Radio Frequency Identification & its Application in Retail Business
Anupama Aroonkumar
University of Arkansas
Fayetteville, Arkansas
INTRODUCTION
Engineering is giving organizations approaches to end up quicker and more effective in every aspect of the inventory control and supply chain, from the business to the consumer. The motivation behind this paper is to investigate one technology that has had an incredible effect on the production planning. This technology is the Radio Frequency identification (RFID).
What is RFID?
Radio frequency identification has gained its awareness after it has been recently introduced in the field of retail and supply chain management. This technology uses radio waves to automatically
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This antenna enables the chip to transfer the waves back to the reader. The reader then converts the radio waves into digital information that can be analyzed from the computer. Based on the frequency the tags are classified as active and passive. Passive tags operate at microwave frequency and its use can be limited in the read zone. It will become latent after leaving the read zone. Active tags have power from an internal battery and hence do not need a reader. These tags can store more data and are expensive than passive tags. The picture below (Fig 1.) describes the process of RFID tags works. Figure 1 : How RFID Works
RFID Challenges in Retail Business
Agility, speed and visibility are required into all the manufacturing process during all stages to ensure high accuracy of delivering goods. There are a number of challenges that the retail business face before implementing the RFID like lacking transparency, time consuming and labor intensive manual work and challenging warehouse management, and production planning. All these are prone to human error. The RFID focuses on prime issues like out-of-stock (OOS), inventory accuracy, product location and loss detection. Implementing RFID with the business process enhances the replenishment practices of the company, decreasing the out-of-stocks.
Factors for Implementing RFID
By studying why the retailers wanted to implement RFID in their business operations, majority of the
Lately Conner and Martin have been working with “radio frequency identification” (RFID) technology. They have developed a detailed system designed to track inventory items using RFID tags embedded invisibly in products. This technology has numerous inventory
Given the facts in the case and as outlined in more detail in this case study, it is our recommendation that Mierdorf and Wolfram move to the case level RFID tagging process. The improvements up and down the supply chain in accuracy, inventory control, reduced labor costs are enough to at least continue with the RFID
Regardless of the frequency, method of communication, or the power supply, the goal of any RFID system is to enable specific data to be transmitted between a portable device and the tag, and then be processed and used accordingly. RFID systems are used for objects which get lost, stolen often, underutilized, or difficult to locate in a timely manner.
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
RFID is not new innovation by any stretch of the imagination. It has been around for a considerable length of time. It was utilized at first for vicinity access control. From there on, it developed to be utilized as a part of inventory network following, toll boundary control, and notwithstanding ensuring cars(Potter, 2005).They are different5 types of tags are available.
Today, RFID is used in retail, manufacturing, healthcare, agriculture, travel, entertainment, etc. RFID increases efficiency of operations, decreases reliance on manual process, improves asset visibility and traceability, reduces operation costs, and provides useful data for business analytics. There are many different reasons why companies and firms are beginning to make the switch to RFID, some examples are: automating inventory and asset-tracking in healthcare, manufacturing, retail, and business sectors; identifying the source of products, enabling intelligent recall of defective or dangerous items; prevent use of counterfeit products in the supply chain; improve shopping experience for consumers; provide visibility into the supply chain
RFID consist of a tag made up of microchips or a reader with an antenna. The reader sends out some magnetic wave. The tag antenna then receives this waves. Then the RFID tag draws power from the field created by the reader and it use it to power the microchip’s circuit. The chip then modulates the waves back to the reader which converts the waves to a digital data. The cost of a RFID is not quoted because pricing is based on volume.
Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) is a technology which makes use of radio waves to recognize devices or persons. In RFID machine is used that look through data carried in a wireless object or tag from an interspace without creating any physical interaction or demanding a line of sight. RFID is working by means of a microchip and an antenna. RFID technic is originated in the 1970s. RFID systems have a variation of applications, containing planning and observing the spot of persons and goods. Customers are probable to interrelate thru RFID network in stores that affix a tiny RFID transponder to manufactured goods, just as a laptop or other gadgets. The RFID transponder contains a chip that has data about the goods, and an antenna
INTRODUCTION: In June 2003 Wal-Mart first announced its plan to implement RFID technology in its supply chain by January 2005; this caught many of the suppliers unawares. Though the plans envisaged compliance from the top 100 suppliers, around 129 suppliers jumped into the fray, afraid of being left behind in the race. RFID technology was invented in 1969 and patented in 1973; after thirty long years WalMart has demanded its implementation. Expectations are high, unfortunately RFID technology is still in its infant stage.
A passive RFID tag, more commonly used, is one that is not connected to a power source. These tags rely on the electromagnetic field that is generated by specific RFID tag readers to create enough electrical charge to transmit the stored data in radio waves (Venkateswara, 2011).
Wal-Mart uses RFID technology to ensure a timely delivery of its products to the customers. RFID technology has assisted the company to adjust its shipments and re-stocking of inventory. RFID tool that is a part of knowledge management has reduced the delay between customer orders and shipments (Bidgoli, 2010). The company is evolving and growing after using knowledge management tools like RFID. Through the use of RFID, the company has developed competency required to survive in the uncertain
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.
The work of Niederman, Mathieu, Morley and Kwon (2007) entitled "Examining RFID Applications in Supply Chain Management" states that radio frequency identification (RFID) is a technology that has recently emerged in the news due to large organization's requirements that goods shipped by identifiable by RFID tags. The potential benefits of RFID tags include lowering of costs by improvement in inventory management, consumer information gathering, and checkout procedures. RFID tagging is such that data from a tag, which is attached to the product, a case, or pallet, may be "captured by a reader device. Functionally, this data can be used to identify all of the times passing the reader's location at a point in time." (Niederman, Mathieu, Morley, and Kwon, 2007) This enables the tracking of items "from supplier through the distribution network to the point of consumption." (Niederman, Mathieu, Morley, and Kwon, 2007)
Barcoding is governed by Universal Product Code UPC whereas RFID is governed by electronic product codes EPC. In its evolution Barcodes were categorized as 1D, 2D and 3D with increasing capacity to store information like manufacturer, product type, batch number etc. Similarly RFID has Active and Passive tags that are being chosen according to the necessity and level of security. An Auto-ID system implementation to a warehouse or a facility takes into account strategic,
Passive tags can be either battery or non-battery operated, as determined by the intended application. Passive tags reflect the RF signal transmitted to them from a reader or transceiver and add information by modulating the reflected signal. A passive tag does not use a battery to boost the energy of the reflected signal. A passive tag may use a battery to maintain memory in the tag or power the electronics that enable the tag to modulate the reflected signal.