An RFID-Based Tracing and Tracking System for the Fresh Vegetables Supply Chain

The paper presents an innovative gapless traceability system able to improve the main business processes of the fresh vegetables supply chain. The performed analysis highlighted some critical aspects in the management of the whole supply chain, from the land to the table of the end consumer, and allowed us to reengineer the most important processes. In particular, the first steps of the supply chain, which include cultivation in greenhouses and manufacturing of packaged vegetables, were analyzed. The re-engineered model was designed by exploiting the potentialities derived from the combined use of innovative Radio Frequency technologies, such as RFID and NFC, and important international standards, such as EPCglobal. The proposed tracing and tracking system allows the end consumer to know the complete history of the purchased product. Furthermore, in order to evaluate the potential benefits of the reengineered processes in a real supply chain, a pilot project was implemented in an Italian food company, which produces ready-to-eat vegetables, known asIV gammaproducts. Finally, some important metrics have been chosen to carry out the analysis of the potential benefits derived from the use of the re-engineered model

A hybrid network/host mobility management scheme for next generation networks

Includes bibliographical references.The author proposes a hybrid network/host interworking scheme to allow the MN to transition smoothly between different access networks supporting two distinct mobility approaches

A comparative approach to the implementation of drug pedigree discovery systems

Thesis (M. Eng.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, 2007.Includes bibliographical references (p. 69-70).As the use of RFID technology penetrates and reforms the supply-chain industry, standards are being produced at all levels of the RFID technology spectrum, ranging from hardware to software. The Electronic Product Code (EPC) standard uniquely identifies RFID-tagged products. An application that supports the usage of EPCs is an Electronic Drug Pedigree (E-Pedigree), which is a historical record that indicates the chain of custody of a particular drug product being passed from one supply-chain partner to another. In order to fully implement track-and-trace of pharmaceutical products, software systems need to be built so that pedigree documents can be effectively stored and searched. In this Thesis, two approaches that address the issue of pedigree document discovery are presented-one centralized, one decentralized. The centralized pedigree discovery service extracts metadata from pedigree documents submitted to a centralized server and uses them in a search engine, such as Google Base, to located desired documents that match client queries. The decentralized service allows pedigree documents to be stored locally by individual business owners. Each local server is attached to a Discovery Service Unit containing metadata of local pedigree documents, and these units communicate with each other to form a network. Both approaches are implemented as Web Services.by Indy Yu.M.Eng

HP Brazil: Journey Towards Industrial Internet of Things Within Industry 4.0 Context

This paper features a case study of Hewlett Packard Brazil’s deployment of radio frequency identification-enabled Exceler8 platform to support its product assembly using Flextronics in Sorocaba, Sao Paulo and distribution by DHL. The study also identifies the stage HP Brazil belongs to in its journey to being a full smart factory using the framework of Odwazny et al. (2018). The case study and content analysis methods are used in analyzing the concepts prescribed by the Industry 4.0, smart factory, and Industrial Internet of Things (IIOT) frameworks to HP Brazil’s RFID system. The Odwazny et al. (2018) framework identifies HP Brazil as being in the maturity stage, with selected attributes of the “smart factory” stage since its Exceler8 platform supports vertical integration in its assembly, distribution, and recycling sites. Hopefully, empirical work will be pursued with vigor in the future to gain an understanding of the actual conditions that support the successful deployment of both Industry 4.0 and IIOT initiatives. Firms interested in applying Industry 4.0 and IIOT concepts within their production environments would be guided by this study. Applying the German Industry 4.0 model, their Industry 4.0 initiative would seek to (1) enable collaboration between humans and machines; (2) produce customized products in small batches; (3) optimize high automation; and (4) deploy devices in flexible and eco-friendly production processes to meet customization requirements