Mobile commerce integrated with RFID technology in a container depot
Introduction
Radio frequency identification (RFID) is an emerging technology that has been increasingly used in logistics and supply chain management (SCM) in recent years. RFID technology can identify, categorize, and manage the flow of goods and information throughout a supply chain. Basically, it is made up of two components: the transponder, which is located on the object to be identified, and the reader, which, depending upon the design and the technology used, may be a read or write/read device [1].
According to the International Data Corporation (IDC), the market for RFID technology in US retail supply chains will rise from $91.5 million in 2003 to $1.3 billion in 2008. (http://www.rfidjournal.com/article/articleprint/733/-1/1/). The Freedonia Group, a research firm, estimated that through the year 2007, the total US market for smart labels will grow more than 23% annually, approaching 11 billion units and a value of $460 million. Through 2007, RFID will be by far the fastest-growing smart label market segment, with an estimated growth of 180% annually from sales of around 10 million RFID labels in 2002 (http://www.rfidjournal.com/article/articleprint/712/-1/1/). By 2006, Insight forecasted that tagging will be well on its way to becoming commonplace within supply chains, including among smaller retailers and suppliers, with an expected tag price of 1 to 2 US cents. Insight Research expected that tagging at the item level to be widespread, virtually replacing bar coding and making the “Internet of Things” a reality (http://www.rfidjournal.com/article/articleprint/675/-1/1/).
In general, the development of an RFID system is still relatively new to many organizations in Asia, in particular, in Hong Kong and China. With more and more organizations having a strong interest in RFID, RFID tools have assumed an important role in supporting logistics and supply chains. However, very little has been reported on how RFID systems for small–medium enterprises are designed and developed.
RFID is an emerging technology to support supply chains [7]. As the concept of RFID-based Supply Chain Management (SCM) evolves, systems that integrate the whole chain that provide instant visibility across the supply chain are likely to emerge. With the growing importance of logistics to the economies of Hong Kong and China, it is vital that local logistics companies come to grip with the issues concerning the adoption of RFID technology. They need to proactively raise their level of awareness of the strategic advantages of, and of their competence in, applying this disruptive technology.
In this paper, we describe the research and development of an RFID prototype system they integrates with mobile commerce (m-commerce) in a container depot to enhance its daily operations and support its location management. An RFID system integrated m-commerce architecture will first be introduced as a framework for research and the viability of the RFID integrated m-commerce framework will be tested in a container depot. This involves both business and technical aspects. Following the development of the framework, a case study is included to show how the framework can be applied in a container depot in Hong Kong. We will then discuss the benefits of m-commerce and RFID integration. We will see from this study that the innovative use of RFID technology can help a container depot gain competitive advantages through achieving better quality, greater visibility of data, and higher speed over competitors.
At present, the prototype system can track the containers and replaces the manual processes in the container depot. It is the real-time visibility of each container's position in the container depot that enables the operator to process the container more quickly and efficiently. This helps increase the throughput and reduce operating expenses for the container depot operator and can help reduce the waiting time at the depot of third-party truckers seeking to pick up their containers.
Section snippets
Literature review
There have been few publications on RFID research and applications in academic journals. Karkkainen [3] discussed the potential of utilizing RFID technology to increase the efficiency in the supply chain for products with a short shelf life. He concluded that when applied to recyclable transport containers, investments in RFID can provide quick amortization of capital while offering a range of operational benefits. Kourouthanassis and Roussos [4] designed and implemented a prototype system
Case study: a container depot
The case study company is a leading Hong Kong-based container depot that provides spaces to store empty shipping containers, container maintenance services, as well as container return and pickup services. It is located in Tin Shui Wai, occupies an area of 21,000 m2, and has a maximum storage capacity of about 32,000 twenty-foot equivalent units (TEU). The company provides major shipping lines and container leasing companies with container repair services. The company, which relies on a
Research questions
A research question evidently arises from these disadvantages. Can information technology be used to improve this situation? What kinds of technologies would be most appropriately employed to tackle the problem? With these questions in mind, we propose a solution that can be integrated with the existing system. The proposed solution takes the form of RFID technology that is integrated with the existing system. The use of RFID technology is motivated by the following:
- 1)
to keep track of the
Architectural framework of an RFID technology integrated m-commerce system for a container depot
The architectural framework of RFID technology integrated with an m-commerce system consists of the following fundamental parts (Fig. 1).
Decision support
The RFID integrated m-commerce framework discussed above provides a great deal of valuable real-time data such as information on the location of a container and the transactions related to it. The data are gathered and stored in the data analysis module of the CDMSS for data mining. We can make use of the data to extract business information that enables better decision-making. Using Online Analytical Processing (OLAP), with RFID technology and OLAP technology, instant decisions can be made
Issues arising in the implementation of RFID systems
Although the implementation of an RFID system is an advantageous move for container depots, there are issues that need to be further addressed. Because the container depot business involves different parties from container manufacturers and suppliers to maintenance contractors and users, it is possible that the entire industry is not technologically advanced enough to incorporate RFID. The major issues of implementation are described below.
Concluding remarks and future research
Most container companies do the planning and locating of containers manually based on their experience. There are no RFID-based decision support systems that support planning and location management. There has been little work done on this subject. The majority of the published work on container scheduling is theoretical, with a focus on designing optimization algorithms. Few real RFID-based applications have been reported, especially in Asia.
The goal of using RFID in container depots is to
Acknowledgements
This research was supported in part by The Hong Kong Polytechnic University under a research grant from the Area of Strategic Development in China Business Services–“IT for Logistics Management and Maritime Studies (grant number A632).” The authors are grateful for the constructive comments of the referees on earlier versions of this paper and appreciate the support from Container System Ltd. and help from Mr. Y.S. Choi, Mr. K.Y. Sin and Mr. Y.F. Chai in this research.
Dr. Eric W. T. Ngai is currently an Associate Professor in the Department of Management and Marketing at The Hong Kong Polytechnic University. His current research interests are in the areas of electronic commerce, decision support systems and e-supply chain management. He has published in a number of journals including IEEE Transactions on Systems, Man and Cybernetics, Information and Management, Expert Systems, Expert Systems and Applications, International Journal of Operations and
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Dr. Eric W. T. Ngai is currently an Associate Professor in the Department of Management and Marketing at The Hong Kong Polytechnic University. His current research interests are in the areas of electronic commerce, decision support systems and e-supply chain management. He has published in a number of journals including IEEE Transactions on Systems, Man and Cybernetics, Information and Management, Expert Systems, Expert Systems and Applications, International Journal of Operations and Production Management, Omega, Transportation Research and others. He serves as an associate editor for the International Journal of Enterprise Information Systems and on the Editorial Board of International Journal of Production Research. Dr Eric Ngai has received the Faculty Award for Outstanding Performance/Achievement in Teaching (2003–2004).
Prof. T.C. Edwin Cheng is Chair Professor of Management in the Department of Logistics of The Hong Kong Polytechnic University. He obtained his bachelor's, master's and PhD degree from the Universities of Hong Kong, Birmingham, and Cambridge, respectively. Prof. Cheng's research interests are in Operations Management and Operations Research. He has published over 250 journal papers and co-authored two books. He received the Outstanding Young Engineer of the Year Award of the Institute of Industrial Engineers, U.S.A., in 1992, and the Croucher Senior Research Fellowship (the top Science award in Hong Kong) in 2001. He was named one of the “most cited scientists” in Engineering over the period 1994–2004 by the ISI Web of Knowledge in 2004.
Sherlock Au is the director of Multi Base Ltd. His research interests include artificial intelligence, intelligent agents, and applications of AI. Au received a PhD in computer science from the University of New South Wales, Australia. Contact him at [email protected].
Kee-hung Lai is an Assistant Professor, specialized in logistics and operations management, in the Department of Logistics, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University. He received his PhD in business from the same university. His research papers have appeared in academic journals such as International Journal of Production Economics, Journal of Business Research, Omega, and Transportation Research.