Avery Dennison partners with SAP to reduce waste

According to Avery Dennison, some 30 percent of produce is estimated to be thrown away in the grocery sector, as well as between 20 to 40 percent of beauty products.

Through this partnership, businesses that use SAP technologies can access item-level insights from atma.io for their products, from manufacturing to distribution to shelf. Transparency provides unique supply chain information, enabling expiry date management and automation.

Driving these efficiencies is item-level data delivered to the SAP Analytics Cloud dashboard via atma.io and products tagged with unique digital Identification (ID) technology by Avery Dennison, including radio frequency identification (RFID). It means retailers can experience accurate and timely analysis, enabling them to automate food expiration management at the store. It also means that grocers can go deeper into their supply chain and implement ‘dwell time’ measurements to boost the speed with which items move through warehouses and distribution centers to arrive in stores with longer shelf lives.

The new partnership will benefit omnichannel retail and help retailers with Click & Collect (or BOPIS, i.e., Buy Online, Pickup In-Store) and home delivery, where sending and delivering products with the right expiration date has been a challenge. 

It can also help in certain ‘emergency’ situations, such as when a product recall needs to be initiated quickly. During the FDA’s recent New Era of Smarter Food Safety Summit on E-Commerce, it was emphasized that omnichannel food would need to meet the same high standards of food purchased in person. On November 7, 2022, the FSMA 204 rule for Food Traceability will be published with an expected compliance date by 2025. Compliance requires all supply chain members to respond electronically within 24 hours with the product ID, relevant date, and a lot code for products covered by the legislation.

Max Winograd, vice president of connected products at Avery Dennison Smartrac, said: ‘Accurate real-time supply chain management is more important than ever, and we’re pleased to partner with SAP to help businesses manage their supply chain operations. Food waste is a global problem, impacting people, the planet and profits, and we’re greatly encouraged by the remarkable results digital ID technology and atma.io has already achieved with some of our existing retail customers and look forward to working with SAP so that more can reap these benefits.’

Mike Wells, RVP SAP BTP monetization, partner ecosystem success at SAP, added: ‘This partnership provides businesses using SAP Analytics Cloud with a turnkey integration for expiry date automation and management. Introducing item-level tracking via RFID and atma.io into our ecosystem will help provide customers with increased simplicity, speed, efficiency, accuracy, security, and reporting capabilities. We look forward to working with Avery Dennison to eliminate the huge issue of food waste.’