ships about 10 million cases to
Wal-Mart and 3 million cases to
Target annually.
In May 2004, World Kitchen received the mandate from Wal-Mart to start tagging Electronic Product Codes (EPC) on pallets and cases beginning in January 2006. The mandate
letter was followed by one from Target in July whose tag deadline was even earlier, June 2005. World Kitchen formed a cross-functional team that included three members from IT, two from distribution center operations and one from the Wal-Mart sales account team.
Within four months, the team decided to start tagging products at its Monee, Ill. distribution
center since the Monee plant had the newest and best sorting system. Unlike most suppliers
who use a “slap-and-ship” short-term strategy, World Kitchen decided to integrate the RFID system with its back-end ERP system. The company teamed up with SAP and Acsis’