Case Study - Hugo Boss

HUGO BOSS is a global market leader in the high fashion market, and is represented by three independent brands: BOSS, HUGO and BALDESSARINI. These three brands and their extensive collections address a variety of target groups, catering to the demands of each with respect to fashion statement, tailoring, workmanship, materials and pricing. HUGO BOSS distributes its products internationally to 102 countries and more than 5,000 retail shops.

Its business-to-business activities use integrated IT systems to enable an efficient exchange of data with its customers as well as smooth, flexible and prompt coordination of deliveries. Modern warehousing and materials handling technology in the distribution centres contributes to efficient product flow management along the entire process chain.

To ensure all of this HUGO BOSS uses a bar code reading system in its headquarter site in Metzingen. It identified a need to extend this system in the warehouse for shipping activities and in the showrooms for order processing, and turned to Datalogic for help. Datalogic’s Gryphon™ instinctive hand held reader best suited the requirements of the applications, and Datalogic was able to respond promptly to the urgency of HUGO BOSS by delivering all the units on the same day the order was placed.

In the warehouse, the garments are placed on suspended racks in order not to crease the clothes. When an order is ready the garments are loaded in the lorries directly from the suspended racks. Each item is labelled with a bar code which is read with the Gryphon™ Mobile readers before the goods enter the lorry to verify if it corresponds with the order placed, and to update the inventory system at the same time. The Gryphon™ Mobile is particularly suitable for this operation because it permits users to walk around the clothes racks freely.

In the showrooms, the Gryphon™ Desk reader is used for order processing activities. Once the customer has chosen a particular model, an order is placed by reading the corresponding bar code in the “colour card catalogue” where each model is laid out together with the choice of material and colour. In this way, the order is entered directly into the IT system without manual intervention, to avoid errors. The codes used in the elegant colour card catalogue pose a particular problem in that they are reflective low contrast codes (silver on black), however, the Gryphon™ is able to read them without difficulty.

In this way the HUGO BOSS Group is able to maintain its position as global market leader in the high fashion market, guaranteeing efficient and professional business processes worldwide.

Standard Radio Systems

Advantages. Being based on a standard, barcode readers supplied by different manufacturers should be able to communicate with each other and therefore, can be combined and mixed. In theory the user could use barcode readers from different manufacturers for the same application. Over time as newer models are released and the user could replace old units or add new ones choosing the best offer he can obtain at that time.

Disadvantages:

• In reality this compatibility is quite rare. In fact, most of the suppliers offer “closed” solutions (ie devices that, although based on a standard radio, can only communicate with other components supplied by the same manufacturer) in order to satisfy the customer’s desire for a “plug & scan” solution.

• The typical disadvantage is that the standard has been normally specified for something else (ie a different kind of application and usage; it usually has not been optimised for the basic and simple needs of bar code readers). Furthermore, standards are never stable forever: continuous updates are always required to keep communications in line with the latest release.

The most common standard radio systems are:

Wi-Fi: This is normally used for high performance radio systems like WLAN, including laptops, PDAs, mobile computers, printers etc. Networking, high mobility and high data communication speeds are all key factors of this system.

• This standard was defined following the evolution of the traditional LAN adding mobility to the operators allowing them to have access to key business systems including the Internet via mobile scanning devices.

It is a powerful standard but it is too feature-rich for a “simple” barcode reader: it requires a powerful microprocessor, an operating system, high capacity batteries and is too expensive and too often over-engineered for standard bar code scanning applications. It uses the ISM band (Industrial, Scientific and Medical) centred at 2.4 GHz.

Bluetooth® Wireless Technology: It was initially designed to eliminate cables and to create a WPAN (Wireless Personal Area Network). Normally used for:

• Cordless communications at the operator’s desk
• Occasional WLAN access
• File sharing and synchronisation between devices such as PDAs, laptops and today's mobile phones 
• Wireless headsets for mobile phones or Internet use