09/09-09   -   Press releases

REWE Group Deploys Mojix STAR® System to Enable Ground-breaking RFID Initiative to Fully Equip Large Scale Distribution Centre Operation

Mojix® Inc today announced the completion of successful field trials at REWE Group which enable REWE to move forward with a ground-breaking RFID initiative to provide improved visibility to goods and management of returnable transport items at its Buttenheim, Germany distribution center. This pioneering programme at REWE utilises passive RFID to fully equip the 40’000 square meter distribution centre. REWE Group, the third largest food retailer in Europe, and the second largest in Germany, operates in 15 countries with 15,000 retail outlets, 29 distribution centres in Germany. The company’s supply chain operations in Germany commission about 36 million pallets and roll containers annually.

“RFID provides the critical link between the flow of goods and information," said Sven Jürgens, Project Manager, RFID, REWE Group. “The new generation of passive RFID technology represented by Mojix, now enables this link to be cost effective, empowering new levels of business insight to shipping, asset management and inventory management, as well as improved efficiencies across many logistics processes."

“The Mojix solution brings a host of advantages versus ´traditional´ RFID portal solutions. The dock door and staging area discrimination capability gives us reliable identification of RFID tags through dock doors, and the RTLS capability enables the tracking of assets in large spaces," said Jörg Sandlöhken, Standards & Projects, Department Head, REWE Group. “The Mojix system is also more compact and easier to integrate, and it easily scales providing cost advantages in large-scale deployments."

“The industry leadership and vision for the REWE RFID initiative is well aligned with Mojix vision for passive RFID – ubiquitous, low cost visibility to goods and assets across the supply chain," said Dr. Ramin Sadr, CEO and Founder, Mojix Inc. “We look forward to supporting this pioneering initiative to deliver a new level of effectiveness to the retail supply chain."

New Level of Visibility, Operational Efficiency
REWE group conducted field trials of the Mojix STAR™ system in a deployment at their Buttenheim, Germany distribution centre which handles both dry foods and perishable items. A Mojix STAR™ system provides the ability to read RFID tags on stacked pallets across the 105 dock doors with 99.9 per cent read accuracy of returnable transport items (RTIs) loading into shipping trailers. The system performance of 99.9 per cent accuracy effectively addresses past problems in shipping errors, staging and mixed pallets. With this level of reliability, REWE Group is able to establish a highly accurate closed loop system for tracking and management of RTIs which delivers multiple cost and efficiency benefits including significant reduction of losses from wrong shipments to retail outlets, effective tracking of goods through the shipping process, and more efficient cost-allocation for RTIs to retail outlets. For this deployment, the Mojix STAR™ system is integrated with the warehouse management system to provide RFID data to the larger enterprise.

The Mojix STAR™ system is a revolutionary UHF passive RFID system that brings unprecedented levels of precision, scalability and return-on-investment to radio frequency identification applications. The Mojix STAR system uses advanced digital signal processing and a flexible new RFID systems architecture to deliver expanded utility and value to RFID deployments. The ability to read passive RFID tags over long range, determine tag location and secure and authenticate tag data in one multi-faceted, multiple purpose system changes the economics of RFID. The Mojix system taps the performance features of active RFID with the more attractive economics of low cost passive RFID.

About Mojix
Headquartered in Los Angeles, Calif., Mojix, Inc. was founded in 2004 by a team of former JPL/NASA scientists and engineers with the vision of applying breakthroughs in deep space communications to exponentially refine the precision, reach and scope of RFID technology. The first in a game-changing new class of RFID systems, the Mojix STAR (SpaceTime Array Reader) system introduces capabilities orders of magnitude beyond conventional passive RFID offerings to enable economical, large-scale and high-volume RFID deployment. Mojix is privately held with funding from Oak Investment Partners, Red Rock Ventures and InnoCal Venture Capital. For more information, please visit www.mojix.com.

About REWE
Since it was founded in 1927, the REWE Group has always stood for sustainable and long-term growth. With a record turnover of around 50 billion Euros, the co-operative Group succeeded in impressively proving its business expertise and long-term profit orientation. The REWE Group is one of the leading trade and tourism groups in Europe. The company currently employs 320,000 people in 16 countries all over Europe. In Germany, the REWE Group employs 210,000 people working in about 10,000 stores split among supermarkets (REWE, REWE Center, REWE City), Discount Stores (PENNY) and Self-Service Stores (toom) to Specialist Stores (toom BauMarkt DIY Stores, B1 DIY Discount, ProMarkt, toom beverage shop) and travel agencies (ATLASREISEN, DER travel agency, DERPART), generating turnover in the region of 34 billion Euros. In the B2B segment (REWE-Großverbraucher-Service, FEGRO/SELGROS, transGourmet), the REWE Group turned over more than six billion euros in Europe.