ERP Software

ERP Supply Chain Software Plays Nice with RFID

I’m a Walmart customer, are you?  While we both may shop at Walmart, have you ever thought about where Walmart shops?  Or, have you contemplated how Walmart keeps track of their entire inventory and all their stores?  Walmart is a giant and they run SAP Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) software.  SAP is a big player in the ERP market; they offer robust functionality and customizations to suit any kind of business.  Recently, Walmart integrated Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) with their SAP Supply Chain software.   In fact, Walmart now requires all of their suppliers to use RFID as well. 

Today I was on an airplane flying to a family reunion.  I happened to sit next to two men who are brothers.  Their names are Oscar and Adam.  Oscar and Adam both work at Walmart distribution centers in Sacramento, California.  They were recently trained to use RFID and SAP Inventory software.  Adam and Oscar said that the new system was easy to learn and easy to use.  Before they begin scanning the inventory, they setup the software by navigating to a specific place and clicking a button.  Easy enough!  Adam and Oscar don’t miss the old way of doing things, which included scanning bar codes, setting the merchandise on pallets, locating a warehouse storage area for the merchandise, printing a storage label and moving the merchandise to the desired location. 

Using SAP ERP Supply Chain and Inventory control, Adam and Oscar simply scan the merchandise.  The RFID tags have encoded data that tells the brothers what is contained in the shipments.  The ERP supply chain and inventory software systems interpret the data from the tag and immediately direct the merchandise to a warehouse location.  The software prints a label at the same time, which the brothers slap on the merchandise as it continues past them to its warehouse location. 

Adam and Oscar appreciate the ERP system.  They don’t know much about the system, but it makes their jobs much easier and saves them time.  Saving time means more money in Walmart’s pockets.  Walmart will probably see a return on their investment very soon.

ERP systems affect everyone from upper management to the very users of the system like Adam and Oscar.  Once Adam and Oscar complete their inventory processes, inventory reports can be created with real-time up to the minute information.  Or, upper management could run a report to see what product they sell the most and derive a new marketing strategy from this information.  There are so many possibilities with ERP systems!

Written by :

kristine H