香港自動化科技協會 專刊 (香港工業總會轄下第32分組)

RFID, the First Step to Reform 從 RFID 開始改革的第一步 Mr Wong told us that the frontline staff used to spend hours on stock taking in the past. Now, the ‘mHand’ takes stock and reads product information immediately. The data then synchronises with its centralised database. It helps the Group reduce the man-hour drastically for stock taking, while accuracy and efficiency are highly assured. Frontline staff resources are also freed up for provision of better customer services. The ‘Smart Tray’ plays a key role in customer services of Chow Tai Fook.The tray reads the data from the RFID tag and displays product information including specifications, special features, prices, exchange rates and stocks at other POS. It also collects customers’ preferences for big data analysis and enhancement of sales strategies. The management can then understand the customer demographics according to branch location, time of purchase and even frontline performance for subsequent staff training. Mr Wong reckons that the RFID tag and Smart Tray have not being utilised to their full potentials.There are still a lot more opportunities yet to be developed. Looking back at the reform a few years ago, the decision to embrace technology was entirely spot on. Not only did the reform achieve its goal, but the Group also enjoyed the improvements in other areas of operations. 黃先生憶述從前分店員工每天花數小時作盤點，現在使用 RFID 掃 描器即手提電子盤點器 (mHand) 作盤點，能即時讀取產品資料， 與數據庫同步，精準快捷，幫助企業大大節省盤點人手和時間， 員工也可以更集中精力招待顧客。 而他們在招待顧客的過程中，也採用了智能奉客盤 (Smart Tray) 。 Smart Tray 讀取 RFID 標籤中的訊息，便會顯示該產品的詳細資 料，包括產品規格、特色、價格、匯率換算、其他零售點存貨 等。 Smart Tray 更能收集顧客喜好作大數據分析，令員工能從數 據中輕易掌握各類產品的受歡迎程度，繼而調整銷售策略。例如 管理層可以研究店舖區域、銷售時間、員工業績等數據，從而在 這些環節作出微調或員工培訓。 黃先生認為，他們使用 RFID 技術和 Smart Tray 至今，已發掘了不 少改進營運模式的良機，而他相信這套技術的潛力龐大，尚待發 掘更多可用空間。回看數年前的改革，當時擁抱科技決策正確， 而一路走來還有些意外收穫，讓企業一邊學習，一邊成長。 time. After a thorough review, they found that it would be ideal if they could manage orders and inventory based on sales. However, in most of the jewellery companies, the key functions ‘Procurement, Sales and Inventory’were often managed by three different systems and they were almost independent from each other. Companies had to rely on manual labour when it comes to collations, analysis and operations. The team then started to find away out and grasped the key solution lied at the product handling process. Frontline staff used to scan barcodes in stock taking and count thousands of products manually three times a day. In addition, when the team wanted to know what the most popular products were, they would ask frontline staff as they ‘had a sense’ of bestsellers. But this ‘sense’ did not necessarily reflect the reality, which might cause discrepancies in inventory forecast. In order to satisfy customer demand, the team realised the importance of using quantitative measures to determine the demand more accurately. Thus, they introduced Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) technology as a first mover in the industry. 出現痛點。因為珠寶產品有眾多不同款式、大小、輕重，而人 手分貨是一種重覆而沒有創意的工序，久而久之，分貨的精確 度難以切合市場需求。 後來管理人員推進分析，發現某些產品在某些零售點的貨量不 足，因為負責發單的員工給工場下單的時間不夠緊貼市場需 求，導致起貨不及時。他們歸根究底地思考下去：如果做得 理想，購貨和存貨應根據銷貨來進行，但在當時很多珠寶企業 中，「購、銷、存」分別使用三套系統，而這些系統卻互不相 連，靠的是人手做梳理、分析和操作。 團隊進而考慮解決方案，從產品的處理工序著手。當時他們以 人手掃描條碼來盤點貨品，每天需作盤點三次，而每間分店都 有數千件貨品。當他們想知道什麼產品最能引起客人的興趣， 他們會問銷售同事。但銷售人員的「感覺」並不完全反映銷情 的真實情況，導致人手預計的貨量出現誤差。於是，團隊認為 要更有效地利用客觀數據，精準地預計產品銷情以能滿足顧客 需要，便在珠寶行業中率先引入無線射頻 (RFID) 技術。 25 Connecting Practitioners 業界專訪