when the time is right.

Mr Rettino is unsure how long the pilot will run, but has an eye on presenting the findings of the pilot at GS1 Australia's Impetus conference in late July.

If all goes well with the pilot, Patties should be using RFID throughout its supply chain next year. "We see benefits in the transparency of inventories and visibility of products across the supply chain."

He hopes Patties will be able to move to a customer-driven supply chain.

"At the moment it's a bit fuzzy, we're not sure if the inventory is driven by consumer demand or by warehouse movements." For the project to go ahead, the tags would need to prove cost-effective, Mr Rettino said.

"They're close to that now at the warehouse level, but there is still a fair way to go at the consumer level."

He said putting in the technology should not be a huge cost burden as there would be few costs apart from the readers and the label applicator. "We may install a few this year."

The price of setting up the pilot has also been minimal for Patties, as Matthews has carried the cost of the materials.

The other major RFID pilot under way in Australia is being led by GS1 Australia.

It involves CSIRO, Nugan Estate, Capilano, Visy Industries, Metcash, Linfox, Chep, Gillette, Proctor and Gamble and the Australian Food and Grocery Council across six sites.

It aims to show the benefits of sharing information via the EPCglobal network.

The pilot will enable product information sharing between the parties and the tracking products.