Coleman Company to Use RFID at its Kansas Distribution Center

ADT Security Services Inc., a unit of Tyco Fire & Security, today announced it has been selected by The Coleman Company, a leading manufacturer of outdoor equipment and camping gear, to provide radio frequency identification (RFID) reader solutions and services to Coleman's distribution center headquarters in Wichita, Kansas.

Coleman based its decision on the performance of a specialized RFID reader solution offered by ADT that can detect untagged or improperly tagged cartons placed on the conveyor belt at its distribution center.

"We tested readers from three RFID vendors and ADT's Sensormatic intelligent reader came out on top," said Jim Hopper, continuous improvement -- senior black belt, at Coleman. "The specialized solution delivered by ADT allows us to move our products as efficiently as possible through our RFID process, and it strengthens our relationships with our retail partners by ensuring that only properly tagged items leave our facility."

The RFID solution at Coleman consists of an electric eye that senses a carton as it moves on the conveyor belt and then signals the RFID reader to read the RFID tag. If there is no tag or the tag is broken, the reader communicates to the conveyor belt to stop. This allows a Coleman employee to remove the carton or to place a new working tag on the carton.

Randy Dunn, director of ADT's RFID division, said Coleman's RFID system centers around ADT's specialized Sensormatic Agile 2 Reader, which sports a General Purpose Input/Output (GPIO) adapter. This adapter enables the reader to interact with the warehouse system in order to conduct a variety of operations that can enhance the entire RFID system such as commanding a conveyor belt to halt, flashing a light to indicate a good, bad or weak tag or sending different items to different parts of the distribution center.

"We have used our engineering expertise to develop a specific solution for Coleman providing them with an immediate benefit," said Dunn. "Our experience in systems integration, along with our service capabilities, allows us to provide our customers with specialized solutions that make their RFID systems work for them."