Active RFID System Optimizes High-Velocity, High-Volume Distribution Center (Active RFID Summit 2005)

Mr Steve Chase, Senior Yard Logistics Leader
Associated Food Stores, United States
 

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Presentation Summary

Attendees will learn:
  • How to automate inventory management demands of a high-velocity, dynamic distribution environment though active RFID technology
  • How to drastically reduce inventory carrying costs, enhance customer service, and win new business as a result of increased throughput at distribution centers
  • How to collaborate with customers and partners by allowing all parties in your logistics network to see into the "glass pipeline" of real-time inventory data to optimize operations both within and beyond the four walls of your enterprise

Speaker Bio

As Senior Yard Logistics Leader, Steve Chase brings more than 25 years of experience to Associated Food Stores, Inc. (AFS) having served in various positions with Skaggs, Osco Drug, American Stores, and Buttery Food and Drug. Chase currently shares leadership responsibility for day-to-day yard processes at AFS including maintenance of WhereNet's active RFID Real-Time Locating System (RTLS) integrated with RETALIX yard management system - the first time that such a technology has ever been implemented in the wholesale grocery business. Recognized for technology prowess, AFS has been featured in more than forty national publications for its breakthrough RTLS implementation.

Company Profile

Associated Food Stores, Inc., headquartered in Salt Lake City, Utah, is a cooperatively owned wholesale distributor to almost 500 independently owned supermarkets in an eight state region.
 
Since its organization in 1940, Associated Food Stores has not only delivered groceries to independent grocers, but has also helped them battle national chains and razor-thin profits. With the assistance of Associated, most of these independent retailers have become exceptional supermarkets turning in respectable profits.
 
Industry headlines today read in much the same fashion as they did 60 years ago. Large chain stores were forcing the small independent grocers out of business. The stores that weren¹t bought up by the chains were coerced to buy groceries from suppliers at a more expensive cost because they didn¹t have the buying power of the chains. The big chains illegally compelled the suppliers to sell at a higher price to the independent operators by threatening to pull their business if the suppliers didn¹t comply. As a result, the independent stores had inadequate and unreliable sources of supply and no one to defend their cause.
 
Early in 1940, Donald P. Lloyd, who was president of the Utah Retail Grocers Association, predicted impending doom for the independent retailers unless they could unite to take on the competition and increase their collective buying power.
 
He persuaded 34 retailers to contribute $300 each to help organize an independent warehouse, and Associated Food Stores was born. One by one the problems of unfair and illegal trade practices, under capitalization and competitive conspiracy were surmounted.
 
Today, Associated Food Stores champions the cause of independent supermarket owners and is the only independent wholesale distributor headquartered in the Intermountain West, employing over 1,400 people and shipping over 750 truckloads of groceries each week.