Intelligent Management of Garment Supply Chain Warehousing and Distribution Based on RFID

Garment industry, as a typical labor-intensive industry, its production, warehousing, distribution and other aspects of the efficiency and accuracy of the direct impact on the overall effectiveness of the enterprise. In the traditional mode, from the clothing production line box to enter the warehouse, inventory, out of the warehouse and other links, product information collection mainly rely on a large number of manual operations. This mode of operation is not only time-consuming and laborious, but also prone to slow distribution statistics, inaccurate inventory data statistics and other issues, which in turn affects the operational efficiency of the enterprise and customer satisfaction.

The introduction of barcode technology alleviates this problem to a certain extent by saving human resources and time through automated data collection. However, due to the fact that apparel products are characterized by many individual products, rapid style changes, diverse colors and sizes, as well as the market's increasing demand for efficient business operations, barcode technology has gradually revealed its limitations. It can not be realized in multiple batches, long-distance, automatic identification and reading data, but also can not automatically monitor the tracking of goods or the corresponding facilities, which limits the efficiency of the logistics process to further enhance the enterprise.

The emergence of radio frequency technology (RFID) for apparel logistics warehousing and distribution has brought about a revolutionary change. RFID technology not only solves the problems encountered in bar code technology, but also realizes the multiple advantages of non-contact reading information, large data storage, automatic identification and tracking of goods, etc. This makes the RFID system capable of realizing the multiple advantages. This makes the RFID system can realize intelligent management, effectively solve the current clothing logistics warehousing and distribution links exist in the data collection is not accurate, low efficiency and data utilization rate is not high. Through RFID technology, enterprises can achieve accurate and rapid distribution of picking, boxing, shipping, thus improving the timely replenishment rate of best-selling garments, reduce the inventory backlog rate of slow-selling garments, to shorten the supply cycle, improve corporate efficiency.

In view of the significant features of RFID technology and its wide range of prospects for application in the field of apparel logistics, this paper will focus on exploring the combination of RFID technology and information intelligence analysis and decision-making technology, research on the apparel supply chain based on RFID warehousing and distribution of intelligent management methods. First of all, based on the analysis of RFID-based supply chain warehousing and distribution operation process, this paper will explore a RFID-based clothing supply chain warehousing and distribution intelligent management system framework, and establish a picking and distribution optimization model. The model will be able to calculate the shortest distance for garment picking and distribution, so as to get the optimized route and sequence of picking, and further improve the efficiency of warehousing and distribution.

I. RFID-based Garment Identification

RFID-based apparel labeling uses EPC (Electronic Product Code) to encode apparel products, EPC is the latest international development in recent years, a global unified identification system, which consists of multi-bit characters, including the beginning of the bit part and 3 groups of data part. The 3 groups of data are manufacturer identifier, product type identifier and product serial number. Through the RFID reader, some important attributes of a single garment such as name, grade, item number, model, fabric, lining, washing method, execution standard, commodity number, inspector number and production information can be written into the corresponding Rfid Tag, and the electronic tag will be attached to the garment. In this way, each piece of clothing is given a unique RFID identification that is difficult to forge.

RFID tags attached to clothing in a variety of ways, such as implanted clothing, made into a nameplate or hangtag way. Implanted clothing can generally be placed in the clothes after the neckline or sleeves, but also can be made into a label button as the first button of the clothes, so that it is not easy to be damaged. By recording a variety of information, RFID tags are easy to recognize and read, effectively improving the rapid response capability of the clothing supply chain warehousing and distribution.

Second, RFID-based clothing warehousing and distribution management process

In the inventory activities, real-time access to clothing information, including warehouse garment receiving, warehousing, order picking, warehousing and inventory clothing product statistics. When the whole box of garments with RFID tags enters the magnetic field induction area of the RFID reader, the RFID reader will automatically capture the information in multiple tags and transmit it to the warehouse management system (Warehouse Management System, WMS).

In the process of warehousing, the application of RFID automatic identification system information anti-collision function, can once read a number of different RFID tags, confirm the number of garments in the warehouse, type, etc., and can track the process of garments warehousing to ensure that the goods are put into the accurate cargo space. At the same time, the system automatically generates information such as the address of the rack storage space, and the WMS system automatically carries out the confirmation of the change of cargo information in the storage space according to this information.

When leaving the warehouse, when the pallet or forklift loaded with garments passes through the fixed read-write installed at the gate, the RFID tag information on the garments is read. The system checks the information against the delivery note and updates the garment inventory status. For the replenishment of best-selling garments, the RFID system automatically displays the inventory status of such products as well as the need to replenish the product's model, color, size and other details, prompting replenishment information. In addition, the RFID system automatically counts the inventory status of apparel products, gets the stay time of each type of apparel (including models, colors, sizes, etc.) in the warehouse, and finds out which types of apparel are slow-moving and out of season, thus providing managers with decision-making information such as price cuts and promotions, and boosting the sales of the products.