A survey of the Role and the Applications of Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) Technology in the Efficiency of Supply Chain Management (SCM) with an emphasis on Food Industries

Abstract

During the last decade, most organizations have implemented enterprise-wide applications and integration platforms. These implementations have delivered benefits in terms of data synchronization and information flows within the organization, and with trading partners providing valuable inputs for planning and optimization of schedules and reporting. The best and the most important technology of these technologies is RFID or Radio Frequency Identification systems. RFID is one of the most promising and the most advanced technologies released in recent years. Perishable and short life products, especially foodstuffs, are those cases causing the largest problems and challenges for supply chain management. These challenges are mainly due to the variety in the number of products, special needs for tracing and tracking the product flow during the supply chain, the short life of the products, the requirement for controlling the temperature in the supply chain and the high volume of the products we deal with.  Using the RFID system is one of the best potential solutions helping the supply chain management solve logistic problems of spoilable products. In food industries, the period of the product storage is short due to the high probability that the product spoils and the short time of the storage of the final product. Today, the changes in the ways of producing, distributing, maintaining and selling foodstuffs have caused changes in consumers' demands to increase the quality and the durability of foodstuff packages. Innovations are created in this industry to make sure of the desirable performance of packing in the supply chain of the foodstuffs, such as active or intelligent packing methods.

Keywords: SCM, RFID, automatic identification of the product, information, information technology, information systems, bullwhip effect, efficiency