Rfid And Its Impact On The Supply Chain Management System

In addition, Metro estimated that with the increased accuracy of the cases shipped to the stores it would greatly reduce if not eliminate the need to send product back to the DC or worse, throw it out. Another beneficiary of the RFID tagging at the case level would be restocking at the stores. Due to the lag between products being received in the stock room in the mornings and the sales floor being restocked at night, the chances that the store would be under stocked were great. Using an RFID reader in conjunction with point of sale data, the store personnel would easily track inventory levels and restock more efficiently. The restocking efficiency was estimated to boost gross sales by .05% which would result in an increase in gross profit of €.05 per additional product sold.

One of Walmart’s most recent applications of information technology is the use of radio frequency identification or RFID. These tags can be used for all sorts of applications, but in the retail industry this they are used to track packages or individual products from the factory all the way to the sell. The tag itself emits a small radio signal that a server picks up and uses to identify the tag. These tags are placed on the product or package after assembly at the factory. The RFID servers tells the computers when the product has been shipped out. Warehouses do the same thing to determine then the package is entered and when it leaves for the store. At the store, computers use the tags to make inventory easier for clerks and are usually taken off once the package is sold. In some cases the RFID label is sometimes used to see exactly where the package is in route while shipping, provided they have the proper equipment. Information technology has been instrumental in the success at Walmart throughout its history.

RFID systems are currently being used in manufacturing plants to track parts, stay informed of work in progress, reduce product defects, increase throughput, and manage production of given products. Big name retailers such as Best Buy, Metro, Target, Albertson’s, Hewlett Packard, and Wal-Mart are leading the way in implementing RFID systems. These retailers recognize the need to improve inventory efficiency, ensure products are available to customers as needed, decrease theft, and cut down on costs associated with tracking and processing inventory.

However, it is important to mention about an active RFID technology in order to understand why it is not suitable for the case of the production in-house logistics. Active system provides constant visibility of inventory, they are placed in the zones wherever inventory needs to

PRADA has long been adopted management information systems into most of their business part including manufacturing, sales, and human resource management. PRADA has Group information technology director who primarily responsible for the management of the Group’s information technology system. In 2000s, by using radio frequency identification (RFID), PRADA tried to controls manufacturing system, inventory, warehousing, distribution, logistics, automatic object tracking and supply chain management. What PRADA expected from RFID technologies were improve the potential benefits of supply chain management through reduction of inventory losses, increase of the efficiency and speed of

The RFID is considered a significant improvement over the conventional barcode, which needs to be read by scanners in "line-of-sight" fashion and can be stripped away if the paper product labels get ripped or damaged. RFID can also facilitate inter-organizational E-commerce initiatives such as continuous replenishment or vendor-managed inventories (Smaros and Holmstrom, 2000).

RFID data is visible and trackable across the supply chain and reduces scanning error, stockouts and the labour required to move inventory (Shin & Eksioglu 2014, p. 633). Importantly, as Concept2creation (n.d.) shows picking and scanning cartons from the cages is labour intensive and requiring audits. Alternatively, RFID transmitters on pallets and cages, can automatically be scanned upon receipt. Cartons without RFID can be placed in totes to be tracked internally (Michel 2014,

Radio Frequency Identification Devices (RFID) have been used in the retail industry for more than fifty years as an inventory assessment application tracking product sales and distribution data for goods and services. Current trends of RFID for this industry have been favorable for hi-tech state-of-the-art industries, yet in the past years to 2014 device prices have fallen at an estimated average annual 5.3% primarily due to its characteristic as a "throwaway" inventory or control device. This market segment uses tags or labels, which are scanned and ultimately leave the store with the consumer, eventually disposing of the empty carton or used product. Retailer’s using this application method require multiple components and suppliers are

RFID is an abbreviation of Radio Frequency Identification and it is one of the top 10 supply chain technology trends (Intermec Technologies Corporation, 2007). History of this technology or where it first evolves is still vague, but there are consensus among expert stated that it first used and developed to identify the enemy aircraft during the World War 2 which known as (IFF) Identification: Friend or Foe System (Ward & Kranenburg, 2006).

RFID, or radio frequency identification, is the new system that is replacing the use of barcodes. RFID tags allow users to more quickly obtain information from the object that the RFID tag

Organization - wide common platform technological applications having lean methodologies of operations are highly appreciated by the firms nowadays. These technological solutions provide better planning of resources and optimizing the processes of the company and profit. The purpose of this research report is to explore one technology that has made a great impact on the supply chain and is increasingly becoming more popular. The Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) as an advanced technology in supply chain management is the technological solution most firms are looking at these days. RFID Technology is a smarter way to track shipments, time deliveries, and keep inventories which in turn makes operations faster and more efficient. Moreover, RFID helps the organization to enhance its overall efficiency. But it does not come without its own pitfalls which delays the adoption of this technology due to cost related and implementation issues. This report aims to identify the attributes of RFID adoption with a focus on importance of RFID in enhancing the supply chain performance, challenges to RFID implementation and its applications in supply chain management.

RFID technology is not only used at gas stations, restaurants, and department but also at

Radio Frequency identification involves a small electronic device that has a small chip and antenna. 2,000 bytes of data can be carried by this chip. RFID devices give an object or product its unique identifier, just in the same way that bar codes and magnetic strips which are placed behind credit, ATM or debit cards. The data stored on the chip is only accessible when on scans the device and then the information is captured on the computer. Though one needs to scan the RFID device to gain access to the data, it is not mandatory that one places the scanner directly beside the chip. The chips can be read from approximately 20 feet as it does not use line of sight. This gives RFID a greater advantage over the other methods for automated data collection. RFID use radio waves to transmit a signal that can be read by a reader thus enabling the chip to transmit information to the scanner which then converts the data to machine readable information(Taghaboni-Dutta & Velthouse, 2006).

In past few years the RFID technology has evolved rapidly, specifically in the field of supply chain. The vital application of RFID technology to business issues and leveraging its information can possibly advance discriminating methodologies, upgrade business discernment, and enhance cooperation crosswise over commercial ventures. (Klein, 2006) Also, supply chains today are helpless against

Some of the disadvantages of the RFID technology are that it is expensive to install. Small and medium scale enterprises find it costly to use it in their firms and offices. In the case of Harley Davidson, getting products from many different suppliers’ would mean that the tags may have to be installed in liquid and metal products. The problem is that the liquid and metal surfaces tend to reflect the radio waves, which makes the tags unreadable. The tags have to be placed in various alignments and angles for taking proper reading. This is a tedious task when the work involves a large organization like Harley Davidson. Another disadvantage of the technology is that interference has been observed if devices such as forklifts and walkie-talkies are in the vicinity of the distribution centers. The presence of mobile phone towers has been found to interfere with RFID radio waves. Wal-Mart, the retail sector giant, has installed billions of RFID tags in their products throughout the world and they have encountered such problems.