Online Tutoring on Impact of RFID on Supply Chain

Introduction

Today’s wireless technologies like Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) and International Position System (GPS) offer critical role as important provisions in mobile systems and communication systems these days (Reyes, 2011). The objective of Supply Chain Management is to generate, allocate, logistics/transportation and deliver products and goods at desired destination, at the right time, with desired quantity in order to satisfy customers with least cost and time wastage. So executing techniques of RFID that decrease project time and expense, and enhance performance and productivity is highly important (Soon and Jairo A. Gutiérrez, 2008). The aim of this research is to investigate the liabilities and advantages of the utilization of this technology in supply chain functions and its advantages is based on objectives comparative to the optimization of transportation activities; particularly pertinent to inventory management, replenishment procedures, and bullwhip effect. Besides, few approaches to assess the advantages of RFID in supply chain functions are recognized and elaborated. Eventually, the confrontations that disrupt the effective execution of RFID to progress the performance of supply chain are also investigated (Fowler, 2009).

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Research Questions

The important aim of the research is to explore the role and impact of Radio Frequency Identification technology to enhance the competency of the company’s own supply chain management. To acquire the major aims, the particular research questions are mentioned as below:

1. What is RFID?
2. What are the business advantages and disadvantages using RFID?

• What are business alternative using RFID?

1. Define the RFID benefits for business.

Research Methodology

Because of the fact that the utilization of RFID technology in supply chain process is a comparative new technology it became precise in the planning procedure that the research methodology must be appropriate for the evaluation of qualitative information as it could not be predicted to find a representation example of participants for the aim of quantitative evaluation (Fowler, 2009). In order to fulfil the aims of this research, descriptive research procedure is adopted. Through considering time, distance and money limitations, the attempt of this study is based hugely on secondary data sources. Here, the paper has tried to investigate literature comprehensively in the fields of supply chain management, transportations, inventory management, and RFID technology. Information and data obtained from secondary sources were synthesized by reviewing various published working papers, articles, online journals, websites and case studies (Fowler, 2009).

 

Literature Review

The technology of Radio Frequency has been present around since Second World War, at time when Allied Forces initially utilized the technology to recognize friendly air plane. Currently this technology is employed for mobile devices, animal tracking, and fuel pump key fobs, wild and domestic animal tracking as well as several other uses. Radio Frequency Identification is an evolving technology that has been progressively utilized in supply chain management and logistics in recent times (NIEDERMAN et al., 2007). This technology can recognize, categorize, and handle the flow of goods and data throughout a supply chain.  It presents the capacity to highly enhance supply chain performance because of its potential to offer affluent and timely data that raises control and visibility over the supply chain. Implementations of RFID in supply chain have raised (Angeles, 2012).

Adequate experimental proves is documented for utilizing supply chain management for efficient distribution and allocation. Nevertheless, literature on implementations of RFID is finely documented in the experimental researches (Mall and Mishra, 2012). RFID technology has been capable to improve support supply chain management attempts. The future effectiveness of RFID and other smart services will be highly impacted by the skill of businesses to present the right services and products to customers. RFID has the skill in other regions of operations, like manufacturing, total product life cycle management, after-sales service support. An RFID mechanism can be utilized to recognize several forms of objects, like manufactured animals, goods, and individual. RFID technologies help an extensive range of implementations—everything from resource management and controlling to manufactured goods and associated consumer services to access regulations and automated purchases. Every RFID mechanism has varied elements and personalization’s so that it can help a specific business procedure for a company. Relying on the implementation in a company and the organization within a company, a RFID mechanism can be highly multifaceted, and its executions may differ highly. Ideally, RFID mechanism may be comprised of subsystems (Irani, Gunasekaran and Dwivedi, 2010). An RIFD subsystem which words identification and pertinent transactions utilizing wireless interact. A company subsystem, which persists computers running particular software that can record, procedure, and evaluate information acquainted from RF subsystem dealings to make the information useful to a helpful business procedure, and an inter-company subsystem, which links company subsystems when data requires to be shared throughout organizational limits (Asif and Mandviwalla, 2005). Every RFID mechanism has an RF subsystem, which is comprised of readers and tags. In several RFID mechanisms, the RF subsystems are helped by a company subsystem that is comprised of middleware, networking services, and analytic services. Nevertheless, in a supply chain strategy implementation, a tagged good is monitored throughout its life cycle, from the production to final purchase, and sometimes even ahead (like to help targeted goods recalls or associated service), and therefore its RFID mechanism has to share data throughout organizational limits. Therefore, the RFID mechanisms helping supply chain implementations have also an inter-company subsystem. The company’s subsystem is the software and computer system that uses information restored on RFID tags (D’Mello et al., 2008).

It is the bond that incorporates an RFID system. Relying on the context of the industry, however normally a front end element handles the readers and the middleware part and antenna routes this data to servers that operate the fundamental database jobs. As an example, in a context of manufacturing, the company application will require to be made acknowledged of RFID at several stages relying on how far downstream into manufacturing and external into the supply chain RFID is executed (Asif and Mandviwalla, 2005). The middleware techniques are segmented into three segments: software applications which resolve issues with connectivity and checking in particular vertical regions, application executives that link separate applications within a company, and device brokers that link applications to gadgets such as shop floor systems and RFID readers. A software named ‘Savant’, developed by Auto ID Centre, MIT is destined to handle the huge bulk of information predicted to be created by RFID readers. For example, in a typical context of manufacturing, readers will be taking up a persistent array of tag information, which might have mistakes like duplicate and phantom reads. The feature of a savant application is to monitor and handle this information and forward data which is clean (Borriello, 2005).

 

A theoretical SCM Model

Successful supply chain management skills of generating planning solutions and assistance in taking strategic level verdicts. A supply chain is a stream of money, materials and data. A difference in this stream normally impacts the procedure. Such a supply chain procedure is regarded to be an ineffectual one, which directs to enormous issues such as lost of sales and stock outs (Catarinucci et al., 2011).

 

An implementation of the theoretical model for successful supply chain management utilizing RFID

Radio Frequency ID as an enhanced technique keeps monitor of the actual and predicted information and assists in taking an optimum decision at the correct time. RFID mechanism assists in decreasing inventory, decreasing product cycle time, enhancing the quality of the services and products, making adequate employment of assets, enhancing services and also assisting in proper information mutual within the company and among the various suppliers. RFID will be a highly advance in supply chain management; however companies will require doing substantial upfront testing and planning to effectively execute and incorporate the technology (Cazier, Jensen and Dave, 2008). Even though Radio Frequency Identification technology can be utilized in a huge range of uses. Its emphasize currently should be on the supply chain. The technology of RFID will have a substantial influence on every side of supply chain management—from the ordinary, like moving products through loading docks through the complex like handling terabytes of information regarding products on hand is gathered in real time. RFID will primarily be utilized to handle the identification of huge bulk of products-for instance, at the pallet and levels of cartons. Thus, RFID tags must have exclusive serial identifier information that relates every lot with a relating bill of lading offered from the originator. Since RFID readers can check tags several times during a second phase, the serial recognizer will protect the application making the information request from getting several counts of the same products (Chew, Lee and Sim, 2013).

 

Uses of RFID

RFID assists in recognizing, locating, regulating and monitoring the individual, procedure and product. RFID offers a highly a very crucial responsibility in supply chain management as it is only responsible for dispensation the whole supply chain information on the electronic records. The important uses are (Zhou and Piramuthu, 2012):

• Resource Tracking: RFID mechanism is highly useful for resource tracking in situation they are misplaced, stolen or not adequately used.
• Manufacturing: RFID mechanism is highly appreciated and utilized by the manufacturing firms.
• Supply Chain Management: Lastly, RFID mechanism was merely limited to the user firm and its supply chain procedure. Nevertheless, nowadays the organizations want to establish the system so that it can be utilized to track the procedure of their supply chain associates.
• Retailing: Consumers always predict right quality, optimum price and on-time offering. If there is a supply out, the consumers normally get redirected to the rivals. To prevent this complexity, an organization/retailer has to reinforce and improve its supply chain skill so that it can satiate its potential consumers in time. For this purpose, nowadays the majority of the retailers such as Tesco, Wal Mart and Metro favor RFID for their supply chain management.
• Access Control and Security: RFID is one of the optimum technologies to regulate access to the particular regions. Currently, vendors have launched a high-gain aerial which can be utilized to read tags from distant places.