Portland, OR, June 6, 2023 . . . In 2022, Walmart announced the company will require many suppliers to perform RFID tagging on products for sale before shipping them. With a target date of September 2022 for this mandate, many suppliers rushed to meet the demand of the mega-retailer. However they soon discovered obstacles in tagging their products, making the mandate difficult for some suppliers and even impossible for others. The main obstacle for RFID has been the source tagging; unable to detect whether the tags were correct with the naked eye, some tags have duplicate information, some had wrong encoding for the tags and others had no info imprinted on the tags at all.

AsReader, together with partner Xemelgo, sprang into action and developed a free app called the QC Checker available now on the App Store. Using either AsReader’s sled, pocket, dock-type and gun-type scanning devices, suppliers are able to read an RFID tag and discover encoding errors, duplicated tags, and confirm the correct information is encoded. Users can also determine whether a tag is encoded with an EPC, if the EPC matches the correct UPC, and will help locate multiple tags that may have been encoded with the same EPC (duplicates), making sure the correct information is encoded on the tags.

The app works with AsReader’s ASR-0230D (Barcode+RFID) and ASR-L251G gun and ASR-030D (RFID-Only) sleds.

Similar to how barcodes are now ubiquitous in retail, RFID has finally crested the wave and moved into the mainstream. In a few short years more products will be RFID tagged than not. Walmart continues to champion RFID, stating: “We have seen dramatic results in our ability to ensure product is available for our customers, leading to improved online order fulfillment and customer satisfaction,” said Shelly McDougal, Walmart’s senior director of merchandising in an article in RFID Journal.

Kris Doane of AsReader said RFID tagging need not be so daunting, and is happy to have partnered with Xemelgo in reaching this solution for suppliers who are understandably frustrated. “Meeting the Walmart mandate for manufacturers set a high bar,” he said. “Some have never worked with RFID tagging before, and this isn’t something you enter into lightly. Suppliers may need some added support and navigation to ensure they’re providing the correct info to Walmart, both for the staff and for their customers, and the QC Checker is here to do this for them.”

More information on AsReader
AsReader, Inc. is an Oregon Corporation and a wholly owned subsidiary of Asterisk, Inc of Japan. Asterisk was founded in 2006, headed by charismatic founder Noriyuki Suzuki with over 100 employees worldwide, headquartered in Osaka, Japan with offices in Tokyo, Nagano, Shiga, and Kyoto, Japan, Dalian and Shenzhen in China, and Portland, Oregon in the USA. Major clients include manufacturers Toyota and Kawasaki, retailers Tokyu Hands and Aoyama, over 350 hospitals worldwide and three globally recognized logistics/delivery companies utilizing over 20,000 AsReaders each. Please visit https://AsReader.com for more information

About Xemelgo
Xemelgo is revolutionizing manufacturing, supply chain, and retail operations with their suite of real-time visibility software solutions powered by IoT technology. Founded in 2018, Xemelgo offers a comprehensive suite of innovative solutions, empowering companies to optimize their operations, enhance productivity, and drive sustainable growth. From raw material to finished goods and beyond, Xemelgo makes it easier than ever to manage Work-in-Process, Inventory, Assets, Shipments, and more from any web or mobile device.