RFID-enabled cooperation in the supply chain [Elektronische Ressource] : organizational and technical aspects / von Christoph Tribowski

Christoph Tribowski

Informations

• Publié par: humboldt-universitat_zu_berlin
• Publié le: 01 janvier 2009
• Nombre de lectures: 9
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 3 Mo

Extrait

RFID-Enabled Cooperation in the
Supply Chain
Organizational and Technical Aspects
DISSERTATION
zur Erlangung des akademischen Grades
doctor rerum politicarum
(Dr. rer. pol.)
im Fach Wirtschaftsinformatik
eingereicht an der
Wirtschaftswissenschaftlichen Fakultät
Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin
von
Herr Dipl.-Wirt.Inf. Christoph Tribowski
geboren am 07.04.1981 in Bottrop
Präsident der Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin:
Prof. Dr. Dr. h.c. Christoph Markschies
Dekan der Wirtschaftswissenschaftlichen Fakultät:
Prof. Oliver Günther, Ph.D.
Gutachter:
1. Prof. Oliver Günther, Ph.D.
2. Prof. Dr.-Ing. Frank Straube
eingereicht am: 03. August 2009
Tag der mündlichen Prüfung: 15. Oktober 2009Abstract
Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) technology, which allows for the si-
multaneous identification of several objects without line of sight or human
interaction, promises to significantly improve supply chain efficiency. The
attention researchers and practitioners are giving it, as well as the spread of
RFID technology, has increased substantially in the last few years. Although
the highest potential to take advantage of this spread is expected to be re-
alized in cross-company applications, the status quo in the RFID project
landscape is dominated by local solutions within companies or pilot projects.
The use of RFID in the supply chain is still lagging behind its expectations.
Reasons for this phenomenon include high investment and operational
costs, the difficulty of assessing the benefits in advance as well as missing
standards. While cross-company applications exacerbate the need for stan-
dards (technical), they make it possible to overcome the cost problems (or-
ganizational). This thesis will tackle both these technical and organizational
factors.
Initially, a conceptual reference framework for structuring cross-company
RFID applications is introduced. This classification is followed by presenting
the findings of a quantitative cross-sectional study in which a possible im-
balance of costs and benefits among the supply chain participants is shown
to be a key factor for the perceived likelihood of a successful RFID introduc-
tion. In the course of using a collaborative RFID application, it is possible
to reduce the costs for the individual player by distributing them between
a larger number of participants and repeatedly using the same tag across
multiple supply chain steps. Regardless of this, high RFID costs are no
longer the crucial factor if the expected benefits exceed them; however, in
a multi-echelon supply chain, the players engage in such different functions
that the potential benefits will not be distributed equally among all partic-
ipants. While manufacturers and logistics service providers prefer to track
the flow of cases or pallets, retailers typically gain the highest benefit by
tracking individual items on the sales floor. In summary, the reasons for
these problems are based on the fact that the resulting expenses and benefits
realized are by no means distributed equally among the participants. For
this reason, a model for cost-benefit sharing – including different categories
of compensation as well as temporal dependencies during the life cycle of an
application – is developed.
Apart from these organizational dimensions of cross-company RFID ap-
plications, the technical dimension has to be investigated because missingtechnical standards are still an obstacle for the wider adoption of RFID. For
the capturing andcross-company exchangeof RFID read events, theindustry
consortium EPCglobal has developed a set of specifications that build the
technical basis for the EPCglobal network. Objects that are equipped with
an RFID tag that contain an Electronic Product Code (EPC) are identified
at several steps in the supply chain and information about the movement of
these objects (things) can be accessed via the Internet. Known as the Inter-
net of Things, this concept has recently received enormous attention. There
are three remaining problems, however, which are identified in this thesis: (1)
generating RFID events does not only require the data that is provided by
the RFID readers, but also corresponding context data; (2) the EPCglobal
network provides the technical basis for the Internet of Things, but not the
applications that might profit from using this architecture; and (3) there is
no standardized approach for storing user generated content besides the EPC
on the RFID tags. Solutions to these problems will be presented here:
1. We propose an architectural component called Event Capturing Appli-
cation (ECA) for the association of read events and context data and
develop a prototype that implements this ECA on the top of noFilis’
RFID middleware – CrossTalk. Experimental results indicate adequate
performance.
2. Several higher-level business applications that query the EPCIS repos-
itory are possible. In this thesis, Supply Chain Event Management
(SCEM) systems are analysed. The term SCEM refers to the prac-
tice of observing, prioritizing and reacting to events that can occur in
the operation of a supply chain. We specify a tentative protocol layer
that follows a push architecture approach; it serves to integrate hetero-
geneous enterprise systems that exchange EPCIS-based events. Sec-
ondly, an objective comparison between the centralized EPCIS-based
architecture proposed by EPCglobal is performed with the proposed
decentralized one. For this purpose, quantitative evaluation criteria
are developed and applied to both architectures.
3. EPCglobal has specified a stack of specifications that enable a stan-
dardized identifier to be stored on the RFID tag and all object related
data to be kept on the network. Such a standardized concept does not
yet exist for storing object related user generated data on RFID tags.
WerecommendapplyingISO13584, whichconcernsstandardizedprop-
erties. Following through with this recommendation, we conceptualize
how to use ISO 13584 to store data on RFID tags.
iiiFinally, case studies on two companies will validate the concepts developed in
this thesis. A case study on the use of RFID in the fashion industry will high-
light all aspects concerning cost-benefit sharing. The second case describes
two scenarios on using RFID at a kitchen furniture manufacturer. A study
of tracking white goods will verify the conceptual framework and a study of
storing data on RFID tags attached to cupboard fronts will show that our
proposed approach for storing data on tags using ISO 13584 is feasible.
Keywords:
RFID, Interorganizational Information Systems, Supply Chain
Management, Internet of Things
ivZusammenfassung
Radiofrequenz-Identifikation(RFID)ermöglichteineautomatischeErfassung
von verschiedenen Objekten gleichzeitig und ohne Sichtkontakt und ver-
spricht durch diese Eigenschaften eine maßgebliche Verbesserung der Effizi-
enz in Wertschöpfungsketten. Sowohl die Aufmerksamkeit von Forschern und
Praktikern an diesem Thema als auch die Verbreitung von RFID-Technologie
haben in den letzten Jahren verstärkt zugenommen. Doch obwohl das größte
Potenzial von RFID in unternehmensübergreifenden Anwendungen gesehen
wird, konzentriert sich der heutige Einsatz meist auf innerbetriebliche An-
wendungen oder Pilotprojekte. Die Verbreitung von RFID liegt immer noch
weit hinter den Erwartungen.
Als Gründe für dieses Phänomen werden hohe Investitions- und Betriebs-
kosten,dieSchwierigkeitenNutzeneinergeplantenAnwendungvorderReali-
sierungzuquantifizierenundeinefehlendeStandardisierungangeführt.Wäh-
rend unternehmensübergreifende Anwendungen die Notwendigkeit an Stan-
dards noch vergrößern, liegt in ihnen eine Chance zur Überwindung des Ko-
stenproblems. Die vorliegende Arbeit adressiert sowohl diese technischen als
auch organisatorischen Aspekte.
Einführend wird ein begrifflicher Bezugsrahmen vorgestellt mit dem Ziel,
unternehmensübergreifende RFID-Anwendungen zu strukturieren. Nach die-
ser Klassifikation werden Ergebnisse einer quantitativen Querschnittsstudie
präsentiert, bei der eine mögliche ungleiche Verteilung von Kosten und Nut-
zen unter den Wertschöpfungskettenteilnehmern als ein Einflussfaktor für
die wahrgenommene erfolgreiche Einführung einer unternehmensübergreifen-
den RFID-Anwendung identifiziert wird. Die Nutzung einer kollaborativen
RFID-Anwendung und die Wiederverwendung eines RFID-Transponders auf
verschiedenen Stufen der Wertschöpfungskette eröffnet die Möglichkeit, die
Kosten für jeden einzelnen Teilnehmer durch eine Kostenaufteilung zwischen
allen anderen zu reduzieren. Unabhängig davon spielen die Kosten eine ge-
ringere Rolle, wenn die erwarteten Nutzen sie übersteigen. Allerdings führt
die Arbeitsteilung in der Wertschöpfungskette dazu, dass diese Nutzen nicht
gleichermaßenvonallenTeilnehmernrealisiertwerdenkönnen.WährendHer-
steller und Logistikdienstleister im Vergleich zum Kosteneinsatz am meisten
von der automatischen Identifikation auf Ebene von Paletten oder Kartons
profitieren, erlangen Händler üblicherweise den größten Nutzen von der Iden-
tifikation auf Produktebene. Zusammeng