Overview of the Case Study Harley-Davidson (H-D) and other companies that have many manufacturing plants or production units and various dealerships may consider implementing RFID technology as a means of increasing the efficiency of all parts of its supply chain. An abstract from Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia describes Radio-frequency identification (RFID), as a technology that uses radio waves to transmit data and uniquely identify an animal, person or thing. This case study looks at the potential use of RFID technology to replace bar codes and scanners in Harley-Davidson supply chain. It indentifies some pros and cons of its implementation and addresses the question – What are some of the issues Harley-Davidson will face in comparison with those experienced by other companies such as Wall-Mart when they tried to implement RFID in their supply chains. Finally it will present a timetable for the adoption of RFID technology by Harley-Davidson in its supply chain. Problem Statement “It was over a period of several years, Harley-Davidson reduced its number of suppliers from 4000 to fewer than 350” (Schneider, 2009), despite this reduction, it still has a significant spread of its operations. For a company incorporating such a supply chain in its sales of motorcycles and related product yearly, reducing or maintaining costs is very important. In such a situation the need to find more efficient ways to conduct the various aspects of the business in its supply chain is ongoing. “The part of an industry value chain that precedes a particular strategic business unit is often called a supply chain” (Schneider 2009), p. 230. Harley-Davidson supply chain will include all the companies involved in the design, production, ... ... middle of paper ... ...and-Held-2D-Bar code-Scanner---Advantages-and-Disadvantages http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Bill_Field Retrieved from http://ezinearticles.com Radio-frequency Identification (10/1/2009) Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, 6th Edition p1-1,1p Retrieved from http://web.ebscohost.com Database: Primary Search Roberti, M. (n.d.) New to RFID Journal, Welcome to RFID Journal http://www.rfidjournal.com/ Schneider, G. (2009). BUS 107 Electronic Commerce (8th edition) Course Technology, Cengage Learning, Strayer University Technologies: RFID/ What is RFID? http://www.aimglobal.org/technologies/RFID/what_is_rfid.asp TIBCO’s Solution for RFID implementation and integration http://www.hoffmanmarcom.com/docs/rfid_whitepaper-updated.pdf Works Cited `Schneider, G. (2009). BUS 107 Electronic Commerce (8th edition) Course Technology, Cengage Learning, Strayer University
A supply chain is a quality network of manufacturers, suppliers ,distributors, warehouses and retailers who by planned and coordinated activities develop products by converting raw materials to finished goods.
...radio frequency identification has been around more than 50 years and it has only recently received its well-needed attention. Radio frequency identification is a technology using radio waves to find and monitor objects, including goods and services in the supply chains. Walmart put RFID on the map by using it in their stores, vehicles and supply chain. RFID technology is only going to improve safety, convenience, and inventory management but widespread adoption in retail operations could take several years. The healthcare sector has already started to adopt RFID into their day-to-day work system. They are able to use the RFID method in many different areas to save time, money and more importantly waste. Barcodes and RFID work smoothly together as of right now but more companies and organizations will start to use RFID tags once cheap disposable tags are developed.
The Association for Automatic Identification and Mobility (2012) defines RFID as a universal term that is used to describe a system that transmits the identity of an object or person wirelessly, using radio waves. The function of an RFID system is to enable data to be transmitted by a portable device, called a tag, which is read by an RFID reader and processed according to the needs of a particular application (Association for Automatic Identification and Mobility, 2012). RFID tags are a small object that can be implanted or attached into products (clothing, shoes ect.), humans, or animals that enable storing and retrieving data possible. With no physical contact required, this type of data can be collected and read through clothing, the human body, and non-metallic materials. In recent years, RFID tags have been used in identifying animals for health or nonhealth reason...
The innovation of the RFID chip or the Radio Frequency Identification has been a critical piece of technology that has been around since the early/mid 20th century (est 1938). Functions of a radio frequency identification (RFID) tagging system involves a tag and a reader. When scanned, the antenna within the tag picks up the radio wave and sends a response back to the reader. This technology is being used for both short range and also long range identification, in the short-range identification category, this innovation is used in practical applications like credit cards (pay wave, tap and go ect.), animal identification (domestic pets, farm animals). The long range applications of the RFID chip is used in aeroplanes to bounce back a signal to radio control signifying their plane identification, the long range application of the chip is used in many other systems for similar purposes.
In the 1960s through the 1970s, companies realized strong engineering, design, and manufacturing functions were strong market strategy keys to create and capture customer loyalty. As the demand for new products rose in the 1980s, these market requirements were to increase their flexibility and responsiveness to adapt existing products and processes or to develop new ones in order to meet customer needs. As manufacturing improved in the 1990s, managers began noticing material and service inputs involving suppliers and their major impact on an organization’s ability to meet customer needs. As a result of these changes, organizations now find that it difficult to manage their own organizations. First, they must be involved in the management of their network of all upstream firms that provide directly or indirectly, as well as the network of downstream firms, which are responsible for delivery and market service of the product to the end customer. In order to succeed, managers have to realize that they cannot do it alone and they must work together on a daily basis with the whole organizations in their supply chains. Because supply chain management involves all functions within an organization, managers need to know what a supply chain is, why it is important, and the impact of supply chain management on the success and profitability of their organization. Today, Wal-Mart topped the list of the America’s biggest companies on the Fortune 500 list, “with sales of almost $345 billion — more than a quarter of a trillion dollars” (Forbs). Wal-Mart’s supply chain management is becoming recognized as a core competitive strategy.
Radio frequency identification (RFID) is a computerized ID innovation that uses radio recurrence waves to exchange information between an onlooker and things that have RFID gadgets, or tags, joined. The tags hold a microchip and receiving wire, and work at universally distinguished standard frequencies. Barcodes are much smaller, lighter and easier than RFID but RFID offers significant advantages. One major advantage of RFID is that the innovation doesn't oblige any observable pathway the tags could be perused as long as they are inside the range of the spectator, whereas in barcodes in order to read the barcode the barcode scanner should close around 10-15 fts. In RFID data, for example, part and serial numbers, assembling dates and support history is put away on the tags and catches which help in maintenance of equipments. RFID technology as high value for asset management and inventory systems
“Supply chain. Product life cycle processes comprising physical, information, financial and knowledge flow or movements whose purpose is to satisfy end-user requirements with physical products and intangible services from multiple, linked suppliers.” In other words, supply chains compose a network of different companies that cooperate closely for goods delivery.
This report has clearly in detail described the meaning, benefits as well as the need and challenges of the RFID in the supply chain system. While RFID comes with a larger magnitude of benefits than the bar code, it’s an expensive medium and comes at a price that may be prohibitive to many businesses. On the one hand, RFID is advantageous in different areas of the supply chain and does not require line-of-sight scanning; it helps in labor reduction, enhances visibility of products and processes , and helps in inventory management. On the other hand, RFID is an expensive solution, lacking benchmarks or standards, suffers from some adverse deployment issues, and suffers from major privacy concerns. However with the ultimate aim to see the establishment of item-level tracking which should act to revolutionize SCM practices, RFID is here to stay.
Wal-Mart implemented the system in January 2005 with the main aim to reduce out-of-stock by providing visibility into the goods storage with RFID tags. Before RFID was adopted for better managing distribution, Wal-Mart's employees have to manually count goods from their back room, manage goods arrival from suppliers and takes a longer a time to notice out-of-stock goods needed to be replenish, although it is simple to do but very time consuming for them. After implementing RFID, Wal-Mart became the largest retailer in the today world. They have 3 or more fixed RFID reader installed at the back of each store, as well as the sales floor and the back room because of large volume of goods that requires tracking. RFID reader keeps a record of all these goods, time upon arrival from shipping, real-time notification for out-of-stock goods on shelves and point of sale, this also reduce inventory shrinkage, due to the fact that Wal-Mart is a large firm, such occurrence cannot be avoided and harder to manage . With quick replenish of goods on the shelves, more sales will also be made. Employees now have more time to focus on other task, let RFID system do the job of tracking goods. It is estimated that Wal-Mart would saves up to at least 8 billion of US dollars due to labour cost. Thus, these factors indirectly increases Wal-Mart's profit margin enormously. In the end, Wal-Mart not only able to make more profit for themselves with this technology but also solve inventory problem they are faced. (Cost reduction in retailing & products using RFID,
Supply chain management has been defined as that process that involves the management of information, materials, and all the finances that are handled within and across the entire supply chain process (Christopher, 2016). The management is usually done through out the entire supply chain management from that moment when the suppliers are involved through all the manufacturing activities, different distribution activities, and the way that the products are served to the final product consumer (Turban, et al., 2002). The process also includes all the activities that different organizations offers to their customers as after sale services for purposes perfecting their services and products towards their highly valued customers (Christopher,
E-commerce, a system by which people can buy, sell and deal without even seeing the person on the other side, has taken a front seat in improving the economy of countries around the world. Technology today has made it possible for monetary institutions to help locate the customers resources and help solve their problems at any given time through online banking.... ... middle of paper ... ...
From PayPal to Debit cards, from EFT to Credit cards, this modern world has been inundated with new ways of making business transactions. Instead of the conventional use of dollars and nickels, now there are electronic payment systems. These types of systems allow for better trust and acceptance between consumer and businesses. In the traditional way of buying a product, one would see a product in person, and pay for it with cash or credit. In e-commerce, the business uploads images of its products online and it enables its customers to shop it using any type of electronic payment system.
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 identifies (Evans, 2012, p. 190). RFID tags are more helpful and will eventually replace barcodes entirely because they allow the user to scan the object without physically touching or optically reading anything on it. Rather than reading an identification number that is then looked up in a database, it is possible to gather information directly from the tag (Bonsor).
Zeleny, M (ed.) 2000, The IEBM handbook of information technology in business, Thomson Learning, London.
“Digital Commerce: March 2011”, Report provided by Internet and Mobile Association of India and available at http://www.iamai.in/rsh_pay.aspx?rid=0gWlBn0YPIA=