Business process and technology lessons learned, recommendations and best practices for new adopters

Thesis (M. Eng. in Logistics)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Engineering Systems Division, 2006."June 2006."Includes bibliographical references (leaves 117-118).This thesis focuses on documenting learnings from a RFID data exchange pilot in the fast moving consumer goods industry. The pilot we studied is a collaborative effort between two of the largest retailers in the world and five of their major suppliers, facilitated by EPCglobal and the MIT Auto-ID labs. Currently, manufacturers and suppliers are building the infrastructure to exchange EPC data to validate standards and proof of concepts for RFID adoption. The outcome of these pilots will essentially set the stage for large scale RFID adoption worldwide. Our thesis attempts to document issues relating to data exchange from business process, organizational and technical perspectives. We have synthesized the findings and consolidated the lessons learned during the pilot in an attempt to form a set of actionable recommendations for new companies looking to start on RFID pilot projects.by Rida Chan [and] Sangeeth Ram.M.Eng.in Logistic

The R.F.I.D. Act of 2006 and E-Pedigrees: Tackling the Problem of Counterfeit Drugs in the United States Wholesale Industry

Gaps within the drug distribution system make it increasingly vulnerable to bad actors, such as counterfeiters and terrorists. Congress intended the Prescription Drug Marketing Act (PDMA) of 1987 to close these gaps, but the PDMA has not fully succeeded. Important PDMA provisions that require tracking of drugs throughout the distribution chain in the form of pedigrees were set to be implemented as of Dec. 1, 2006, although a recent court order has stayed complete implementation. However, these PDMA requirements do not apply uniformly to all drug distributors in the United States. Moreover, since paper pedigrees can be forged, the pedigree system might not be sufficient to prevent the introduction of counterfeit drugs into the U.S. distribution system. Proposed bipartisan legislation in Congress, the Reducing Fraudulent and Imitation Drugs Act of 2006 (abbreviated hereinafter as R.F.I.D. Act ) addresses some of these concerns, but the legislation has not yet been enacted and it is unclear whether it will be. Thus, many loopholes remain in current FDA regulations.[...] This Note argues for immediate enactment of the R.F.I.D. Act or its equivalent (or alternatively, for Congress to amend the PDMA directly) to mandate the use of e-pedigrees by all distributors and manufacturers. This is not an impossible requirement to fulfill given the immediate availability of e-pedigree technology. The Note also encourages continued industry movement towards RFID as an e-pedigree solution, as well as implementation of the R.F.I.D. Act or its equivalent to protect consumer privacy. Part I of this Note discusses threats facing the U.S. drug supply from counterfeit drugs. Part II describes how counterfeits are introduced into U.S. drug supply chains. Part III discusses problems with the PDMA, and introduces the R.F.I.D. Act as a potential solution. Part IV describes use of RFID to secure the drug supply and current challenges facing its implementation. Part V discusses current use of barcodes within the pharmaceutical industry and the potential use of barcodes as a supplement to paper pedigrees

The R.F.I.D. Act of 2006 and E-Pedigrees: Tackling the Problem of Counterfeit Drugs in the United States Wholesale Industry

Gaps within the drug distribution system make it increasingly vulnerable to bad actors, such as counterfeiters and terrorists. Congress intended the Prescription Drug Marketing Act (PDMA) of 1987 to close these gaps, but the PDMA has not fully succeeded. Important PDMA provisions that require tracking of drugs throughout the distribution chain in the form of pedigrees were set to be implemented as of Dec. 1, 2006, although a recent court order has stayed complete implementation. However, these PDMA requirements do not apply uniformly to all drug distributors in the United States. Moreover, since paper pedigrees can be forged, the pedigree system might not be sufficient to prevent the introduction of counterfeit drugs into the U.S. distribution system. Proposed bipartisan legislation in Congress, the Reducing Fraudulent and Imitation Drugs Act of 2006 (abbreviated hereinafter as R.F.I.D. Act ) addresses some of these concerns, but the legislation has not yet been enacted and it is unclear whether it will be. Thus, many loopholes remain in current FDA regulations.[...] This Note argues for immediate enactment of the R.F.I.D. Act or its equivalent (or alternatively, for Congress to amend the PDMA directly) to mandate the use of e-pedigrees by all distributors and manufacturers. This is not an impossible requirement to fulfill given the immediate availability of e-pedigree technology. The Note also encourages continued industry movement towards RFID as an e-pedigree solution, as well as implementation of the R.F.I.D. Act or its equivalent to protect consumer privacy. Part I of this Note discusses threats facing the U.S. drug supply from counterfeit drugs. Part II describes how counterfeits are introduced into U.S. drug supply chains. Part III discusses problems with the PDMA, and introduces the R.F.I.D. Act as a potential solution. Part IV describes use of RFID to secure the drug supply and current challenges facing its implementation. Part V discusses current use of barcodes within the pharmaceutical industry and the potential use of barcodes as a supplement to paper pedigrees

Blockchain Technology Helps Maintenance to Stop Climate Change

The development and interest in Industry 4.0 together with rapid development of Cyber Physical Systems has created magnificent opportunities to develop maintenance to a totally new level. The Maintenance 4.0 vision considers massive exploitation of information regarding factories and machines to improve maintenance efficiency and efficacy, for example by facilitating logistics of spare parts, but on the other hand this creates other logistics issues on the data itself, which only exacerbate data management issues that emerge when distributed maintenance platforms scale up. In fact, factories can be delocalized with respect to the data centers, where data has to be transferred to be processed. Moreover, any transaction needs communication, be it related to purchase of spare parts, sales contract, and decisions making in general, and it has to be verified by remote parties. Keeping in mind the current average level of Overall Equipment Efficiency (50%) i.e. there is a hidden factory behind every factory, the potential is huge. It is expected that most of this potential can be realised based on the use of the above named technologies, and relying on a new approach called blockchain technology, the latter aimed at facilitating data and transactions management. Blockchain supports logistics by a distributed ledger to record transactions in a verifiable and permanent way, thus removing the need for multiple remote parties to verify and store every transaction made, in agreement with the first “r” of maintenance (reduce, repair, reuse, recycle). Keeping in mind the total industrial influence on the climate change, we can expect that with the aid of the new advancements the climate change can be if not totally stopped at least reduced, and contribute to the green economy that Europe aims for. The paper introduces the novel technologies that can support sustainability of manufacturing and industry at large, and proposes an architecture to bind together said technologies to realise the vision of Maintenance 4.0.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

RFID evaluation strategy for customer fulfillment centers

Thesis (M.B.A.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Sloan School of Management; and, (S.M.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Engineering Systems Division; in conjunction with the Leaders for Manufacturing Program at MIT, 2006.Includes bibliographical references (leaves 66-67).Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) is a wireless technology that can be used to track inventory labeled with microchip-embedded identifiers communicating passively with scanners without operator involvement. This non-line-of-sight technology has the potential of dramatically increasing the level of visibility throughout the supply chain for many types of products, assisting in defect reduction, increased granularity in inventory tracking, and decreased direct labor. In recent years, developments in RFID technology have decreased the cost of RFID equipment, and several large U.S. retailers have started to use RFID to track consumer products. However, what is not clear is whether or not these RFID implementations have yielded economic returns. Although RFID promises higher read rates and increased accuracy, how the technology works in particular warehouse settings is not clear. The first step to determining the feasibility of RFID in any organization is the complete evaluation of RFID technology. This document discusses an evaluation strategy using the Six Sigma DMADV framework. The strategy was carried out at internet retailer Amazon.com.(cont.) The document discusses the various steps required for a complete implementation of the evaluation strategy and refers to the evaluation at Amazon.com as a case study. The purpose of this document is to recommend a complete evaluation strategy of RFID system components for any customer fulfillment center that is thinking of implementing this technology to replace existing tracking technologies such as bar code or other manual forms of tracking.by Howard H. Shen.S.M.M.B.A

Barriers to circular food supply chains in China

Purpose: This paper aims to identify and systematically analyze the causal-effect relationships among barriers to circular food supply chains in China. Design/methodology/approach: Grounded in multiple organizational theories, this paper develops a theoretical framework for identifying relevant barriers to integrating circular economy philosophy in food supply chain management. The study uses 105 responses from Chinese food supply chain stakeholders including food processors, sales and distribution channels, consumers and government officials. It applies a fuzzy decision-making trial and evaluation laboratory (DEMATEL) method to examine the causal-effect relationships among the identified barriers. Findings: Overall, the results suggest two key cause barriers: first, weak environmental regulations and enforcement, and second, lack of market preference/pressure. Meanwhile, lack of collaboration/support from supply chain actors is the most prominent barrier. The key cause and prominent barriers are also identified for each of the supply chain stakeholder involved. Research implications: The study offers practical insights for overcoming barriers to integrating circular economy philosophy in the management of supply chains in the Chinese food sector, as well as in other contexts where similar challenges are faced. It also sheds light on which organizational theories are most suitable for guiding similar studies. Originality/value: To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first barrier study on circular food supply chains. The use of multiple organizational theories for the development of the theoretical framework is unique in barrier studies. The study offers insights from multiple stakeholders in the Chinese food supply chains

A systems approach to the evaluation of Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) in the defense industry

Thesis (M.B.A.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Sloan School of Management; and, (S.M.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Engineering Systems Division; in conjunction with the Leaders for Manufacturing Program at MIT, 2005.Includes bibliographical references (p. 75-77).Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) is a wireless technology with possible applications in the supply chain. RFID tags' fast read rates, non-line-of-sight identification and large storage capacity may revolutionize supply chains in the defense industry and commercial world. Widespread adoption of RFID will require that companies achieve a return on their investment. System interactions between the implementation decisions, costs, benefits and performance of an RFID installation makes determining the optimal RFID system difficult. This thesis enumerates the various choices which affect the return on investment and describes how each is dependent upon the others. Formulating the problem as a optimization program allows one to maximize the return on investment. A three-stage process is proposed for evaluating RFID opportunities in any complex enterprise. RFID swim lanes, a new process mapping tool, is used in order to understand the complexities of material flow through facilities. A Microsoft Excel TM tool is used to formulate the optimization for the specific facility or enterprise contemplating RFID.(cont.) Finally, financial modeling is used in conjunction with optimization algorithms in order to determine the best course of action. In order to validate this approach, the process was followed to evaluate inbound materials opportunities at Raytheon's Integrated Air Defense Center. For this facility and others, there may be tremendous difficulty in achieving a return on investment at this time. However, the process ensures that the evaluation of RFID is performed thoroughly.by Ronak R. Shah.S.M.M.B.A

MSAT-X: A technical introduction and status report

A technical introduction and status report for the Mobile Satellite Experiment (MSAT-X) program is presented. The concepts of a Mobile Satellite System (MSS) and its unique challenges are introduced. MSAT-X's role and objectives are delineated with focus on its achievements. An outline of MSS design philosophy is followed by a presentation and analysis of the MSAT-X results, which are cast in a broader context of an MSS. The current phase of MSAT-X has focused notably on the ground segment of MSS. The accomplishments in the four critical technology areas of vehicle antennas, modem and mobile terminal design, speech coding, and networking are presented. A concise evolutionary trace is incorporated in each area to elucidate the rationale leading to the current design choices. The findings in the area of propagation channel modeling are also summarized and their impact on system design discussed. To facilitate the assessment of the MSAT-X results, technology and subsystem recommendations are also included and integrated with a quantitative first-generation MSS design