1. Introduction The report highlights in detail the role and the importance of Supply Chain Management (SCM) in an organization with respect to Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) and its growing impact in the industry and talks about the changing SCM trends keeping RFID as the focal point. Over the past few years, the increasing dynamism and competition in the business operating environment has led to a lot of changes in how the companies conduct themselves with respect to its customers. Customers being the focal point of revenue; manufacturers are increasingly taking interest in being focused on customer satisfaction by delivering the products and services on time. RFID has taken strides from being a far off solution to becoming a mainstream application that helps speed the handling of manufactured goods and materials. RFID is an identification and tracking tool for a product using radio waves. It uses a microchip and a printed antenna that can be then packaged in several different forms such as a label or embedded between layers of a carton. These labels are then used to identify the manufacturer, product category and the RFID enables this identification from a distance and unlike earlier bar-code technology, it does so without requiring a line of sight. (Finkelzeller) ‘Supply chain management integrates supply and demand management within and across companies. It encompasses the planning and management of all activities involved in sourcing and procurement, conversion, and all logistics management activities. Importantly, it also includes coordination and collaboration with channel partners, which can be suppliers, intermediaries, thir- party service providers, and customers’. (Web: Council for Supply Chain Management Pr... ... middle of paper ... ...same. 6. Conclusion 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.
Supply chain management is connected with the flow of products and information between supply chain members and organizations. New development in technologies enables organization to get correct information easily in their premises. Technologies used are helpful in coordinating the activities which manage the supply chain. By this the cost of information is decreased because now we have increasing rate of technologies. In an integrated supply chain where product or raw material and information flow in a bi-directional we as managers needs to understand that information technology is more than just computers.
Scott and Westbrook (1991) and New and Payne (1995) describe supply chain management as the chain linking each element of the manufacturing and supply process from raw materials through to the end user, encompassing several organizational boundaries.
There has been significant technological advancements over the past few decades that have revolutionized the way we live and conduct business. Radio Frequency Identification, or RFID is an example of an electronic data interchange network that has helped shape the global world in which we live. The applications of RFID technology has impacted the military, health industries, supply chain management, logistics and agriculture. There is a vast array by which RFID technology is used around us on a daily basis without us even realizing it.
Supply chain management is typically viewed to lie between fully vertically integrated firms, where the entire material flow is owned by a single firm, and those where each channel member operates independently. Therefore coordination between the various players in the chain is key in its effective management. For a supply chain to work efficiently, all the different divisions of it must perform in harmony. The most important relation in this chain is among the adjacent departments. They work must smoothly so that the task can be carried from one to the other. But for the whole chain to work effectively, it has to make a coordinated effort to achieve that goal.
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 management is basically refers to the fundamental supply chain analysis of the organization which predominantly describes functionalities from source to the delivery point. In this process of delivery, supply chain management framework divides in four categories: In Planning the products and suppliers evaluated and selected, Sourcing pull the information process including contracting, ordering and expediting, Moving is a physical process from suppliers to end user and Paying is the financial process including payment and performance measurement.
It is undeniable that Inventory Management is an important key to success at Walmart this paper will discuss the two main methods of Inventory Management used by Wal-Mart: Material Requirements Planning and Just-in Time. Next we write about the technical means of keeping track of inventories like RFID tags. We conclude with discussing how
In this regard, supply chain management is the actions that a company does to influence the way its supply chain is operated to maximize profits and cut costs, among other desirable effects (Buxmann et al. 2004). Traditionally, companies have considered activities, such as procurement, maintenance, distribution, and inventory control, as the most important elements in logistics. According to Buxmann et al. (2004), supply chain management not only takes into consideration traditional logistics, but also incorporates customer service, marketing, finance, and product development into the supply chain. Supply chain management views organizations, their products, and the supply chain, as one entity, and aims at understanding, managing, and controlling the various activities that enable the smooth flow of goods or services to the customer (Buxmann et al. 2004).
In all, supply chain operation management has helped many global companies in handling and distributing their products as it is a one-stop solution provider from one warehouse direct to end user. By building trust among the trading partners with effective communications would improve performance metrics both the company and the solutions provider.
Totty, M. (2009, June 2). Business Solutions New Ways to Use RFID. The Wall Street Journal. Retrieved November 14, 2011, from http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970203771904574175882366028604.html
Rogers, D., & Leuschner, R. (2004). Supply chain management: Retrospective and prospective. Journal of Marketing Theory and Practice, 12(4), 60-65
Supply chain management (SCM) is both art and science that helps to increase the productivity of the company, find the raw components it needs to make a product or service and deliver it to customers. SCM helps the companies compete with the dynamic international market. According to Christopher (1994), a supply chain is “a network of organizations that are involved, through upstream and downstream linkages, in the different processes and activities that produce value in the form of products and services in the hands of the ultimate customer.”
Supply Chain Management (SCM) is the management and control of the flow of goods. It includes the movement and the storage of raw materials, work-in-process inventory, and also finished goods from the origin to the consumption. SCM has been defined as “design, planning, execution, control, and also monitoring of supply chain activities with the goal of creating net value, building a competitive site, leveraging global logistics, combining supply with demand and measuring performance universally” 1. As part of my task, I will discuss the topics of logistics, communication within the supply chain, such as, information systems and Electronic Data Interchange (EDI), relationships with partners, the environment of SCM and the marketing channels and process. My objectives are to inform you how the process of SCM works, how it enables profitable growth and enhances customer satisfaction. SCM creates all positive outputs, according to the Journal of Operations and Supply Chain Management, results showed positive effects of SCM on all performance dimensions, backed-up by the resource-based and relational views of strategy 2.
In modern time, supply chain management has turned out to be more prominent with how supply is fabricated and disseminated through the cooperation effort of the countless investors. Supply management manages different partners working together on the most ideal approaches to disseminate supplies. Supply chain management joins clients, acquiring of supplies, generation, fabricating, stock, incorporation and dispersion of supply and management of supplies with countless individuals inside an association. Production network administration has been around as far back as documented history can tell.
Over the past two decades there has been a rapid growth and need for individuals who specialize in Supply Chain Management (SCM). SCM is the central planning of all industrial work and is the logistical motor that keeps the manufacturing world running efficiently; keeping a company's goods and services in constant supply to their customers: “A fundamental element of any business strategy is the supply chain process or strategy to deliver goods and services to the consumer” (Thomas, 2010). SCM requires a disciplined understanding and the use of fields such as economics, computer systems information and marketing. There is a great difference between a company that has an efficient SCM system with one company that has an inefficient supply chain affecting a company's entire resources from labor productivity to consumer loyalty. According to Rhonda R. Lummus (1990) "Interest in supply chain management has steadily increased since the 1980s when firms saw the benefits of collaborative relationships within and beyond their own organization" (p.11). Supply chain management is the brain-trust of any business strategy and when an effective model is put in place the benefits are shared by consumer and producer alike.