Unilever Selects RFID Solution to Prepare for Wal*Mart Compliance

May 10, 2004
Waukesha, WI -- RedPrairie Corporation, a leader in global supply chain technology solutions that drive business transformation, today announced it is

Waukesha, WI -- RedPrairie Corporation, a leader in global supply chain technology solutions that drive business transformation, today announced it is leading the RFID pilot for Unilever North America, beginning this week.

The pilot will enable Unilever to implement and test RFID technology in its supply chain to prepare for compliance with the mandates from Wal-Mart other top retailers and the U.S. Department of Defense to ship products using RFID at the pallet and case level next year.

Three Unilever locations have been chosen for the pilot, including a manufacturing site, a Home and Personal Care DC, and a Best Foods DC. RedPrairie's RFID AcceleratorTM solution will enable Unilever to meet the demands of the large retailers without replacing its existing infrastructure. The application provides agents to collect and verify RFID tag information, retrieve related inventory data and pass this combined information to the retailers in advanced shipping notices (ASNs). This process will provide the pallet and case level RFID-based information that Wal-Mart, Target and others will require.

Unilever's Supply Chain Futurist, Simon Ellis, says, "Unilever has been researching and testing the value of RFID for our company over the past three years. We investigated several technology solutions for RFID compliance and ultimately concluded RedPrairie has the functionality and expertise required to ensure our project's success. Our goal for this pilot is to meet rapidly approaching retailer compliance deadlines, while simultaneously understanding value from RFID within our own supply chain."

Comments John Jazwiec, RedPrairie Company Leader, "RedPrairie has been a long-time solutions provider and technology advisor to Unilever. This pilot is vital to the success of their customer service requirements and shareholder confidence, and therefore, it's extremely important to RedPrairie. We will provide the RFID expertise and solutions to help Unilever meet their project goals and prepare for their fast-approaching compliance deadlines."

RedPrairie has managed Unilever HPC's distribution network for more than eight years and has partnered with Unilever for RFID projects since co-founding the RFID Center of Excellence in March 2002 with Intermec Technologies, Georgia-Pacific, and CHEP International.

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