Fairmont Hotel Uses RFID to Track Inventory

The Fairmont Pacific Rim hotel in the Olympics city of Vancouver, B.C., Canada, is using radio frequency identification (RFID) tags to more accurately manage its inventory of 10,000 employee uniforms and 25,000 bathrobes, towels, tablecloths, sheets and other linens. The advanced tracking system, based on the new Fujitsu WT-A511 UHF-Band RFID technology from Fujitsu Frontech North America Inc., enables the Fairmont Pacific Rim staff to monitor its outgoing and incoming laundry while helping to reduce the costs of replacing missing items and the operational costs associated with a manual tracking process.   

"When dealing with an external commercial laundry facility, previous experience in the hotel industry has taught us that inevitably, items go missing,” explains Randy Zupanski, general manager of the Fairmont Pacific Rim hotel. “Often these items are never recovered, forcing the hotel to purchase replacements. What's more, manual tracking processes can be cumbersome, time-consuming, costly and inaccurate. We wanted to avoid these issues at our new facility and decided to implement the RFID tags.”

The soft and flexible Fujitsu UHF RFID tags are able to withstand hundreds of washings, the harsh chemicals associated with dry cleaning, temperatures of 250 degrees F for drying and 400 degrees F for ironing, along with the pressure of uniform pressing machines. UHF RFID systems are capable of scanning hundreds of articles simultaneously in seconds with a reading range of up to six feet. The Fujitsu UHF RFID tag is less than two inches long, about the size of a shirt stay. When sewn or heat sealed into garments, the tags are virtually unnoticeable.

Foundation Logic Systems integrates the Fujitsu flexible RFID tags into Fairmont Pacific Rim uniforms and linens, which also interface with various hotel data systems to provide a comprehensive view of inventory for more efficient tracking and streamlined operations.