RFID Application (Supply Chain management – Asset Tracking)
Introduction
RFID technology has been used in the systems since the time of World War II when it used in the aircrafts to identify the friendly aircrafts and after certain advancements have been done in the RIFD technology which led it to use this technology by U.S government in the New York Authority to collect the toll. And in the today’s, competitive world it is widely used in the supply chain management. The companies and governments use this technology in the supply chain system to manage the production, distribution and retail. This technology is being quite useful because the line-of sight scanning is not required in it, it reduce the level of labour, helps in better management of inventory and visibility enhancements of the goods. The ultimate aim of deploying the RFID technology in supply chain management is to establish the system in which item level tracking can be done which is a revolutionized practice in this field, which certainly increase the efficiency of the work and take it to next level.
Project blog
Weekly progress reports plan
In first week title, methodology and project plain has been done.
In 2nd week problem domain and justification has been done
Decoration and completion has been done in 3rd week.
Rationale
The rationale or the reason behind the implementation of RIFD (Radio Frequency Identification) consists of various aspects which will help in making the supply chain system smooth. It makes the system more secure with no discrepancies and with zero error by confirming the exact location of goods throughout the world. The following set of rationale which is responsible for the implementation of RIFD in supply chain: -
1)Problem Domain:- RFID is an electronic identification technique which provides an authentic solution to the problems which has plagued the supply chain in the past years. Like, we can take the examples of it:-
a)The problems which is related to cost of RFID implementation like in Wal - mart the significant problem in applying this system requires 9-25$billion which is too expensive.
b)The second problem is with the technology. Since the time of advancements in this system the problems are still there with the technology like signal distortion, reader accuracy and scalability.
c)The third problem is with standards like the Epc global and RFID standards, intellectual property and global implementation.
d)And the fourth and the main problem are privacy and security like data sharing risk.
2)Purpose and justification: -The main purpose of RFID application and the problems associated with this is to solve the problems that are mentioned in the problem domain. The above given details are the main problem which the RFID application is facing in the today’s world. The best justification of application of this technology in supply chain is: - the problem like cost and technology is required to be improved with the time and the services which are related to it. As to make that technology available to number of users then it required the services to be maintained and improved which increase the security level of the products and goods. RFID helps in making the supply chain system more precise and increase the reliability on the supply chain which certain affects the efficiency of the system. It provides the real time information about the product and also improves the system of administration and planning process.
Through these articles we found out some of the problems associated with RFID.
M.Kaur(2011) RFID Technology Principles, Advantages, Limitations & Its Applications retrieved on 14 Aug. 15 from
R.Want(2005)An Introduction to RFID Technology retrieved on 14 Aug.2015 from
Sponsor or supervisor recommendation
RFID application in the supply chain system is extensively and commendably recommended by the sponsor or the supervisor which is handling the main supply chain system. There are many advantages which force them recommend about the application of RFID during the supply of important assets, they are given in the below points:-
1)It helps in providing the real time information about the assets or the goods which has been supplied to the far destinations without any problem.
2)It reduces the chances of theft of the supply material at point of location.
3)It helps in planning and better optimization of the inventory at any point of time.
4)It is very helpful is scheduling and rescheduling of the supply chain management.
5)It helps in improving the system efficiency and increase the trust of the customers on the supply chain companies which are providing the services.
6)It is highly recommended by army and defence to use RFID system during the transportation of the supply material because of the above mentioned reasons.
Research questions and related titles
The following are the list of related questions that can be asked about the application of RFID in the supply chain management: -
1)What are the risk regarding the management of the supply chain data and integrity?
2)Is the identification of the position processes and back up for it have been done?
3)To implement RFID in an organization, the identification of the key environmental risks have been done?
4)Have the key risks regarding the security of the network been identified?
5)Have the risks regarding the change management and organizational culture been addressed effectively?
6)Is the mapping of the current business process have been made understood before implementing the changes in the system by RFID?
Conceptual and theoretical framework
The applications and information which support adoption of RFID technology is presented in the cases of Angles (2005). She provides the concept the RFID is useful in enabling supply chain visibility. But on the other hand she also states that further research is required to evaluate the fact that if the technology can live to the high expectations and also try to find out what are the factors which will make the implementation strategy effectively.
In the year 2000, Joshi proposed a framework whose aim is to achieve the visibility in the supply chain management using the RFID tags, readers’ tags, product identification codes, language of object description and the use of internet. After evaluation of the supply chain system performance with simulations of visibility of different kinds of information and forecasting functions, he proved that the sharing got the information and visibility of information increase the performance of supply chain and also reduces the costs across the entire supply chain. By considering these facts he then made a RFID Auto-ID solution which can provide visibility of the necessary information. His research represents a forerunner of EPS global Architecture framework which consists of different kind of technologies around RFID Auto-ID solutions. Like these there are many other frameworks which have been done by many scholars and researchers.
Methodology:
The following are the details of the methodologies which have been used during the framework of application of RFID technology in the field of supply chain management. The following are the factors which are considered:-
1)Research and system development methods: - During the research of the RFID applications in the supply chain management system (SCM) it is very clear that only the qualitative analysis is required to be done. There will be no quantitative data and analysis suitable for this kind of research. During the qualitative analysis the following methods are used ( Wensing & Harvey,2003): -
a)The literature about the supply chain management system will provide the basis information about it and will clear the concepts of history, development and classification of SCM systems.
b)Relevant individual cases will be selected related to RFID application in SCM systems.
c)Data from various internet web sites will be collected which range of qualitative and quantitative methods.
d)Analyses of the collected data from the internet will provide the knowledge of the proper qualitative and quantitative methods used for analyses like thematic analysis, descriptive analyses etc.
e)Comparison of the data across websites and conclusion will be drawn and hypothesis will be generated for further testing of the subject.
2)Data collection and system design methods: - The triangulation method is used in gathering the data to provide high accuracy in it. The second part of the project which the case study seeks the answer of the questions of how and why, because the most of the questions are designed in the form of how and why and not in the form of who, what, where, how much and how many (Brock, Kukulski & Tanis 2002).
3)Ethical issues: -
It is important to consider about the ethical issues of the concerned technology as it contain the vital data of the previous history and other risks which are present while handling the project. During the project, it is very important it should be approved from the governing government because they will ensure what is the kind of system that is to implemented and it should be legally cleared by the government. During the process the data collected will be stored securely with encryption or password protection.
4)Analysis of the data: - For the analysis of the data the following data management methods will be used :-
a)Organization and preparation of the data
b)Development of the overall picture of the project
c)Data analysis
d)Categorization and description of the collected data
e)Representation of the collected data
f)Data interpretations
These above methods of analysis of the data will ensure the accuracy of the collected data and further ensure that the research work going in the right direction.
Project Plan
The following are the steps which are taken under the project plan: -
1)Deliverables: - The project deliverables will be the much more efficient system of asset tracking, it will provide the confidence to the customers about the secure delivery of the goods to the destination points, develop the advance of handling the order and reorder of the shipment of the consignment, tracing the real time location of the carriage at any part of the world and remove theft and shrinking of the goods. This system will deliver the much more effective of managing the SCM system.
2)Work breakdown structure (WBS)(1st August 2015 to 9th October 2015):- The following is the work breakdown structure given for implementing the RFID technology in the SCM system: -
a)At the initial stage, the scoping, budge preparation, scheduling, risk analysis and forming a managing committee for successful running of the project will be done.
b)In the second step, the detailed mapping and simulation of the current manual project which is running in the SCM system and RFID processes. At this point the analyses of the sensitive points will be done which will provide results about the tolerance of deviation of the simulated results.
c)In the third step we need to take care of the hardware specifications, layout of the warehouse, installation of RFID equipment and training of the stake holders will be done.
d)In the fourth step, the software integration of RFID and existing manual system will be done or JD Edward system code. We need to pick the right consultant, pick right middleware, and redesign the existing system code and tarin the stakeholders according to it.
e)In the Fifth step, the pilot testing of the software will be done i.e the acceptance test if any kind of flaws found during testing then it will troubleshooted.
f)In the sixth and the final step, the full and final deployment of the RFID system will be done making sure the right KPIs are establish to sustain benefits. In addition to this a new system will be maintained and monitored periodically.
3)Risk analysis: - After the implementation of the project there is risk when other organizations try to get the data of the respective firms. There are main three kind of risk which are to be mitigated:-
a)Security risk: - This attack is done by the opponent or rival organization to destroy the system. One of the kinds of security risk is “DATA EAVESDROPPING” which intercept the communication between RFID tags and Readers.
b)Privacy risk: -This the risk which invades the privacy and is much concerned with the ethical issues of the organization which affect the working culture and working of the organization.
4)Duration: - The duration of the project will be of two months and nine days i.e from 1st August 2015 to 9th October 2015). In which all the formalities and training schedules will be made for the stake holders to get the necessary information about the project.
Gantt chart:
Referencing
1)Angeles, R. (2005). RFID technologies: Supply chain applications and
Implementation issues. Information Systems Management
2)Brock, D. (2001). The electronic product code: A naming scheme for physical
object. Retrieved August 30, 2005 from: AUTOID-WH-002.pdf..
3)Harvey, G. & Wensing, M. (2003). Methods for evaluation of small scale quality improvement projects. Retrieved May 27, 2005 from
4) Joshi, Y. V. (2000). Information visibility and its effect on supply chain dynamics.
Master of Science Dissertation, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, USA.
4)The Role of RFID Technology in Supply Chain Risk Management
May Tajima1[1]The University of Western Ontario, Canada
5)RFID technology introduction and impacts on supply chain management systems by Roman Christian Rochel, Master of computing, School of computing and IT, Mt Albert, Auckland NZ.
6)RFID and supply chain management: - Introduction to the special issue, by Tim Coltman, R.Gadh and K. Michael, Journal of Theoretical and Applied Electronic Commerce Research, 3(1), 2008, iii-vi.