Logistics Assignment

Write a report assessing the potential business benefits for investing in RFID technology for transport or logistics organisation (3 PL provider)

1. The Executive Summary and main report must together be no more than ten sides of A4. The Reference section at the end of the report is excluded from the page count. No appendices are permitted.
2. Page 1 must contain only the title, your name and an Executive Summary setting out an overview of the report and recommendations written for the Senior Board.
3. The main body of the report should begin on Page 2; include an introduction setting out the structure of the report and a brief background for the organisation you have selected. The rest of the main report should be written in a critical style and fully referenced using the Harvard System.
4. You must include a discussion of any potential impacts on the organisation as appropriate.
5. The recommendations you make should include suggestions for how to manage the problems and challenges associated with implementing your chosen technology, and for controlling the transition and longer term issues associated with the organisational change process.
6. The main body of your report should offer a coherent line of logic, structured in a sensible manner to enhance understanding. Any recommendations you make must be justified and recommendations should also be summarised in the Executive Summary. Your report should not be overly descriptive.
7. In your report you will need to include a Benefits Dependency Network to demonstrate the potential benefits and impacts for your chosen technology. You will also need to explain how you will track the realization of each benefit.
8. All information sources used must be referenced using the Harvard system. The Reference section at the end of the report should start on a new page and does not count towards the page limit. Footnotes are not permitted.
9. The font size you use should be no smaller than Ariel 11. You may include diagrams and tables within the page limit.

1. Introduction

Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) (Want 2006) (Juels 2006), identification technology has been used in many applications. The purpose of the equipment is to identify and capture related information of the product. Human intervention is minimized in the system. The list includes – access management (ilic, Michahelles & Fleisch 2007), tracking goods (Hanni & Cartier 2013), smart dust (Buettner et al. 2008), timing sporting event (Avoine, Lauradoux & Martin 2009) etc. Tracking and managing inventory, assets and people are the functional aspects of the technology. 

The management (Shapiro 2000) (Simchi-Levi, Kaminski & Simchi-Levi 1999) has brought in the technology to provide efficiency and transparency. The companies adopt the cross-company process in their doings. Cross-company processes (Monczka, M. & Morgan 1997) aids in reducing cost, enhancing the quality and increasing speed. The approach brings in a new approach to the business arena. The approach aids in designing and managing process across traditional corporate boundaries.  Cross-company logistics need collaboration. They need to agree over syntax and semantics for the on-tag data. The procedure aids in the successful sharing of information along the supply chain. To make the technology work Electronic product code (EPC) network is utilized. The product code is based on a single unique identifier. The EPC is stored on the RFID tag. The related objects and process are kept on the same network.

The technology is an automatic identification technique. It relies on data storage and transfer/receiving data. RFID is composed of three main components – RFID tag, reader and antenna. The process is completed using the devices known as RFID tags. Contactless technology is used to transfer the necessary power to the tag. The technology used is known as the RFID reader.  Radiofrequency technology is used to map transmission between the reader and the tag. An antenna is embedded inside the tag to enable communication. A reader can be equipped with multiple antennas. An electromagnetic wave pulse is generated by the transreceiver of the reader. The transponder or tag receives the signal. This input is modified to provide dc power to IC memory. The data is captured by RFID middleware to do future processing. The tag transmits the processed signal. This enables the reader to obtain the tag’s ID number. The RFID middleware is responsible for capturing data. It enables extraction, aggregation, the transformation of data. The data is routed to the respective business application. It enables device management and application of business rules.

RFID tags are of two types. Active RFID tags are one of their kinds. They have a power source that enables them to communicate to long distance. Changeable data fields can be enabled by this tag. These tags aid in manual sorting associated with switch lists. The applications using this technology include automotive, transportation, logistics, healthcare and military. The second kind of tags is Passive RFID tags. They store the energy provided by the signal in their capacitor. This energy can be used for short communication.  The reader has to power up the tag. The measure activates if the internal power source exists. It can also result in a semi-active state. The RFID tags are installed on the objects to be tracked. The server has an RFID reader embedded inside them. This reader gathers information from the tags and stores them. The objects after passing through the gateways alert reader. The reader scans the tag to obtain the required data.

The antennas can be monostatic or bistatic by nature. One antenna is used for transmitting and receiving transmission in monostatic antenna. The bistatic antenna uses separate antennas to complete their doings. Transmission and reception are taken care of by different antennas. The system can also create circular polarized antennas. RFID portals and dock doors are some of the applications using bistatic antennas.