Inventory Record Inaccuracy, Double Marginalization, and RFID Adoption

Radio-frequency identification (RFID) is an automatic identification method, relying on storing and remotely retrieving data using devices called RFID tags or transponders. RFID stands for Radiofrequency Identification. The acronym refers to small electronic devices that consist of a small chip and an antenna. RFID technology, initially explored in the 1980s, became more accessible and widely implemented by the early 2000s.Libraries Libraries have long served as essential institutions for knowledge preservation and dissemination, traditionally relying on physical resources like books and journals. RFID systems consist of tags, readers, and integrated software. The integration of RFID technology represents a significant advancement in library services, enhancing efficiency and user experience. A notable development in this area is RFID (Radio Frequency Identification) technology, which has significantly enhanced library management and user experience. RFID technology utilizes radio waves to identify and track objects, such as library materials, automatically. The advent of digital technology has revolutionized libraries, transforming them into dynamic hubs of information and community engagement. RFID technology provides several benefits, including improved user experience, operational efficiency, cost-effectiveness, and optimized resource utilization. The evolution of library technology began with mechanical cataloguing systems, progressing to automated systems and Integrated Library Systems (ILS). In a library setting, RFID technology improves inventory control, self-checkout systems, and security. While challenges exist, the benefits of RFID technology in improving library operations and services are substantial. RFID technology in libraries offers significant enhancements across various operational aspects. The adoption of RFID in libraries has led to benefits such as faster inventory checks, reduced checkout times, and enhanced security against theft. This technological evolution encompasses digital cataloguing systems, online databases, e-books, and automated circulation systems, among other advancements. Self-checkout systems improve user convenience by allowing patrons to borrow materials independently. RFID also enhances security through anti-theft measures and enables real-time data collection for operational insights and personalized services.

Radio-frequency identification (RFID) adoption with inventory misplacement under retail competition

Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) technology has received considerable attention from practitioners, driven by mandates from major retailers and the US Department of Defense. RFID technology promises numerous benefits in the supply chain, such as increased visibility, security and efficiency. Despite such attentions and the anticipated benefits, RFID is not well understood and many problems exist in the adoption and implementation of RFID. The purpose of this paper is to introduce RFID technology to practitioners and academicians by systematically reviewing the relevant literature, discussing how RFID systems work, their advantages, supply chain impacts, and the implementation challenges and the corresponding strategies, in a hope of providing guidance for practitioners in the implementation of RFID technology and offering a springboard for academicians to conduct future research in this area.

Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) technology has been considered the “next revolution in supply chain management” (Srivastava, 2004, p. 60). Current research and development related to RFID focuses on the manufacturing and retail sectors with the aim of improving supply chain efficiency. After the manufacturing and retail sectors, health care is considered to be the next sector for RFID (Ericson, 2004). RFID technology’s potential to improve asset management in the health sector is considerable, especially with respect to asset management optimization. In fact, health expenses have increased substantially in Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries in recent years. In Canada, the public health budget amounted to $91.4 billion (CAD) for the year 2005–2006 compared to $79.9 billion in 2003–2004 (CIHI, 2005). Moreover, the health care industry has been the focus of intense public policy attention. In order to curb this upward trend, the public heath sector in Canada is subject to strict budget constraints. Among the different alternatives for reducing expenditures, the improvement of asset management within the different health institutions appears to be worthwhile. RFID technology seems to be a viable alternative to help hospitals effectively manage and locate medical equipment and other assets, track files, capture charges, detect and deter counterfeit products, and maintain and manage materials. In other words, health care organizations would benefit particularly from RFID applications. The main objective of this study is to investigate the potential for RFID technology within one specific supply chain in the health care sector.B ased on a field study conducted in a large nonprofit hospital, this article tests some scenarios for integrating RFID technology in the context of two warehousing activities. We will first introduce the context of the health care sector and the current applications of RFID technology in that sector. The next section presents the methodological approach that was used in the study. The research findings and their implications are then discussed. Finally, some closing remarks are made.

PurposeDespite the high operational and strategic potentials of radio frequency identification (RFID) technology, very few studies have been conducted about its role as enabler of supply chain integration to achieve high‐level operational efficiency. The purpose of this paper, therefore, is to be an initial effort towards bridging the existing knowledge gap in the literature.Design/methodology/approachThis exploratory research was conducted in one retail supply chain. A multi‐method approach combining a longitudinal real‐life case study and a methodology integrating several steps, including a “living laboratory” strategy was used and involved all members of a product line to analyze their contributing activities and their interface with other supply chain members; the aim being to explore the impact of RFID technology on inter‐and intra‐organizational processes and information systems.FindingsThe results provide support to the role of RFID as enabler of better integration of timeliness and accuracy data flows into information systems, business process optimization through automation, better system‐to‐system communication and better inter‐and‐intra‐organizational business process integration. Furthermore, they also validate the unique characteristics of RFID technology such as enabler of real‐time multiple tags items data collection and exchange within the supply chain and the read‐and‐write capability that may help, for example, to reuse some RFID tags within the supply chain and therefore reduce the cost related to the purchase of the said RFID tags. Finally, the study also reveals the importance of business process renovation and complementary investments during the adoption of RFID technology, in order to achieve high level of business value from the technology.Originality/valueThe paper is original in the sense that it provides some empirical support for the enabling role of RFID technology in allowing supply chain integration.

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to investigate the adoption of radio frequency identification (RFID) technology in handling and supporting information services and activities in Kenyan university libraries. Design/methodology/approach – The study utilized a survey research design to collect data, ideas, opinions, views and suggestions from the respondents drawn from various university libraries in Kenya. Collecting data and getting in‐depth information from the respondents was done using a web‐based structured questionnaire, document analysis and participant observation. Findings – The findings from the study show that few university libraries in Kenya are using radio frequency identification technology to handle and support information services and activities. The study also found various problems hindering the adoption of the technology, such as a lack of information communication technology (ICT) policies, lack of a business approach, limited market opportunities, lack of lobbying or negotiating skills, inadequate funding and budgeting, and lack of ICT competencies and skills. The study recommends that library ICT professionals, information professionals and other stakeholders should make tireless efforts to implement and use RFID technology with the view to building, strengthening, improving and supporting information work and activities in university libraries. Research limitations/implications – The study involved RFID technology, a relatively new and emerging innovation in university library and information systems, especially in the Kenyan context. The study also involved university libraries in Kenya that provide and support the fundamental functions of their respective universities. Practical implications – Fundamentally, library ICT professionals, information professionals and other stakeholders need to take appropriate measures to address issues affecting the use of RFID solutions. There is a need to empower university libraries and information professionals with the right mix of ICT knowledge and skills necessary in the modern information environment. Social implications – Across the world, university libraries are increasingly adopting and implementing RFID solutions in order to handle and support information work and activities. Of critical importance to the discussion is the extent to which university libraries in Kenya are using this technology to handle and support information work and activities effectively and efficiently. Proper management of library operations and services is necessary in university library and information systems. Originality/value – The focus of the study was to assess the extent to which university libraries in Kenya are adopting and using RFID systems in information work and activities. This research is useful in providing a point of reference for university libraries and information professionals, increasingly going for similar solutions in Kenya and Africa in general.

Modern identification procedures such as radio frequency identification (RFID) are able to provide transparency in applications including supply chain, logistics and equipment management. The benefits of visibility and fast identification provided by RFID technology especially in supply chain management (SCM) reduce the risk of counterfeiting (Gao et al., 2004). There are two mainly ways in which RFID technology supports a visible and fast identification processes: 1) RFID allows for new, automated and secure ways to efficiently authenticate physical items; and 2) As many companies invest in networked RFID technology for varying supply chain applications, the item-level data can be gathered in any case (Lehtonen et al., 2006). Despite these benefits, RFID technology is still not widely implemented. The main reasons are, firstly, the difficult are, firstly, the difficult technical aspects of implementation resulting in high setup costs, secondly, growing security and privacy concerns. Our focus in this paper is to discuss the second reason for the low take-up of RFID technology, that is, security and privacy concerns. We argue that without applying maximum security and privacy, trustworthiness between supply chain partners will be minimal. As a result, the effectiveness and collaboration of traditional supply chain environment with RFID technology cannot be achieved. Given that humans cannot read the RFID tags on items and the tags themselves maintain no history of past readings, the challenge of security and privacy in this technology is related to the nature of RFID tags and their functionality (Juels, 2005). A retailer inventory that is labeled with unprotected tags may be monitored and read by unauthorised readers. The inventory data holds significant financial value for commercial organisations and their competitors. Once data has been accessed by unauthorised users, it can be cloned on empty tags, giving rise to the counterfeiting issue. Counterfeiting in the form of cloned or fraudulent RFID tags is the consequence of a lack of security measures and trustworthiness among the supply chain partners when RFID technology is used to automate their business transactions. Privacy violations stem from the fact that when goods are tagged, the manufacturers, retailers and consumers will be able to track the goods beyond point-of-sale (POS) because they have associated data. Even if the tags only contain product codes rather than unique serial numbers, a consumer’s taste in brands “constellation” can betray their identity.

Sustainability benefits of RFID technology in Vietnamese fashion supply chain

Radio Frequency IDentification (RFID) technology successfully integrates radio transmitter and receiver, small size memory space and control circuitry to remotely store and retrieve data via wireless RF transceiver. As low-cost RFID tag can be massively manufactured by semiconductor industry, new applications associated with RFID technology have emerged rapidly such as inventory tracking, book storage and management, and airport baggage handling. Generally an RFID system is composed of many RFID tags (or tagged objects), at least one RFID reader, and one backend application system with database. An RFID tag gains its operation energy from query signals that are radio waves transmitted by RFID reader. Once a tag responds the query with its stored information to RFID reader, usually a unique identity number or string, the RFID system can recognize the tag carrier and perform required business logic operation. As RFID technique is widely used in supply chain management, the corresponding RFID application systems are expected to process and manage large amount of tagged objects at a predefined period of time regularly. Therefore, for large-scaled RFID applications, tag reading throughput is very critical since it will affect the total data processing time. To measure tag reading throughput of a RFID system, two performance criteria are usually adopted: tag reading delay and reader energy consumption [5]. As RFID reader and tag always communicate over a shared wireless channel, it is very easy to have signal collisions during a normal tag identification process when multiple tags exist in reader’s interrogation area. Signal collision results in query or data retransmission and eventually increases communication overhead and time delay of tag identification. Hence, an efficient tag collision arbitration mechanism is very important and critical for RFID systems to achieve effective performance. Existing RFID tag identification schemes can be classified into aloha-based solutions [3, 10, 12-13, 16, 21, 23-24] and tree-based solutions [1, 2, 4, 6-9, 14-15, 17-20, 22]. In aloha-based schemes, a reader estimates the number of tags in its interrogation area and broadcasts the total number of timeslots to each tag. Then each RFID tag randomly selects its own timeslot to transmit its ID without knowing which timeslots have been selected by other tags. By distributing tag responses to distinct timeslots instead of getting all tag responses at the same time, aloha-based schemes effectively reduce the probability of signal collision. However, aloha-based schemes have tag starvation problem in which certain tags may not

Big Data refers to complex and unstructured data that is difficult to analyse and utilize with traditional applications and analyses. Big Data comes from a variety of sources, including tracking and sensor devices which are widely used in logistics and supply chain management, and relate to Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) technology. Thus, this chapter reviews the literature on RFID adoption in supply chain/logistics management from 1995-2015. We identify current trends in the literature, drawing on the three levels of decision making, that is, strategic, tactical, and operational. We suggest that more research needs to be conducted with regards to the intangible benefits of RFID, the use of RFID big data for achieving higher performance, and to shift the focus from the ‘what' and the impacts on performance to the ‘how' and the ways RFID is adopted and assimilated in organizations and supply chains. Finally, the managerial implications of our review as well as the limitations and future research directions are outlined.

RFID technology and its diverse applications: A brief exposition with a proposed Machine Learning approach

8 - Measuring the impact of radio frequency identification (RFID) technologies in improving the efficiency of the textile supply chain

Purpose There is a great deal of concern among the Egyptian economy that small- and medium-sized enterprises’ (SMEs’) potentials are not fully used although they dominate it and contribute to its success. The question is what challenges are preventing those SMEs from performing efficiently. This research aims to focus on examining the issues regarding the supply chain of Egyptian SMEs, exploring the areas that need improvement and assessing the impact of technology in enhancing their performance and whether they afford applying it. Design/methodology/approach In this research, semi-structured interviews were conducted at 14 Egyptian SMEs. Then, the business process at six of the fourteen SMEs was observed. After that, a representative sampling was applied and a company was chosen as a representative case company. Moreover, the selected company’s documents were analyzed to capture the full image of the current supply chain performance in Egyptian SMEs. Finally, the Six Sigma DMAIC approach was used to assess the effectiveness of the current supply chain and identify the problems faced and how to deal with these deficiencies. Findings The current process of the supply chain was analyzed and the result shows the obstacles and constrains facing SMEs in Egypt. Despite the clear benefits of radio frequency identification (RFID) technology, Egyptian SMEs still do not use it to solve their problems due to its high cost and their low budgets. However, the investigation concludes that SMEs in particular can benefit from the RFID technology and will be able to pay back the cost of the system applied after a certain period of time that is measured by calculating the breakeven point of having the RFID system against the current situation. As a result, improvements were realized and recommended for the organization. Originality/value This research develops a model that suits SMEs in the Egyptian market. The use of a case study approach with a quality measurement tool, namely, the Six Sigma DMAIC approach, especially after surveying several SMEs, and observing the business process at some of them, makes this a thorough investigation which proves that even SMEs can use the RFID technology despite its high cost that hinders its utilization. Thus, this research helps decision-makers in Egyptian SMEs make better informed decisions and guides them to when will they be able to pay back the cost of the system applied.

Traceability of bulk biomass: Application of radio frequency identification technology on a bulk pellet flow

The purpose of this paper is to explore and describe the costs and process of implementing radio frequency identification (RFID) technology to manage and control the rotation of returnable transport items. Owing to the novelty of using RFID in logistics and supply chain management, in-depth case studies were conducted at two global firms in the retail industry to investigate how and why organisations implement and assess RFID technology. These case studies provide insights into how RFID benefits have been attainable in practice, and indicate that the cost of introducing RFID technology is not generally a barrier. As a result, this paper proposes an inductively derived stage model of the RFID implementation process. In this, implications for management are identified and discussed to guide managers in the process of implementing RFID technology.