Research article
RFID-enabled systems: a brief review Yahia Zare Mehrjerdi Department of Industrial Engineering, Yazd University, Yazd, Iran Abstract Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to introduce the most important engineering and prominent technology of the day, radio frequency identification (RFID), and the RFID-enabled systems from the current literature. Design/methodology/approach – Provides a general review of RFID systems. Findings – RFID technologies and information systems can be used to develop new systems on of off the web. RFID is an emerging technology with full benefits to be emerged in several years to all industries worldwide. It will bring a good opportunity for improving supply chain efficiency and hence the safety of the public in return. Research limitations/implications – RFID has the potential to change the way the business is done today. Practical implications – Some years down the road, new ways can be introduced for the entire world to do their business within the framework of a supply chain system. Originality/value – Reviews the current state-of-the-art on the RFID-enabled systems and its future opportunities. Keywords Radiofrequencies, Tagging, Supply chain management Paper type General review
the world. US Department of Defense (URL3, n.d.) is another big player with the influential voice that can have its words play big in the tagging and radio frequency identification (RFID) business. The world biggest retailer, Wal-Mart, expected to receive about four billion boxes in year 2004 and five billion in 2005 (Nogee, 2004). A decrease of 10 pennies in cost per box for year 2005 is about $500 million saving for Wal-Mart. The saving for year 2008 with the same usage incremental rate is about $800 millions. Management at Wal-Mart believes that RFID system can help them to do the following: . reducing labor costs; . reducing inventory costs; . reducing human errors; . increasing revenues by limiting shortages; and . increasing the overall efficiency and productivity of their supply chain.
1. Introduction While I was impatiently counting the number of people with their large shopping carts in front of me at Wal-Mart store in Manchester, Connecticut, there came an angel of mercy right toward my half-empty shopping cart. With a hand held scanner that she was holding head up began to add up the value of goods from my cart. While she was doing her job, with that load voice of hers announced that soon you all guys will not stay in the line for the long time. Wal-Mart is after a new technology that can scan the whole basket of goods at once. I am sure Wal-Mart will be successful in its way for getting into right and valuable technology needing to perform well. Such technologies will shorten the shopping line, increase service capabilities, bring more customers to the stores and enhance the company’s bottom line. All these means: . increasing profitability; and . enhancing productivity.
RFID has been identified as one of the ten greatest contributory technologies of the twenty-first century. This technology has found a rapidly growing market, with global sales expected to top $7 billion by year 2008 (Chao et al., 2007). Companies lined up to use RFID and employ experts to improve the efficiency of their operations to gain competitive advantages over time. As this is a rapidly developing technology, it is not possible to say what capabilities may be, in one, two, or five years, available much less further out. There has been significant advancements of this technology in just a few years, with no sign that limits of its potential have been reached. RFID technology and its application have attracted much attention from academics and practitioners in recent years.
Wal-Mart has asked its large suppliers to begin tagging all shipments starting from January 1, 2005 (Zare Mehrjerdi, 2007). It is important to note that Wal-Mart with its enormous purchasing power can force not only its suppliers to tag the shipments, to its warehouses all around the USA, but also makes it customary for all the shipments all around The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available at www.emeraldinsight.com/0144-5154.htm
Assembly Automation 28/3 (2008) 235– 245 q Emerald Group Publishing Limited [ISSN 0144-5154] [DOI 10.1108/01445150810889493]
This work was fully supported by Yazd University Research Council under the contract number of 50/P/485/1 prepared on August 20, 2007.
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Manufacturers can use RFID solutions to reduce operating costs through decreasing the labor costs, claims, and returns. This will help them to increase the operating income. They also can reduce the working capital by reducing inventory, lowering write-offs from the return goods, and unsaleable items. Main benefits of RFID can be categorized as follow (Zare Mehrjerdi, 2007): . improving the speed and accuracy for tracking pallets, cartons and containers; . helping to reduce stock levels; . helping to reduce operating costs; . improving the management of inventory; . improving efficiencies in WIP reporting; and . improving inventory visibility to feed JIT systems.
RFID frequencies and some of the types used by some countries. Section 4 discusses RFID costs. Section 5 discusses the wireless technology and its use in retail stores. Section 6 discusses the RFID-based system developments. Section 7 reviews some of the most prominent applications of RFID in industries. RFID challenges are discussed in Section 8. Author’s discussion and conclusion is given in Section 9.
2. Active vs passive RFID tags RFID is not a new phenomenon. It has been around for decades. It was used initially for proximity access control. Thereafter, it was evolved to be used in supply chain tracking, toll barrier control, and even protecting automobiles (Potter, 2005). There are four types of tags in industry that are known as: 1 passive tags; 2 active tags; 3 semi-passive tags; and 4 semi active tags.
To help employees find parking spaces once they entered the garage, InfoSys Company has installed a combination of ultrahigh-frequency RFID tags and magnetic sensors. Now, interrogators detect RFID tags embedded in windshield stickers attached to employee cars from as far as 3 m in front of the gate. The readers send each tag’s unique ID number to a middleware layer, which verifies that the employee associated with that ID has access to the garage. The middleware then sends a trigger for the gate to lift (O’Connor, 2007). RFID is a term used for technologies utilizing radio waves for identifying individual items automatically (Finkenzeller, 2003). The most common way is storing a serial number identifying a product and related information on a microchip attached to an antenna. RFID is used very similar to bar codes. It is designed to track items in the supply chain without requiring a line of sight. To read a bar code its lines had to stay in sight of the scanner to identify product correctly. Food and drug industries have enormous potential for utilizing RFID technology. This is largely because each chip is unique to the specific box of medication or food it is attached to. Therefore, tracking where each product is located becomes relatively simple. When a chip is attached to a box and manufacturer recalls a batch of products, then the RFID tags for the containers affected can be flagged electronically. Eventually, food and/or drug retailers will not be able to sell recalled products because cash register and store’s computer system will not allow it. Once this technology is coupled with the power of the internet and there is a real-time product recalls, where retailers’ own inventory control systems, tied into RFID databases, alert the store manager to pull specific type of drug off the shelves while leaving the rest (Kumar and Budin, 2006). Automatic identification and data collection had made large contributions to many companies bottom line. RFID is one of the most wanted technologies in today’s large successful enterprises like Wal-Mart, Dell, Automobile Part makers, Food Stores, Computer Stores, Bookstores and so on with the hope that operating costs will decrease and products will get more accurate in both data collection and reporting. More organizations from manufacturers to government agencies, retailers to healthcare providers are introducing RFID technologies into their supply chains, for asset tracking and on time management, and for the security and regulatory purposes. However, as companies explore these significant advantages through pilot programs the impacts of RFID technologies on the company wide network must be considered. The purpose of this paper is to review RFID-based systems, applications, and the challenges that it is facing with globally. Section 2 describes the active vs passive tags. Section 3 describes
Passive tags get their energy from a remote RFID reader (Figure 1). An active tag uses a battery for both the chip and the transmission of data on the antenna. Semi-passive tags use a small onboard battery to power the chip. Semi-active tags use the battery for powering the antenna but the chip relies on the RF energy from the reader (Potter, 2005). The life of active tags are limited while of passive tags are unlimited. Active tags are heavier than the passive tags and more costly as well. Table I identifies differences between active and passive RFID tags.
3. RFID frequencies RFID systems work at a number of different frequencies including 125 KHz, 13.56 MHz, 2.45 GHz and 5.8 GHz and for ultra high frequency (UHF) 860-950 MHz. Lowfrequency tags work along 120-140 KHz frequencies while high-frequency tags work along the 13.56 MHz radio frequencies. UHF tags work along the 850-900 MHz. Lowfrequency tags are less expensive and use less power compare to other kinds of tags. High and ultra high tags have better ranges and transfer data faster. These two types of tags use more power and are more expensive. Table II summarizes the areas of application of various chips for different frequencies (Qiu, 2007). Figure 1 RFID reader and tag
Source: Song et al. (2005)
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Chips cost is about $0.25-$0.35 while inlay cost ranges from $0.02 to $0.10 and assembly from 0.02 to 0.04. In comparison with the price of one chip being estimated to reach $0.05 in year 2004 it is still very high (Chao et al., 2007). The costs of RFID tags by some frequency ranges are given in Table II. There exists few ways in helping to reduce costs significantly: . utilization of a universal RFID chip that can be used for many applications; . capable of handling multiple applications; . reducing the cost of packaging antenna to the chip; and . automatic handling versus manual.
Table I Differences between active and passive tags Issues
Active RFID tags Passive RFID tags
Power sources
Internal
Power availability
Continuous
Communication range Data storage Signal strength from tag to reader Signal strength from reader to tag Weight Capabilities Operational life Memory Cost (in $)
Long range Large High
Energy transferred from the reader When it is in the field of the reader Short range Small Low
Low
High
120-130 g Read/write 5-10 years 2 MB 100
6-54 g Read only Unlimited Up to 16 kb 0.40-10
5. Wireless technology and its use in retail stores RFID technology is classified as a wireless automatic identification and data capture technology. RFID technologies include bar coding, optical recognition, biometrics, card technology, touch or contact memory technology, and RFID technology as can be seen from Figure 2. Wireless technologies represent an emerging area of growth and are at the core of most mobile commerce (m-commerce) applications (Ngai et al., 2007). More often than not the term of mobile and wireless are used interchangeably. However, mobile means the ability to be on the move (Mallick, 2003), but wireless refers to the transmission of data over radio waves, meaning that a wireless device is any terminal that uses a wireless network to
Source: URL1 (n.d.)
Table II Tag frequencies used by different countries Frequencies 125-134 KHz 13.56 MHz 433.05-434.79 MHz
865-868 MHz 866-869 and 923969 MHz 902-928 MHz 952-954 MHz 2400-2500 and 5.725-5.875 GHz
Tags application areas USA, Canada, Japan, Europe USA, Canada, Japan, Europe In most of USA and Europe and under consideration in Japan Europe South Korea USA Japan (for passive tag after 2005) USA, Canada, Japan, Europe
Costs ($) 3-10 0.5-5.00
Figure 2 Wireless technology
–
WWAN & SATELLITE WMAN
– 0.75 and up
WLAN
0.75 and up 0.75 and up
WPAN
–
Source: Qiu (2007)
Knowing that producers target specific industries once begin to produce a tag and try to expand to other areas as well it is important to know the producers and users at the same time.
Wireless
Mobile Active
Semi Passive
4. RFID costs
RFID Passive
The RFID reader acts as a transmitter/receiver. The reader transmits an electromagnetic field that “wakes-up” the tag and provides the power required for the tag to operate RFID readers usually cost around $1,000-$2,000 and RFID tags costs are as discussed below. The tag cost can be broken down into following components: . chip cost; . inlay/substance with antenna cost; . assembly cost; and . licensing cost.
Radio Frequency
Bar Code
AIDC
Contact Memory
Optical Recognition
Card Technology
Biometric
Source: Wamba et al. (2006)
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either send or receive data (Mallick, 2003). The wireless network can be divided into four categories of: . wireless personal area network; . wireless local area network; . wireless metropolitan area network; and . wireless wide area network.
soil water status in crop fields. Since the cost of designing this tool is relatively low one can install a large number of soil moisture sensors to adequately represent the inherent soil variability present in fields. Vellidis et al. (2007) described this sensor in more detail and how it was used in a cotton field for verification purposes. For more information on this topic see Hamrita and Hoffacker (2005) as well. Jedermann et al. (2006) have used new sensor, communication and software technologies to expand the facilities of tracing and tracking systems for food transports. An embedded assessing unit detects from sensor data collected by a wireless network potential risks for the freight quality. The proposed system autonomously configures itself to a product specific supervision task based on data scanned by an RFID reader during freight loading. In following sub-sections, four newly developed computer systems and data bases using current computer languages and RFID technology are reviewed. These systems are called: 1 RFID-based sushi management (RFSM) restaurant system; 2 logistic process knowledge-based system (LPKBS); 3 RFID-based quality inspection and management (RFIDQIM) system; and 4 RFID use in construction industry.
Wireless networks are used to access data, resources, vital information, and communication tools (Wamba et al., 2006). No single solution can maximize the value of RFID but rather a combination of technology needs to be taken into consideration to make the system functional, useful, and manageable. To obtain a necessary level of visibility, tags need to be read at many points in the retail store. For a retail store, the read points of the high value to the management and company’s investment might be those that are identified below (Kourouthanassis and Roussos, 2003): . receiving door for electronic proof of delivery and check-in into store inventory; . store shelves for inventory; . cash wrap for increased throughput at point-of-sale (POS); . door between back of house and front of house to track movements between the two areas; and . front door for electronic article surveillance.
6.1 RFID-based sushi management system Ngai et al. (2007) have described the design and development of an RFSM system in a conveyor-belt sushi restaurant to enhance operational efficiency. The system is designed to help restaurant management achieving better inventory control, responsive replenishment, food safety control, and to improve the quality of service. The RFSM system is comprised of five layers of: 1 data capturing front-end system; 2 data capturing and filtering layer; 3 processing modules; 4 workforce layer; and 5 applications layer.
Enabling each of these technologies demands a mix of technologies hence a proper solution is to consider a combination of different technologies developed at different locations within the store. All RFID readers are managed by an RFID edge application server, which in turn sends events to a store execution software application. Along with the POS this application generates the reports necessary to make analysis of the situations important to the store management. This report is capable of providing following information to store managers: . store inventory by area; . floor/shelf stocking reports; . shrink identification; . electronic proof of delivery and check-in; and . counterfeit/diversion detection.
To design and develop the architectural framework of the RFSM system a six-stage development method is used. These stages are: 1 business process analysis; 2 requirement analysis; 3 system architecture; 4 system design; 5 system implementation; and 6 system testing and evaluation.
6. RFID-based system developments A problem of the Hong Kong authorities and businesses are facing is the determination of an effective method for identifying counterfeited products. By now, RFID has been able to provide a tool for addressing this problem. To do so tags are embedded inside the apparel products such as garments or high-value apparel accessories. In order to determine whether a product is a counterfeit, tag authentication on that apparel product can be performed. It is shown that the present method is effective and its operation is reliable (Wong et al., 2006). Vellidis et al. (2007) designed a prototype real time smart sensor array for measuring the soil temperature and soil moisture using odd components. This tool was used to schedule irrigation in cotton farm. This new item is comprised of a centrally located receiver connected to a laptop computer and multiple sensor nodes installed and located in the field. The sensor nodes were consisted of sensors, a specially designed circuit board, and a RFID tag which transmits data to the receiver. This type of smart sensor can offer real potential for reliably monitoring spatially variable
This study demonstrates the significance and benefits of using RFID technology in the food industry, and the lessons that are learned from this effort should help the academic and practical literature further on the subject, especially in the area of RFID systems development. Figure 3 shows a sample network comprised of sushi maker, inventory control, three RFID readers, wireless system and more components. 6.2 Data collection through RFID technology and knowledge management A new paradigm of knowledge management called real time enterprise is based upon the premise of getting the right information to the right people at the right time in “real time” without being late and without delay (Lindorff, 2002; Lindquist, 2003). The system architecture of LPKBS is a 238
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Figure 3 Architecture of the RFSM system
5. Application Layer
Sushi Management system
POS
ERP
Other Applications
4. Work-Flow Layer
Sushi Quality Management (SQM) Work- Flow Engine
3. Processing Modules
Track & Trace Module
2. Data Capturing Layer
Data Monitoring and Alerting Module
DB
DB
Data Capturing and Transformation Framework
1. Data Capturing Front-end
RFID reader with antenna and tags
Read point 1
Read point 2
Read point x
RFID Handheld Reader and Tags
Read point y
Source: Ngai et al. (2007)
define dynamic logistics data such as location of equipment and current location of labor. All quality data in the quality information management (QIM) practice in the test lab are fed from various construction cases into the QIM system. Owing to the fact that most construction QIM records are case-based, certain data can help managers to enhance project planning and control. The QIM data and report is needed to obtain the latest updates for participants and customers. The LPKBS made three contributions to the company (Chow et al., 2007): 1 The adoption of RFID technology to achieve the process and resource visualization. 2 The interconnection of a multi-agent knowledge manipulation mechanism to the enterprise database where process knowledge repositions help the delivery of right logistics process procedures and logistics process logic. 3 The provision of real-time process information is important in achieving efficient resource allocation and process management.
server-based system which offers a knowledge sharing platform working in a logistics operations environment. The system architecture of LPKBS is comprised of five modules as shown below (Chow et al., 2007): 1 logistic data collection (RFID and palm); 2 data storage (data warehouse); 3 process knowledge management (which is comprised of process monitoring agent, process rule manipulating agent and process knowledge retrieval agent); 4 knowledge repository (which is comprised of process repository, process logic repository, and process knowledge repository); and 5 user interface (palm and PC). Each of these modules is shown in Figures 4 and 5. As it is shown, passive tags are attached to goods and equipments like pallets and forklift trucks, as well as onto the identification card of each dock door or facility entrance. Each reader contains one or more antenna which can recognize and read hundreds of tags within its reading range. Therefore, one can Figure 4 Data collection using passive RFID tags and readers
Forklift
Dock door Antenna Passive Tag Reader
In transit SOP_ID process_ID staff_ID equipment_ID start _time end-time quantity_received ... ...
Rack and Shelving
Data Collection Processor Source: Chow et al. (2007)
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Figure 5 Architecture of the process knowledge management modules
Palm
RFID
Web
Data Collection Module staff_id equipment_id
SKU_id dimension
process_time process_status
stock_ status
date time
location_id
Process Communication Agent (PCA) Process Data
Received Data
Invoke
Compare
Process Logic Agent (PLA)
Process logic
response
request
logic_id, constraint_name, constraint_operator,constraint_value
Process logic repository Diagnosis Result
Check Process Sequence
Invoke
Process Update Agent (PUA) Update Process Status Process flow repository Updated Status
Invoke Search Knowledge
Process Knowledge Agent (PKA)
K_c Search Result
Invoke
K_c
K_c
Report Export location Case
Invoke
Process knowledge repository
Process Communication Agent (PCA) Multi_Agent Platform Updated process status: Ready (R), Executing (E), Problem(P), Complete (C) Real time knowledge support: (i) Explicit based: -Standard Operations Procedures (SOP) (ii) Tactic based: -Knowledge Advice (codified tactic knowledge)
Process Visualization &Knowledge Presentation
Source: Chow et al. (2007)
aspects of information acquisition and information communication must be taken into consideration. Wang (2007) has conducted a research to test the impacts and influences of inserting RFID tag inside concrete. The research objective was to evaluate the application of RFID technology as a possible solution to quality inspection and management in concrete specimens. Wang performed field tests to determine whether inserting an RFID tag inside a concrete specimen influence the strength of the specimen. A webportal was developed for solving information communication problems. The center was controlled by the lab center management and provides customers and suppliers with real time, case-related information-tracing services. This enables users to respond dynamically to all quality inspections for customers. In this study, an RFID-QIM system was developed to enhance the efficiently and cost-effectiveness,
The true application of LPKBS, as reported by the author, indicates that the performance of logistics process greatly improves and most importantly a culture of knowledge sharing within the company gets developed. Additionally, the performance of this system is further improved by: . a knowledge base tutoring system – a process learning portal that includes a teaching tool to train and educate new staff members; and . logistics management activities linking to the system by the use of the case-based reasoning. 6.3 A quality inspection system coupled with RFID Using information technology, management can improve the performance of teams and hence the entire organization by sharing the most current information among the staff and workers. With regard to information sharing two important 240
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improve practical communication and control among participants and increase flexibility in terms of report delivery and response times (Figure 6). The RFID-QIM system has three distinct layers and four modules. The layers of this system are presentation, application, and database. The modules used in the system are: 1 test report module; 2 quality and inspection module; 3 progress monitor module; 4 e-specification module.
applications of this technology are far more than few and can attract the attention of both researchers and practitioners in real world projects. Song et al. (2005) presented a method extending the application areas of RFID in the construction sites intending to determine the precise location of tagged materials. For this purpose, the performance experienced with a commercially available RFID system is compared with the theoretical performance derived from an analytical discrete framework. Using this methodology useful parametric relationships between RF power, the number of reads and tag density and finally, performance trade-offs are characterized in order to propose guidelines for potential field deployments. The problem of managing and tracking equipment has always been considered as a serious problem in both hospitals and construction sites. In hospitals, the serious problems are ranging from bed facilities, IV pumps, surgical equipments, and wheel chairs to mention a few. By analyzing the operations and economics related to the problem of equipment tracking, we can conclude that there exists: . labor costs to find equipment; . the staff time lost for searching the equipment; . increasing purchasing or renting costs for not having equipment as needed; . patient and experts times lost due to finding equipment late; and . increasing inventory costs for purchasing extra equipment due to mismanagement of equipment.
With this study authors were able to demonstrate that passive RFID technology has significant potential for improving concrete specimen quality inspections and progress real-time information from a material lab enabling lab staffs and engineers to monitor and manage the whole inspection progress. Through the use of QIM information and reports participants can gain an improved understanding of caserelated quality and performance of work in progress (Wang, 2007). This system was able to enhance the construction quality inspection and management performance in four different categories named as: 1 improvement of working efficiency; 2 reduction of operating cost; 3 customer satisfaction enhancement; and 4 time saving in inspection operation and management progress. Using a case study, author has shown that working efficiency has improved by 23-28 percent, operating costs reduced significantly, customer satisfaction enhanced by 13 percent, and the time saved for inspecting operation and management was noteworthy.
RFID tags have been employed in the construction sites to track assets. These tags are capable of gathering data related to the location of targets items. Using RFID tags, it is possible to identify the location of the equipment on the construction site and to provide security at the level necessary to the management. Current methods for identifying the exact location of water, sewage and gas pipes under the ground are a major issue for utility companies. Using RFID on the
6.4 RFID use in construction industry One industry that has shown tremendous interests in using RFID technology is construction industry. Examples of the
Figure 6 The applications of RFID and web technologies in quality management system External Lab Area
Test Lab Area
Owner Managers
Consultant Firm Lab Center
Customers
Internet
Internet RFID Tag
Suppliers
RFID-based Quality Management System
Staff members Contractors Source: Wang (2007)
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pipelines can help utility workers to identify the exact location of the pipes under the ground. Song et al. (2005) have experienced in their automated tracking of pipe spools that field tests could be effective in construction environments where large metal objects are present and long read ranges are required. Figure 7 shows the steps which were followed during the field tests.
They have illustrated these concepts by drawing on the experience of five early RFID adopters from the Taiwan healthcare industry, and formulated this framework as a set of propositions based on the relevant literature, cases from pioneers in the field, and intuition. Doerr et al. (2006) developed a multiple attribute utility structure for the implementation of a major RFID/MEMS application, in which safety, manpower issues, and readiness (related to what is called safety capacity in the commercial sector) are all seen as important non cost-benefits. Their limited analysis of this utility structure shows that cost reduction may not capture all, or even most of the utility to be derived from such technology. Resistance to change in limited sample, potentially representing an implementation barrier is observed by the author. The cost analysis indicates that this RFID/MEMS application should produce substantial
7. Other researches on RFID Tzeng et al. (2007) have presented an in-depth analysis of the business value components that an organization can gain from the adoption of RFID. They proposed a framework to determine the business value of RFID technology emphasizing the delivery of value through the refinement of business processes and the expansion of the business model. Figure 7 Steps followed during field tests 1
7
Attach tags on pipe spools after inspection is completed
Make changes to set the parameter values
8
2
Note the parameter values
Note the ID of attached tags
3
9
Load tagged spools on truck for shipment to Job Site or Paint shop
Have truck pass through the portal, turn of/off the reader
4
10
Note the total number of tags on loaded spools and tag locations on trailer
Save reading data and determine the number of different tags read
3.0m
4.3m Set up a portal structure, connect antennas, reader & laptop computer
1.8m
6
11 Note the number of different tags read along the set of parameter values
5
4.3m 12
Determine values of parameters to test with
Remove tag from spools,and collect all equipment
Source: Song et al. (2005)
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cost savings. Sensitivity analysis suggested that these savings were robust against moderate miss-estimates from our subject matter experts. Authors think that the hybrid approach they had used should be applicable not only in the military, but also the commercial sector as well, though the qualitative benefits are likely to be different in the commercial sector. Estefania et al. (2007) have discussed the enabling of technologies for developing a flexible tag Microlab for food monitoring during the logistic chain. The realization of the system includes the integration of physical and chemical sensors with RFID communication capabilities. The first ISO 15693 compliant semi-active tag prototype, including lowpower control electronics, RFID antenna, commercial sensors, memory and a thin film battery, is shown together with the development of novel ultra-low power hotplates required for this application and the process, based on the use of anisotropic conductive adhesive flip-chip technology, for gas sensors integration onto flexible substrates. Lee et al. (2007) have discussed in their article titled “Radio frequency identification (RFID) implementation in the service sector: a customer-facing diffusion model” on three cost-conscious businesses having focused on using RFID systems to enhance the efficiency in the supply management/ logistics process. These firms go through an implementation process that focuses on the supplier-facing, back-office operations. Drawing from observations from three case studies in the service sector, they developed a complimentary customer-facing model, which focuses the diffusion of RFID as originating from those activities associated with the delivery of the actual service offering. Washington Hospital Center is planning to quadruple its RFID expansion soon. The MedStar hospital is using 700 active RFID tags; by spring, it will have more than 2,500 in operation across its entire campus (Dade, 2007). El Camino Hospital in Mountain View, California has established a state of the art healthcare system using RFID. A 1988 study of the developed system for the hospital had shown that the system helped to reduce medication error rates by 55 percent. Owing to automation of the pharmacy system of their hospital it takes less than 15 min to verify. According to the EL Camino Hospital CIO, reducing medical errors not only improves patient safety but also provides a huge benefit to the hospital. The average cost of an error can range from $4,000 to $12,000 per instance. Usually, RFID system is used for blood and plasma applications including tracking and tracing blood transfusions with a donor (URL2, n.d.).
proficient in RFID is the biggest challenges they faced in order to succeed in the RFID market (Morrison, 2005). In general, this is a serious problem all around the world and more problematic in Asia than USA and Europe. To implement RFID, gaining management commitment is another big challenge. Here, management looks into the ROI to assess RFID investment before commits to its implementation. Another challenge that companies face with is the high cost of implementation. To justify the adoption of RFID technology into business, cost-benefit analysis is a must. At the present, the costs of RFID adoption comprise the major investment in hardware, application software, middleware, and tags, and the cost of integrating the RFIDbased system with the legacy systems, of consultancy fees, and of employees. Main obstacles of RFID can be classified as: . standardization for RFID is not yet completed; . early adopters of RFID are still managing consciously; . many potential adopters are waiting on the sidelines for proofs of successful and safe adoptions; . compatibility with legacy systems is not addressed seriously; . security issues need to be resolved; . complexity and high cost for coverage in large plants prevent fast adoption; . power supply is always a great concern for wireless systems; . the reliability of wireless system remains unproven and it is considered too risky for process control; . lack of experienced staff for troubleshooting; and . future trends.
9. Discussion and conclusion A literature survey by Qiu (2007) shows that about a third of all RFID research concentrates on RFID technology and in particular its components (i.e. tags, readers, and antennae). This study has presented the RFID-based systems developed recently along with their applications. The RFID-based sushi restaurant is an interesting research showing how RFID can be used in service industry to make the control of system easy, manageable and cost-effective. With this research at hand, we can conclude that: 1 Opportunities to use RFID truly in businesses will happen only when: . management is committed to the idea of technology implementation; . there are sufficient RFID experts available to support; and . internal employees can be trained to do the task of an RFID expert. 2 As the technology matures: . more attention will be paid to less developed research areas; . new RFID-based systems will be developed; . more requirement for such systems will be appeared; . new companied will arise to develop RFID-based systems for businesses; and . new tools and computer languages will be introduced to make the technology more user friendly. 3 It is important for business and social science researchers to understand RFID technology because: . it can have a profound impact on how firms compete locally and globally;
8. RFID challenges The global challenges that RFID is facing with Wu et al. (2006) are human expert challenges, privacy issues, technology challenges, standard challenges, pattern challenges, cost challenges, infrastructure challenges, ROI challenges, barcode to RFID migration challenges, management commitment challenges, and technical support challenges. There are not many skilled RFID professionals that can help to set up appropriate systems to construct suitable applications. In a survey conducted by the Computing Technology Industry Association revealed that 80 percent of the responding companies said that there were not sufficient numbers of skilled RFID workers. About two-third of respondents pointed that training their employees to become 243
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new supply chains need to be developed and implemented; and . costs need to be studied and managed to improve the business bottom line. 4 Some countries are: . investing heavily in RFID technology research and development; . other not paying attention to the growth of this technology; . no standards are developed and policies set to promote the real adoption of RFID in big and small companies; and . no technical and economic decision rules are developed to guide practitioners to choose appropriate RFID systems for implementation. 5 The impact of RFID systems must be studied on: . companies and organizations in various industrial situations; . inter-organizational supply chain relationships; . shifting of leverage in the marketplace; . privacy and security issues; and . the adoption and acceptance of RFID at the user/ consumer level.
Estefania, A., Stefano, Z. and Santiago, M. et al., (2007), “Flexible tag microlab development: gas sensors integration in RFID flexible tags for food logistics”, Sensors and Actuators B, Chemical, Vol. 127, pp. 2-7. Finkenzeller, K. (2003), RFID Handbook Radio-Frequency Identification Fundamentals and Applications, Wiley, Chichester. Hamrita, T.K. and Hoffacker, E.C. (2005), “Development of a ‘smart’ wireless soil monitoring sensor prototype using RFID technology”, Appl. Eng. Agric., Vol. 21, pp. 139-43. Jedermann, R., Behrens, C., Westphal, D. and Lang, W. (2006), “Applying autonomous sensor systems in logisticscombining sensor networks, RFIDs and software agents”, Sensors and Actuators A, Vol. 132, pp. 370-5. Kourouthanassis, P. and Roussos, G. (2003), “Developing consumer-friendly pervasive retail systems”, IEEE Pervasive Computing, Vol. 2, pp. 32-9. Kumar, S. and Budin, J.P. (2006), “Prevention and management of product recalls in the processes food industry: a case study based on an exporter’s perspective”, Technovations, Vol. 26, pp. 739-50. Lee, L.S., Fiedler, K.D. and Smith, J.S. (2007), “Radio frequency identification (RFID) implementation in the service sector: a customer-facing diffusion model”, International Journal of Production Economics, December. Lindorff, D. (2002), “GE’s drive to real time measurement, CIO insight”, November, available at: www.cioinsight.com/ article2/ Lindquist, C. (2003), “What time is real time?”, CIO Magazine, February, available at: www.cioinsight.com/ article2/ Mallick, M. (2003), Mobile and Wireless Design Essentials, Wiley, New York, NY. Morrison, J. (2005), “Help wanted”, RFID Journal, March/ April, pp. 13-20. Ngai, E.W.T., Suk, F.F.C. and Lo, S.Y.Y. (2007), “Development of an RFID based sushi management system: the case of a conveyor belt sushi restaurant”, International Journal of Production Control. Ngai, E.W.T., Cheng, T.C.E., Au, S. and Lai, K.H. (2007), “Mobile commerce integrated with RFID technology in a container depot”, Decision Support Systems, Vol. 43, pp. 62-76. Nogee, A. (2004), RFID Tags and Chip: Changing the World for less than the Price of a Cup of Coffee, In-Stat/MDR, Report, available at: www.instat.com O’Connor, M.C. (2007), “RFID enabled billboard to mini motorists”, RFID Journal, January. Potter, B. (2005), “RFID: misunderstood or untrustworthy?”, Network Security, April, pp. 17-18. Qiu, R. (2007), “RFID-enabled automation in support of factory integration”, Robotics & Computer-Integrated Manufacturing, Vol. 23 No. 6, pp. 677-83. Song, J., Haas, C.T., Caldas, C., Ergen, E. and Akinci, B. (2005), “Automating the task of tracking the delivery and receipt of fabricated pipe spools in industrial projects”, Automation in Construction, Vol. 15 No. 2, pp. 166-77. Tzeng, S-F., Chen, W-H. and Pai, F-Y. (2007), “Evaluating the business value of RFID evidence from five case studies”, International Journal of Production Economics. URL1 (n.d.), “Active and passive RFID: two distinct, but complementary, technologies for real-time supply chain
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RFID is an emerging technology with full benefits to be emerged in several years to all industries worldwide. Large US companies and many large worldwide companies will be the big beneficiaries of this technology sooner rather than later. This means that many companies will take the advantage of this technology to increase their profitability and enhance productivity. This is an indication that larger companies will get larger and richer companies will get richer. John Williams the Director of the MIT Auto-ID Labs says that: “there is simply an enormous amount of applied researches that need to be done to move RFID forward and realize the dream of creating the internet of things.” In this paper, author has discussed about the RFID active and passive tags, the costs of tags and the frequencies used in some industrialized countries. To bring the application areas of RFID to current date, many articles are reviewed and summarized. It is hoped that this paper will provide readers with a good understanding of the current state of RFID research and the directions future works are taking.
References Chao, C-C., Yang, J.M. and Jen, W. (2007), “Determining technology trends and forecasts of RFID by a historical review and bibliometric analysis from 1991 to 2005”, Technovation, Vol. 27 No. 5, pp. 268-79. Chow, H.K.H., Choy, K.L. and Lee, W.B. (2007), “A dynamic logistics process knowledge-based system – an RFID multi-agent approach”, Knowledge Based Systems, Vol. 20, pp. 357-72. Dade, E. (2007), “Washington hospital center to quadruple its RFID expansion”, RFID Journal – The World RFID Authority, January. Doerr, K.H., Gates, W.R. and Mutty, J.E. (2006), “A hybrid approach to the valuation of RFID/MEMS technology applied to ordnance inventory”, International Journal of Production Economics, Vol. 103 No. 2, pp. 726-41. 244
RFID-enabled systems: a brief review
Assembly Automation
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visibility”, available at: www.audio.org/2002-documents/ sc31_wg4/docs_501-502/520_1800-7_whitePaper.pdf/ URL2 (n.d.), “Using RFID technologies to reduce blood transfusion errors”, available at: www.cisco.com/global/it/ URL3 (n.d.), “Boeing tags shipment to the DoD”, available at: www.rfidjournal.com/articles/articlereview/ Vellidis, G., Tucker, M., Perry, C., Kvien, C. and Bednarz, C. (2007), “A real-time wireless smart sensor array for scheduling irrigation”, Computers and Electronics in Agricultures, Vol. 61, pp. 44-50. Wamba, S.F., Bendavid, Y., Lefebvre, L.A. and Lefebvre, E. (2006), “RFID technology and the EPC network as enablers of mobile business: a case study in a retail supply chain”, International Journal of Networking and Virtual Organisations, Vol. 3 No. 4, pp. 450-62. Wang, L-C. (2007), “Enhancing construction quality inspection and management using RFID technology”, Automation in Construction, Vol. 17 No. 4. Wong, K.H.M., Hui, P.C.L. and Chan, A.C.K. (2006), “Cryptography and authentication on RFID passive tags for apparel products”, Computer in Industry, Vol. 57, pp. 342-9.
Wu, N.C., Nystrom, M.A., Lin, T.R. and Yu, H.C. (2006), “Challenges to global adoption”, Technovation, Vol. 26, pp. 1317-23. Zare Mehrjerdi, Y. (2007), “Profitability enhancement in excellent supply chain management through RFID utilization”, The First International Conference on RFID, Tehran.
Further reading RFID Working Group (2005), Radio Frequency Identification – Opportunities and Challenges in Implementation, Department of Defense, Washington, DC.
Corresponding author Yahia Zare Mehrjerdi can be contacted at: Yazm2000@ yahoo.com
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