RFID TECHNNOLOGY - NEW CHALLENGE FOR MANUFACTURING AND LOGISTICS CENTERS

RFID technology can be exploited in newly developed logistics centers in Polandas well. The Radio frequency identification (RFID) has been recognized as one of the greatesttechnologies implemented by enterprises in different branches. Constantly increasing numberof enterprises, which are making use of RFID technology to improve their efficiency ofmanufacturing goods, functioning as well as to achieve a competitive advantage on themarket, shows the great necessity of large changes. One of the fields where RFID can be usedis logistics centers. There are projects that implement RFID into logistics centers. Suchprojects start with a study of what kinds of needs are in the market, and proceeds to thedevelopment of concept as well as project determines what the new systems and hardwarerequirements will be to translate the concept of logistics centers with RFID systems to anactual infrastructure. Conclusion is that RFID will be more universally diffused andassimilated into everyday life in the future.RFID, logistics centre, project

Integrating the Supply Chain with RFID: A Technical and Business Analysis

This paper presents an in-depth analysis of the technical and business implications of adopting Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) in organizational settings. The year 2004 marked a significant shift toward adopting RFID because of mandates by large retailers and government organizations. The use of RFID technology is expected to increase rapidly in the next few years. At present, however, initial barriers against widespread adoption include standards, interoperability, costs, forward compatibility, and lack of familiarity. This paper describes basic components of an RFID system including tags, readers, and antennas and how they work together using an integrated supply chain model. Our analysis suggests that business needs to overcome human resource scarcity, security, legal and financial challenges and make informed decision regarding standards and process reengineering. The technology is not fully mature and suffers from issues of attenuation and interference. A laboratory experiment conducted by the authors\u27 shows that the middleware is not yet at a plug-and-play stage, which means that initial adopters need to spend considerable effort to integrate RFID into their existing business processes. Appendices contain a glossary of common RFID terms, a list of RFID vendors and detailed findings of the laboratory experiment. NOTE: BECAUSE OF THE ILLUSTRATIONS USED, THIS ARTICLE IS LONG; APPROXIMATELY 850KB IN BOTH JOURNAL AND ARTICLE VERSIO

RFID-enabled Supply Chain Collaboration Services in a Networked Retail Business Environment

Since the early 1990s, there has been a growing understanding that supply chain management should be built around information sharing and collaboration among supply chain partners. The emergence of RFID technology is expected to revolutionize many of the collaborative supply chain processes and to empower new collaboration scenarios, such as anti-counterfeiting, product recall and reverse logistics, collaborative in-store promotion management and total inventory management. This paper proposes eight RFID-enabled supply chain collaboration services (e.g. dynamic pricing, smart recall, in-store promotion management, out-of-shelf response) in a networked retail business environment. The services are characterized, on a high-level, by the information shared between retailers and suppliers, the level of tagging (pallet/case/item level) and the location of the tag readers. Also, a scalable-distributed network architecture, building on the possibilities provided by web service orchestration and data stream management systems, is proposed to support these collaborative supply chain management processes. However, this paper introduces into a research-in-progress with the ultimate purpose to assess and categorize the RFID-enabled supply chain collaboration services according to four dimensions: the extent of collaboration required between retailers and suppliers, the RFID technology requirements, the transformation of existing (or the introduction of new) processes and the business performance impact of the RFID-enabled collaborative service. This research is partly funded by the European Commission (IST-2005, FP6) through the IST SMART research project with participating user companies being European grocery retailers and suppliers from the fast-moving consumer goods sector

Semantic discovery and reuse of business process patterns

Patterns currently play an important role in modern information systems (IS) development and their use has mainly been restricted to the design and implementation phases of the development lifecycle. Given the increasing significance of business modelling in IS development, patterns have the potential of providing a viable solution for promoting reusability of recurrent generalized models in the very early stages of development. As a statement of research-in-progress this paper focuses on business process patterns and proposes an initial methodological framework for the discovery and reuse of business process patterns within the IS development lifecycle. The framework borrows ideas from the domain engineering literature and proposes the use of semantics to drive both the discovery of patterns as well as their reuse

Business IT Alignment and Technology Adoption: The Case of RFID

Abstract Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) is increasingly applied in the logistics domain. As with other emerging technologies it is complex whether, when and how an organization should invest in RFID. In this paper the decision to adopt RFID in the logistic domain is explored. The authors take a business/IT-alignment approach and investigate the relation between business/IT-alignment principles and preference for RFID applications. A comparison of thirteen organizations that operate one or more warehouses shows that managers and decision makers in companies are not necessarily in sync with the business/IT-alignment principle which implies to further mature in the areas/domains that are least developed. Organizations were more prone to invest in business/IT areas that are already well developed. We conclude that other factors influence decisions to apply this type of new technology. Yet, the framework offers the opportunity to analyze and prepare a technology decision; it provides insight in and arguments for possible RFID adoption

Utilisation of mobile technology in logistics

Accessing information quickly has become more and more important. Mobile devices can nowadays be used to perform and accomplish tasks more efficiently. Logistics companies can benefit from mobile applications in many ways. Many logistics areas, such as warehouse managing and transportation, concentrate on the physical movement of goods. The benefits of mobile applications are emphasised in those environments where portability and real-time information are of great use. The business IT alignment framework offers an approach to researching companies business and IT strategies and execution. The enterprise mobile applications may bring many advantages but also disadvantages to organisations utilising them. In this thesis, the business It alignment framework is used in the context of researching the utilisation of enterprise mobile applications in the case organisations. The utilisation of mobile applications in logistics is studied in this research by using the qualitative research method. Research data has been gathered from semi-structured interviews with case company employees responsible for logistics mobile application projects. The logistics areas where mobile applications are used are warehouse management and transportation. A new logistics IT alignment measurement tool was developed for the purposes of this study, as no such a tool existed before. The tool utilises the previous business IT alignment literature. Companies or researchers can utilise this tool in determining their logistics IT alignment level. This study finds that there are multiple important features that companies should take into account when developing and implementing logistics mobile applications. Ease of use and user friendliness are the most important of them. In addition, information quality and efficiency and effectiveness should be considered. Many companies also benefit from end device independence. Companies can get many advantages from logistics mobile applications. These advantages are for example better information quality, real-time information and cost reductions by consuming less paper. High logistics IT alignment supports in gaining these advantages

Supply Chain Systems Maturing Towards the Internet-of-Things: A Framework

The Internet-of-Things (IoT) concept has been gradually developing, but it is unclear how extensive this concept is adopted within the supply chain domain. We derive an architectural framework to investigate four layers of ICT deployment. This framework enables practitioners and scientist to specify a status quo on different architectural levels and to identify possibilities for further improvement. Four extensive cases are investigated with this framework. One of the important conclusions is that “IoT” like technology and applications are pioneered in research programs, but operational logistic systems in diverse organizations primarily rely on less advanced technology, organizational structures- and work forms. This work can help in identifying gaps where IoT can strengthen future applications

A Systematic Literature Review on Innovative Technologies Adopted in Logistics Management

Many innovative technologies have been successfully adopted in logistics and supply chain management processes to increase efficiency, reduce costs or enhance communication. In recent years, considerable attention from both practitioners and academics has been focused on evaluating the impacts of innovative technologies adoption. However, the current body of literature on technology adoption, implementation and evaluation in logistics is quite fragmented; thus, an updated and structured overview of the scientific literature in this field might be useful. To this end, this work presents a systematic literature review (SLR) that aims to increase the understanding of the trend toward new technologies in logistics and identify the main research trends and gaps. The principal research trends that emerged from the SLR involve the technologies, their evolution over time and their relationships with the research methodologies. The main literature gaps concern integration and communication, technology-adoption processes and differences between inbound and outbound logistics

Conceptualizing Emerging Technology in Local Contexts: An Ethnographic Study of RFID in an Emirate’s Farming Industry

Situated in an emirate’s farming industry, this ethnographic study develops a framework to help bridge the existing knowledge gap about what and how local contexts interact with emerging technology, RFID in particular. Findings suggest that numerous local factors pertaining to the researched emirate’s unique environmental, project, cultural, and societal/political contexts shape and/or are reshaped by RFID implementation. For example, geographic landscape demands systems modification and device adaptation; religious custom increases project difficulty, and the systems, in turn, requires changes in certain religious practice; the notion of social sustainability establishes objectives for RFID project, while the latter helps reshape social welfare systems. As these local factors have rarely been empirically examined, my framework can help contribute to future RFID implementation in different local contexts. More specifically, insights gained urge stakeholders involved to carefully manage unique factors of the emirate or similar contexts for intended RFID projects. The findings also suggest that stakeholders should be aware of RFID’s reshaping effects on the local context particularly because those effects might be unexpected

Measuring RFId Benefits in Supply Chains

RFId systems hold great potentials in enhancing supply chain performances. Some of the major retailers in the World (Wall Mart, Metro Group, Tesco) made sounding campaigns promoting the benefits they were able to attain. Despite the growing number of researches concerning RFId benefits, a study investigating their measurement in the supply chain context is still lacking. This paper proposes to associate qualitative RFId benefits identified in literature with corresponding measures by designing three tools: (1) an RFId oriented Performance Measurement System for the identification of all RFId related supply chain performance indicators on the base of the SCOR Model. (2) A benefits-processes-measures matrix linking the benefits identified in literature with SCOR model process to identify supply chain measures impacted by the RFId system implementation. (3) A reference framework summarizing benefits measures