Jewelry management through RFID technology

I. Introduction

Today, the Jewelry industry has a counter inventory problem in specialty Stores. As a jewelry industry, the products sold every day are high-value jewelry, so the daily inventory of goods is very important. Through commodity inventory work, the sales status of various products can be grasped in a timely manner, which helps the company complete digital analysis of the acceptance capabilities of various product markets, and can reduce products based on the quantity of jewelry. However, currently jewelry inventory work is basically done manually. Completed, the actual situation is that jewelry products are small in size and large in quantity. A large number of products are inventoried by a small number of sales personnel, resulting in an actual situation that requires a lot of time to inventory. An ordinary jewelry store takes an average of about 5 hours to inventory products in the store. . Inventory efficiency issues prevent jewelry stores from taking inventory of products on a daily or weekly basis. In order to solve these problems, the company launched a technical solution based on RFID technology to manage jewelry inventory.

Today, with the rapid development and application of RFID technology, RFID electronic and information management of jewelry is an important means to strengthen inventory management, sales management, and improve management efficiency. The electronic and informatization of jewelry management will greatly improve the productivity of jewelry companies (inventory, warehouse, cashier), reduce theft rate, increase capital turnover, improve corporate image, and more effectively provide advertising, VIP customer management and other value-added services.

2. RFID technology suitable for jewelry management

The frequency range of RFID identification technology is very large and is suitable for low frequency (125-134K), high frequency (13.56MHZ), ultra-high frequency (915MHz) and frequencies used by 2.45GHz and 5.8GHz microwaves. The recognition distance ranges from a few centimeters to several meters, and the prices are also different. For specific applications in the jewelry industry and jewelry inventory management, based on the company’s past project application experience, HF high frequency or UHF ultra-high frequency solutions are recommended. The tag uses a 1KB capacity 13.56MHZ high frequency HF tag, which complies with ISO15693 standards and has no form of recycling or reuse. Or EPCclass1 Gen2 standard, 96Bits capacity 860-960 MHz UHF band tag.

3. Barcode, HF high frequency, UHF ultra high frequency application comparison table

4. System configuration

The system consists of RFID electronic tags corresponding to jewelry individuals, electronic tag issuance equipment, on-site inventory reading and writing equipment, computers, control and system management software, related network connection equipment and network data interfaces.

RFID jewelry management system architecture

5. Select RFID equipment

1. RFID jewelry management system hardware system integration. According to the actual application requirements of current jewelry stores, customers have the following requirements for the required hardware.

(1) Fixed reader: requires high power, anti-collision performance, low power consumption, reading speed and stability.

(2) Handheld terminal: fast and stable reading and writing speed, used for jewelry valuation.

(3) Desktop reader: used to input and collect electronic tag data.

(4) The safety of jewelry must be guaranteed.

RFID jewelry management tags

2. The current problems with reading and writing equipment on the market mainly include:

(1) The tested fixed reader has poor anti-collision performance. For example, each reader can read up to 150 electronic tags at a time, but even if the performance requirements are reduced to 100 or even 75, each reader cannot perform reliable analysis.

(2) The reading effect of the tested handheld devices is unstable, and some do not have operating systems, which is very inconvenient for secondary development or use. Mobile readers are slow to read and write data. In the RFID jewelry management system application, there is a lot of data information in the electronic tag, so readers have high requirements for the speed and reliability of data reading in the electronic tag.

(3) The tested desktop reader has slow reading and writing speeds, is sensitive to the discrete nature of the card, and sometimes cannot read.

(4) When managing the store counter, taking out jewelry to be displayed for customers cannot be effectively monitored and protected.

(5) Inventory management efficiency is not high, and accurate inventory information cannot be obtained in real time.

5. Use examples

In order to further improve safety measures, a well-known foreign jewelry company adopted RFID equipment in its stores and warehouses, combined with the company's existing ERP system, and achieved good management results.

(1) Single jewelry management: Attach an RFID tag to each jewelry, and enter important information such as the material and weight of the jewelry into the tag in advance.

(2) In employee management: issue employee cards to each employee, record employee behavior on the main server, and prevent employees from triggering alarms when they touch jewelry.

(3) Jewelry display: According to the actual situation on site, place RFID Antennas in various display areas such as existing display areas, display trays, and display stands in the store. For example, employees must place jewelry on display trays so customers can view it. Take out the jewelry from the RFID smart display box, place it in the RFID smart display tray, and display it for 1 minute. The jewelry is mounted in the center of the smart display tray and an antenna monitors the tray until it is returned to the smart display area. If jewelry exceeds the safe range, an alarm will sound, requiring immediate attention from central management, showroom staff, security and other problematic areas.

(4) During sales, transfer, delivery or safety replenishment: if the predetermined normal procedures are not followed and the jewelry tag or employee card is not registered on the corresponding RFID intelligent management link, abnormal jewelry handling behavior will be issued alarm.

(5) At the end of each day's business and after the inventory is completed, the RFID jewelry management application will activate the inventory management program. The staff first places each jewel in a smart inventory table equipped with an RFID device. The RFID device automatically identifies and confirms the specific quantity and condition of each jewel. Each jewel that has been registered is placed in the clerk's safe. . The system uses a dedicated RFID smart antenna installed in front of the safe door to confirm whether the goods have been returned to the safe. The safe door is closed and the jewelry transfer is completed before the system is blocked. At the same time, employees who perform specific tasks must also swipe their personal employee cards so that they can fulfill their responsibilities.

(6) Humanized care for VIP customers to improve customer satisfaction.

(7) Asset tracking applications can also monitor other services such as inter-store merchandise transfers, deliveries and customer returns through RFID reading and writing Tools.

In the entire jewelry store management, we advocate the use of RFID automatic adjustment devices to complete the operation of the entire hardware equipment together with readers and writers, and use the RFID system to improve the efficiency of jewelry management, thereby achieving perfect coordination with the software.

7. Implementation effect

After adopting the company's RFID Readers and handheld devices, the feedback from users of the RFID jewelry management system is as follows:

(1) The reading accuracy of jewelry tags is high, which prevents losses to jewelry companies from adverse phenomena such as repeated reading, misreading, and inability to read.

(2) Improve the efficiency of jewelry quotation: The solution of using RFID handheld devices to convert traditional experts and professional quotations into ordinary employees greatly saves the human resources of various jewelry companies and reduces the risk of misjudgment.

(3) Various desktop readers can not only meet the reading speed, but also choose different interfaces according to the actual situation, which is convenient and practical.

(4) Realize intelligent sales management and greatly ensure the safety of jewelry sold in stores. The use of smart exhibition halls can automatically identify the number of jewelry in the store exhibition hall, reflect the current sales situation in real time, and clearly indicate the specific operators and times for displaying and returning jewelry, which provides great convenience for standardized management plans.

(5) The reading speed of jewelry tags is significantly improved, which can greatly increase the speed of jewelry inventory and reduce theft losses. For example, the inventory count of 6,000 pieces of jewelry was reduced from 4 days to 0.5 working days.

(6) The multi-interface reader connects multiple antennas for time-sharing operation and time-sharing switching, which greatly reduces the hardware cost of the entire system.

RFID solutions combined with asset tracking applications not only solve jewelers' concerns but also make it easy to expand their business. For example, RFID solutions can be combined with on-screen reporting capabilities to display not only real-time status of store merchandise, but also an introduction to jewelry on display, etc. The RFID jewelry management system can capture and record customers' tastes and preferences for jewelry. In addition, by saving VIP customers' consumption habits in Files, more detailed services can be provided to help maintain customer loyalty. Stores can quickly identify the most popular product types in each store, provide reliable reference support for the sales team to order new products from suppliers, choose which product series to introduce, and reduce inventory processing time. RFID jewelry management solutions help jewelry store management track merchandise sales and employee activity in the store and adjust performance based on efforts in selling products to new and existing customers. Therefore, the operation results of the RFID jewelry management system have been generally praised by jewelers at home and abroad.