Edson Perin
The women’s fashion brand Lado Avesso, headquartered in Maringá city, Brazilian State of Paraná, adopted the radio frequency identification (RFID) technology from iTag Etiquetas Inteligentes this year, after a successful testing period, in 2020. Since then, says Veridiana Silva, the company’s Information Technology (IT) manager, several processes have gained more agility and total control, with the implementation of RFID. “The use of the GS1 standard is arousing the interest of our customers in the use of RFID technology”.
The initial objective for adopting the technology was the need to streamline the company’s delivery and billing processes, in addition to tracking products in its supply chain. “The improvement in label costs made the project viable for us,” explained the executive. “We started testing in early 2020 and turned the key from 2021 to 2021, when all our companies started producing and billing through RFID technology.”
Veridiana gave an exclusive interview to IoP Journal TV. Click to watch in Portuguese.
The most challenging part of the implementation, according to Veridiana, were the operational processes, “because you work with all sectors of the company, from cutting, production and development to the final part, which involves the company’s revenues”. She argues that “the collaboration of the entire company is very important for the success of a project like this”, saying that even the stylists were impacted by the new technology.
“We print all our tags, without using an external bureau,” explains Veridiana. “This warehouse process, for example, the separation of supplies for the faction process, underwent changes. The tags, which initially used only bar codes, started to be manufactured in this internal bureau, which also required staff training for the new processes”.
One of the benefits of changing processes to RFID was the unification of the tags that go into garments. “We kept the volume of parts in circulation, with speed gains in the processes”, attests Veridiana. “Another benefit was the process of checking the goods in the faction itself, a process that we developed together with iTAG.
With approximately 1,600 direct and indirect employees, 2,000 customers, and sales in more than 1,500 cities in Brazil, Lado Avesso is a women’s fashion brand that, according to its founders, “has as its main characteristic a modern and elegant aesthetic attitude that values the woman”. In the market for over 30 years, the brand stands out for the quality of its jeans, the company’s flagship. Over time, analyzing world trends and consumption profiles in the Brazilian market, the company expanded the brand’s reach to the fashion segment.
Veridiana points out that the benefit of having full visibility over the inventory has brought gains that extend from the production line, as the products receive RFID tags as soon as they are manufactured. Thanks to the good relationship with iTAG, Lado Avesso’s RFID project is being successful and has become a positive experience. “If I was asked if I would start the whole RFID deployment process all over again, I would certainly say yes,” says Veridiana, highlighting the benefits of partnering with iTAG and its specialized technicians.
Lado Avesso is currently considered one of the fastest growing women’s brands in the country. “We owe it to our trajectory, where we are always concerned with delivering a high quality product, with a bold design and a fair price”, according to the company’s website. “As a result of our work, each season we bring an even more impeccable collection, always linked to the latest fashion trends and the consumption desires of our target audience”.
