Abstract

Supply chain management is the fastest growing application of radio frequency identification devices (RFID), but few organizations are equipped to deal with the accompanying flood of information. Most definitions of RFID emphasize the technological aspects, but there are broader implications, such as identification of individual items, the item's specific location at a given time, and automated provision of this information in or near real time. In traditional models, inventory decisions could be based on inventory position. With RFID, much more information is available when supply and demand decisions are made. An organization must have an essential data management infrastructure to manage RFID data across the organization and trading partners. There will likely be trade-offs between encryption and statistical or managerial usefulness of the data. RFID technology provides both opportunity and challenges for the future of supply chain management.