Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) As A Competitive Advantage in Supply Chain Management

The concept of supply chain management has been done since prehistoric times. It has evolved over time with the optimization in manufacturing technologies. In today’s business climate, it is a standard operating practice that companies are continually trying to perfect in order to be more competitive. Supply chain management is far from perfect; there are still many issues, inefficiencies, and challenges that must be resolved. The current issues include uncertainties of process, supply, demand, or control. The use of radio frequency identification (RFID) is an established technology that is finding a new use within supply chain management. An RFID tag can transmit its information via radio waves when queried by a tag reader. When assembled onto a product, case, pallet, or container, this information can provide visibility to a company’s inventory system. This visibility can be extended throughout the supply chain. Since RFID tags do not need line-of-sight or contact, it can also be automated and provide benefits such as labor efficiencies, error reduction, labor savings, accurate asset tracking, and proactive stock management. Research was done through literature review of articles, websites, and white papers. Various examples demonstrated operational savings from the use of RFID within a supply chain. The variety of pilot studies and proposed implementations showed unlimited applications within supply chain management. The use of RFID in the supply chain is still in its infancy. There is a push by retailers and agencies to have the technology used. The use of RFID in supply chain management is not the cure for all the issues that a business may have. There is specific customization of the application as defined by business needs. The use of RFID in supply chain management still has future strategies that are currently unknown. Over the next decade, RFID will proliferate the supply chain due to usage maturity, decreasing tag prices, and better understanding of the technology. Note: The presentation associated with this report is included here as a supplemental file

Computer Configuration Interface: PowerPoint Presentation

AGENDA Objective n Mathematical Model n Example: VB Interface and Solutio

Computer Configuration Interface

Computer sales are on the rise again according to the Gartner Group, a market research firm for the IT industry. With third quarter “shipments of 161.3 million units”1 reported so far this year, the PC industry will reflect its largest growth since 2000. With all the purchases, there comes the process of selecting the components to make the purchase. At the consumer level, purchases for PC’s can be made via a third party vendor like Best Buy or Circuit City, or dealer direct via the Internet or by phone through vendors like Dell, HP, Gateway, IBM, and various other manufacturers. At these points of sales, the consumer can dictate the type of PC that is purchased, the configuration, and the components. Most consumer level purchases are single PC purchases in which these avenues of sales works well for the consumer. When we look at Corporate and University purchases, depending on their needs, which purchase multiple PC’s have more stringent constraints when purchasing PC’s as opposed to consumer purchases. They have budgets that they need to adhere to and a standardized configuration that is easy to manage. In terms of making the purchase, the avenues are dealer direct, value added resellers, or bulk third party vendors. With specific configuration parameters and budget constraints, the cheapest avenue for an administrator to get pricing and configuration parameters is through the dealer direct. Through dealer direct, an administrator can contact a sales person to get pricing or go through the Internet. The problem that is faced with the corporate administrator is that computer manufacturers website lack the feasibility to configure multiple pc’s in one interface. They are forced to go through multiple rounds of configuration parameters to get what they are targeting. The purpose for this research study is to look at ways to improve the process and to allow administrators to purchase what they need in a single session via the internet. This paper will detail the steps of our research and how we created the model to assist administrators get the mo st performance in purchasing PC’s with the budget at hand

Team Report 2 – Team 3

This paper discusses the experiences made by team 3 in Dr. Milosevic’s Communications and Teambuilding class in spring 2004. It is shown what the team had to do, how it approached the different tasks and how the team developed over time. Problems are pointed out and discussed. Finally a list of lessons learned is presented as recommendations for teambuilding in general

eBay (Strategic and Policy Issues)

Over the course of a decade eBay has exploded from a small startup into The World\u27s Online Marketplace™. In 1995, eBay\u27s founder Pierre Omidyar created a potent platform for a community of individuals and businesses to sell a host of goods and services. Millions of offerings across a multitude of categories are sold daily on eBay and Half.com, eBay\u27s site dedicated to fixed price trading. In fact, 2003 produced over $2.1 billion in net revenues, up from$1.2 billion in 2002. [EBay\u27s 2004 estimated revenues were announced as $3.15 billion, indicating that its continuing and unprecedented growth is showing no signs of slowing down. EBay\u27s long-term mission is to create the world\u27s most efficient and abundant marketplace in which anyone, anywhere, can buy or sell practically anything. However, as a pioneer in e-commerce, they are confronted with fierce competition and I many unprecedented growing pains associated with an e-commerce pioneer expanding rapidly into uncharted global markets. Teclmically, operating a secure, 24-bour Online auction house is challenging enough, but meeting the demands of a rapidly expanding client-base presents problems that could linlit bow eBay does business. Because of the very nature of how eBay\u27s online business functions, the sale of counterfeit and pirated goods continues to be problematic. Fraud is both difficult to prevent and investigate because of the high volume of transactions. Growing into other foreign markets, eBay anticipates that local, federal or international laws will make some transactions either difficult or impossible. EBay acknowledges that international expansion subjects them to a variety of risks. Their pullout from Japan in 2002 is evidence that local economic problems and competition are barriers internationally. Also, their recent move into China is not without risk either. Most Chinese citizens do not have checking accounts or credit cards for online transactions, and local competition is strong. Collectively, these and numerous other challenges add volatility to eBay\u27s stock and pose as challenges to their future

A Matrix Organizational Approach To Wind Farm Development Project Management

The motivation for this project is the complexity involved in the large scale of wind farm development and the project management challenges it presents, although there are successful projects completed, the lessons learned can be gathered at this stage and applied to following projects. Building from the current 6374 MW to the government’s initiative of 80,000 MW in fifteen years will be a challenge to many organizations and many project managers. From our research we find that wind farm projects are very challenging projects headed by project managers with intense project management skills. The Wind Farm projects are strongly influenced by social, commercial and environmental factors coupled with changing government incentives that support wind farm development as a renewable energy source