BETTER LIVING NOW AT IKEAS CHECKOUT COUNTERS

IKEA is one of Sweden's most successful businesses, with more than 200 stores in over 30 countries and 85,000 co-workers. New stores are opening continually. Today, the IKEA trademark represents the leading home furnishing brand in the world, offering a wide range of well-designed, functional home furnishing products at prices so low so that as many people as possible will be able to afford them. Each store offers up to 9,500 different products and many new products are introduced throughout the year.

The Gryphon 200 Mobile or Desk version is used at the checkout counters. In Sweden, the Gryphon 200 D model has been chosen with its coiled, extendable cable that has been adapted so that it can read the labels on even the larger items where the bar code can be difficult to reach. However, it is up to the IT Departments in each country to decide which model will be used in their stores.

The reason that Datalogic's Gryphon was chosen is simple. For a special project, IKEA needed a bar code reader that could read the PDF417 code. Since the Gryphon reads this type of code and is also so rugged - it can withstand repeated drops onto IKEA's cement floors - it was chosen.

"Another reason that we chose the Gryphon is its 'Green Spot', which allows the cashier to easily see if the code has been read correctly," says Jonas Fnge, Systems Manager for IKEA stores in all countries.

Jeanette Karlsson, who works as a cashier at IKEA adds, "The Gryphon is super easy to work with, it is little, fast and flexible. With the extendable cord it is easy to step away from the cash register to read hard-to-reach labels."

When the bar code has been read, the information moves to the cash register system. From there it is transferred to IKEA's self-designed business system, MHS, where inventory balances, statistics, logistical and purchasing information as well as other details are automatically updated.

"The Gryphon is very economical because of its low service costs and on-time deliveries," say Jonas. "Because the readers can handle the stress that we put on them, this means that we don't have to repair or replace them so often."

The Returns & Exchange Department also uses the Gryphon, although they have chosen the M100 model, which is cordless. Previously, the article numbers were punched in manually when an item was returned, but with the Gryphon bar code reader, the bar code is quickly and easily read and the item returned. IKEA has generous terms for their exchanges and returns, and it is, therefore, important that their management goes as smoothly as possible.

"We have many new projects in the works for making additional improvements to our routines for product management in all departments at IKEA stores," says Jonas. Maybe Datalogic's series of bar code readers and mobile computers will show up in other areas of IKEA stores.