Critical Management Issues for Implementing RFID in Supply Chain Management

The benefits of radio frequency identification (RFID) technology in the supply chain are fairly compelling. It has the potential to revolutionise the efficiency, accuracy and security of the supply chain with significant impact on overall profitability. A number of companies are actively involved in testing and adopting this technology. It is estimated that the market for RFID products and services will increase significantly in the next few years. Despite this trend, there are major impediments to RFID adoption in supply chain. While RFID systems have been around for several decades, the technology for supply chain management is still emerging. We describe many of the challenges, setbacks and barriers facing RFID implementations in supply chains, discuss the critical issues for management and offer some suggestions. In the process, we take an in-depth look at cost, technology, standards, privacy and security and business process reengineering related issues surrounding RFID technology in supply chains

Construction informatics in Turkey: strategic role of ICT and future research directions

Construction Informatics deals with subjects ranging from strategic management of ICTs to interoperability and information integration in the construction industry. Studies on defining research directions for Construction Informatics have a history over 20 years. The recent studies in the area highlight the priority themes for Construction Informatics research as interoperability, collaboration support, intelligent sites and knowledge sharing. In parallel, today it is widely accepted in the Architecture/Engineering/Construction (AEC) industry that ICT is becoming a strategic asset for any organisation to deliver business improvement and achieve sustainable competitive advantage. However, traditionally the AEC industry has approached investing in ICT with a lack of strategic focus and low level of priority to the business. This paper presents a recent study from Turkey that is focused on two themes. The first theme investigates the strategic role of ICT implementations from an industrial perspective, and explores if organisations within the AEC industry view ICT as a strategic resource for their business practice. The second theme investigates the ‘perspective of academia’ in terms of future research directions of Construction Informatics. The results of the industrial study indicates that ICT is seen as a value-adding resource, but a shift towards the recognition of the importance of ICT in terms of value adding in winning work and achieving strategic competitive advantage is observed. On the other hand, ICT Training is found to be the theme of highest priority from the academia point of view

Penilaian kualiti persekitaran dalaman (IEQ) bangunan Akademik Institusi Pengajian Tinggi Awam (IPTA) Malaysia dalam konteks pengurusan fasiliti

Kualiti Persekitaran Dalaman atau Indoor Environmental Quality (IEQ) merupakan komponen penting dalam konteks bangunan mesra alam yang akan menentukan tahap kualiti penghuni di dalam sesebuah bangunan. Secara purata dianggarkan 80% kehidupan seharian manusia adalah berada di dalam bangunan. Ketidakseimbangan IEQ menyumbang kepada Sindrom Bangunan Sakit (Sick Building Syndrome) sekali gus memberi kesan kepada produktiviti para penghuni juga kepada struktur bangunan. Sehubungan itu, kajian ini dilaksanakan untuk mengenal pasti tahap kesedaran pihak pengurusan harta dan fasiliti di Institusi Pengajian Tinggi Awam (IPTA) terhadap IEQ dalam konteks bangunan akademik. Kajian ini juga bertujuan untuk mengukur tahap IEQ dan tahap kepuasan pengguna dalam bangunan akademik di IPTA. Kajian ini melibatkan bangunan akademik di 20 IPTA di Malaysia. Metodologi kajian ini menggunakan pendekatan kualitatif, kajian saintifik dan juga pendekatan secara kuantitatif. Pendekatan Kualitatif digunakan bagi menilai tahap kesedaran pihak pengurusan harta dan fasiliti IPTA melalui proses temubual yang melibatkan 20 orang responden. Manakala pendekatan kedua adalah melalui kajian saintifik ke atas bangunan akademik yang memfokuskan kepada pengukuran elemen keselesaan terma, keselesaan bunyi, kualiti udara dalaman dan pencahayaan. Hasil pengukuran elemen tersebut dibandingkan dengan piawaian dari Malaysia Standard (MS 1525;2007) dan UNESCO. Bagi setiap IPTA, lima buah bilik kuliah dijadikan sampel dengan tiga kali bacaan setiap hari selama dua hari diperolehi bagi mendapatkan bacaan purata. Seterusnya, melalui pendekatan kuantitatif, data yang diperolehi melalui kaji selidik melibatkan 500 responden dan dianalisis menggunakan perisian Statistical Package for Social Science (SPSS). Hasil kajian menunjukkan kesedaran para pengurus harta dan fasililti di IPTA terhadap IEQ adalah baik tetapi masih ada beberapa kelemahan yang perlu ditambahbaik. Hasil ujian saintifik yang diperolehi menunjukkan bacaan bagi suhu dalaman, hanya UniSZA, UTHM dan UniMAS yang menepati piawaian, manakala bagi pencahayaan, UM, UIAM, UPSI, USM, UniSZA, UTM, UTHM, UTeM, UMS dan UniMAS berada di bawah tahap piawaian ditetapkan. Bagi keamatan bunyi, hanya UM, UPM, UPSI, USM dan UniMAP yang menunjukkan bacaan pada piawaian ditetapkan. Keseluruhannya menunjukkan bacaan berada pada tahap yang sederhana dan masih lagi memerlukan pernambahbaikan. Kajian ini turut mempamerkan bacaan purata bagi setiap elemen IEQ bagi bangunan akademik seluruh IPTA. Penemuan hasil kajian ini dijangka dapat membantu pihak pengurusan harta dan fasiliti IPTA dalam usaha menambahbaik tahap IEQ dalam bangunan akademik di kampus universiti sekaligus dapat meningkatkan tahap pengurusan fasiliti dalam mencapai tahap kelestarian kampus IPTA di Malaysia

Construction informatics in Turkey: strategic role of ICT and future research directions

Construction Informatics deals with subjects ranging from strategic management of ICTs to interoperability and information integration in the construction industry. Studies on defining research directions for Construction Informatics have a history over 20 years. The recent studies in the area highlight the priority themes for Construction Informatics research as interoperability, collaboration support, intelligent sites and knowledge sharing. In parallel, today it is widely accepted in the Architecture/Engineering/Construction (AEC) industry that ICT is becoming a strategic asset for any organisation to deliver business improvement and achieve sustainable competitive advantage. However, traditionally the AEC industry has approached investing in ICT with a lack of strategic focus and low level of priority to the business. This paper presents a recent study from Turkey that is focused on two themes. The first theme investigates the strategic role of ICT implementations from an industrial perspective, and explores if organisations within the AEC industry view ICT as a strategic resource for their business practice. The second theme investigates the ‘perspective of academia’ in terms of future research directions of Construction Informatics. The results of the industrial study indicates that ICT is seen as a value-adding resource, but a shift towards the recognition of the importance of ICT in terms of value adding in winning work and achieving strategic competitive advantage is observed. On the other hand, ICT Training is found to be the theme of highest priority from the academia point of view

IT-enabled Process Innovation: A Literature Review

The importance of Information Technology (IT) is growing, and in a hypercompetitive market IT must be used as a strategic asset for companies to succeed. In order to gain strategic benefits from IT, companies need to be innovative when deploying IT. This can be achieved by reengineering business processes to take advantage of the possibilities IT provides. In 1993 Thomas H. Davenport presented a framework describing the role of IT in process innovation . Based on this framework, the purpose of this paper is to conduct a literature review to answer the following research question: What kind of opportunities does IT provide for process innovation? . Davenport\u27s framework is used as an analytical lens to review articles from the top 20 IS and management journals. The paper provides an overview and an in-depth analysis of the literature on IT-enabled process innovation and suggests avenues for future research as well as recommendations for practitioners. Our analyses reveal five distinct themes related to opportunities for IT-enabled process innovation, all of which offer guidance to practitioners and highlight gaps in our current knowledge about how to leverage IT for innovation purposes

Value Analysis Framework for RFID Technology Adoption in Retailers in China

Recently, RFID has emerged to be a promising technology to revolutionize the supply chain and logistics management. Currently there exists a sharp contrast between retailers in China and their counterparts in the United States with respect for RFID adoption. In the United States, big retailers like Wal-Mart are actively pursuing RFID by issuing mandates to their suppliers worldwide for RFID adoption. However, retailers in China never enjoy such a dominating role in pursuing RFID. To explore what is behind this phenomenon, in this paper, an analysis framework is proposed to develop decision support tools for RFID technology adoption analysis in retailers in China. The framework is realized in a service platform developed based on three principles to help reach mutual understanding between RFID vendors and customers in RFID technology adoption analysis. The framework is illustrated and validated through an example to demonstrate its feasibility to help to analyze the adoption of RFID technologies retailers in China. The technology analysis service platform integrates various tools enabling interactive and flexible analysis processes to understand how RFID technology can be adopted and used effectively in retailers in China and in logistics and supply chain management

RFID-enabled Warehouse Process Optimization in the TPL Industry

Using the value chain model and a longitudinal real-world case study of a third-party logistics (TPL) supply chain, this study provides support for the enabling role of RFID technology in effecting warehouse process optimization. Furthermore, the findings of our study reveal the RFID technology implementation costs as the key inhibitors factor of RFID widespread adoption and usage among suppliers