Data Management ofRFID-based Track-and-Trace Anti-counterfeiting in Apparel Supply Chain

With recent advancement in Radio Frequency Identification (RFID), RFID-based track-and-trace anti-counterfeiting has attracted considerable research interests. A track-and-trace anti-counterfeiting system requires an integral and reliable electronic pedigree (e-pedigree) to ensure high product visibility along the supply chain. With the continuous movements of large volumes of products along the supply chain, huge amounts of RFID data would be inevitably generated, posing great challenges to system development and operation. As such, the front-end RFID data should be well-formatted for efficient capturing, filtering, and synchronization in a logical and reliable way, so that the accumulated e-pedigree would be complete and trustworthy for subsequent product authentication. In this paper, we present an innovative track-and-trace anti-counterfeiting system for apparel products, and discuss a number of key data management issues, such as e-pedigree formatting, data synchronization, and traceability / visibility control. A data format of e-pedigree for full traceability of garments is proposed to support products authentication in item-level, products antilost in pallet-level and products status prediction in batch-level. Based on this format, a three-step mechanism of data synchronization is established to ensure e-pedigree integrity. To avoid possible leakage/falsification of e-pedigree data, an RBACbased access control is proposed as an auxiliary module of the anti-counterfeiting system.published_or_final_versio

The RFId Technology for Monitoring the Supply Chain and for Fighting against Counterfeiting: A Fashion Company Case Study

The purpose of this chapter, after a brief literature review, is to analyse how the RFId technologies applied by an Italian fashion firm, Oscalito, contribute to monitoring the supply chain and are a useful tool to fight against counterfeiting, enhancing the Made in Italy. In the textile sector, characterised by a short and constantly evolving production cycle, the RFId technology has enormous potential. According to Regulation (EU) No 1007/2011 on textile fibre names and related labelling and marking of the fibre composition of textile products, consumer protection requires transparent and consistent trade rules, including as regards, indications of origin. When such indications are used, they should enable consumers to be fully aware of the origin of the products they purchase, so as to protect them against fraudulent, inaccurate or misleading claims of origin. In this context, RFId technology has emerged as a valid support for the company not only to monitor the supply chain, especially with reference to inventory management, waste disposal, logistics and transport, but also to protect the Italian origin of production. This study also has some limitations, typical of the applied methodology

Fashion Industry

Fashion is a lot more than providing an answer to primary needs. It is a way of communication, of distinction, of proclaiming a unique taste and expressing the belonging to a group. Sometimes to an exclusive group. Currently, the fashion industry is moving towards hyperspace, to a multidimensional world that is springing from the integration of smart textiles and wearable technologies. It is far beyond aesthetics. New properties of smart textiles let designers experiment with astonishing forms and expressions. There are also surprising contrasts and challenges: a new life for natural fibers, sustainable fabrics and dyeing techniques, rediscovered by eco-fashion, and "artificial apparel," made of wearable electronic components. How is this revolution affecting the strategies of the fashion industry

Energy consideration when integrating Blockchain with IoT for anti-counterfeit

Blockchain technology has been growing in popularity after Bitcoin, the first protocol has demonstrated a strong use case of the technology in Finance. Over the years, as the technology develops more and more, other use cases for the technology which basically relies on a distributed ledger database system have been explored in areas like supply chain and Internet of Things, to help in some of the bottleneck which IoT faces, some of the challenges are security, privacy, scalability, etc. This thesis work will consider energy consumption when integrating IoT with the Blockchain for anti-counterfeit purposes. Because there is little public academic information about the integration of Blockchain with IoT, it is very difficult to ascertain quantitatively, the energy requirement in application areas like anti-counterfeit. This thesis work has to qualitatively, rely on projects whitepapers and application documentation when comparing the energy requirement in the integration of Blockchain and IoT used for counterfeit solutions by different projects. Both private and public (open-sourced) projects were considered and resulted in two broad classifications ‘integration by brands using a unique identifier (RFID and NFC)’ and ‘integration throughout a product lifecycle’. Energy need for each project(s) in a class is considered based on the IoT hardware used and the Blockchain generation and consensus which also seems to have an impact on the implementation cost and complexity of the project

Using social network analysis to combat counterfeiting

2013-2014 > Academic research: refereed > Publication in refereed journalAccepted ManuscriptPublishe

Value chain dynamics in the RFID technology

Thesis (S.M.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Sloan School of Management, 2006.Includes bibliographical references (leaf 66).RFID (Radio Frequency Identification) technology has been one of the oldest renewed technologies with a promise of becoming a foundation of "The Internet of Things" in future. MIT's Auto-ID labs and EPCGlobal have been instrumental in advocating standards, making mass scale adoption a reality. The early adopters were found to be in the retail supply chain industry followed by many interesting applications in areas ranging from Fish Tracking to authentication of currency notes. Projects implemented till 2006 were mainly pilot in nature with a desire to understand the technology, given its limitations and challenges and conclude with value propositions or return on investment analysis for corporations. This work has attempted to study such phenomenon in greater detail, bring together the dimensions of technology and business as related to the current state of RFID. We found a very different set of value dynamics applicable to each individual component in the RFID business landscape. Analysis on presented in more detail for manufacturers (Suppliers) of goods as well as Sellers (Retailers) of goods. Further work may be in the form of analyzing the remaining components like logistics players and end customers in a similar fashion.(cont.) Case studies and interview were done to collect data. Secondary sources of information in the forms of published reports and articles are also used and referenced. Management science techniques like Systems Dynamics are used to model some of the value parameters for each component in the retail supply chain. In conclusion, we think although each component of the studied landscape has shown value enhancement and erosion (primarily to cost factors), the overall system shows net gains. As all other technologies, RFID will become cheaper with increased adoption and has a very high probability to be prevalent and ubiquitous in near future.by Milind Tavshikar.S.M