Traditional operating procedures in place at the retailer’s eastern and western Distribution and Service Centers (DSC’s) required employees to form a queue and pass through a metal detector for screening. Second to that process, alarms from the metal detector were supplemented with a visual inspection and hand wanding. This intrusive and time-consuming process created a 20-plus minute wait to exit the warehouse floor. Keeping employees longer than necessary affected their morale and their attitude toward the company. Frustration over missed buses and delays in getting to daycare to pick up their children, or resentment over physical searches were very real side effects of a 20-year-old screening process.

To address this issue, Best Buy Canada Ltd.’s loss prevention staff decided to investigate technologies that would streamline the screening process and enhance the level of safety and security for its employees and visitors.

Although familiar with available screening technologies from a combined 20 years in retail loss prevention, hospitality, air services and executive protection, the security staff at Best Buy Canada Ltd. knew they needed to select an innovative technology that would mitigate wait times and address employee concerns while maintaining the same level of accuracy in the screening process. Security staffers also knew that making the right technology choice could give them the opportunity to dramatically increase efficiencies in their current security screening process.

With numerous technologies coming onto the market to fill the gap left by metal detectors, Best Buy Canada Ltd. learned of a technology that used passive millimeter wave screening to detect small, non-metal objects, ideal for high-risk items in the consumer electronic retailer’s inventory. The system also offered high throughput, an efficient detection rate and increased privacy, lessening the intrusiveness of the screening process for the employee.

“Best Buy Canada Ltd. needed a solution that could detect not only small items but also the capability to detect plastics and other materials,” says Cynthia Johnson, key accounts manager for Brijot, the company that provided this new system. “Today’s consumer electronic devices present quite a challenge for loss prevention practitioners because of their size and make up.”

Best Buy Canada Ltd. undertook a 60-day trial in March 2007, at its 1.5-million-square-foot eastern facility to test the Brijot system.

The beta test measured three important factors: the speed with which Best Buy Canada Ltd. could safely screen its employees; the detection capabilities of the system; and the ease of use in training.