Walgreen’s RFID system is intended to replace all paper and bar code scanning during shipment loading, with the goal of achieving complete shipment accuracy from distribution center to retail store. The drug retailer recently launched the first of its new distribution centers in Anderson, S.C. At full capacity, the new center will ship approximately 80,000 cases daily to more than 700 Walgreens stores across the southeast U.S., and it already represents a large RFID deployment with over 170,000 assets tagged.

The new system deploys Blue Vector’s edge intelligence software and infrastructure products on a wide range of structure, from dock door portals and conveyor stations to asset hospitals and tagging stations. The system verifies correct assets, quantities, dock door and loading sequence, and then updates Walgreens’ warehouse management system. Blue Vector’s edge processing intelligence is performed at every shipping door, with each trailer’s shipping manifest preloaded onto a Blue Vector edge appliance housed within dock door portals, to help ensure accuracy and rapid error detection.