Unlocking Supply Chain Visibility with RFID Technology

In today's competitive market, supply chain visibility is crucial for organizations to make better supply chain management decisions. The use of RFID technology can improve supply chain visibility, enabling organizations to track product movement and manage their supply chain more effectively. This paper aims to investigate the relationship between RFID technology and supply chain visibility, as well as the importance of supply chain visibility in decision-making.

Dissertation
(To understand the relationship between RFID and Real Time Supply Chain Visibility)
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Abstract
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Table of Contents
Abstract......................................................................................................................................1
Introduction................................................................................................................................3
Research Background.............................................................................................................4
Research Problem...................................................................................................................5
Research Aim.........................................................................................................................6
Research Objectives...............................................................................................................6
Research Scope......................................................................................................................7
Research Questions................................................................................................................8
Research Hypotheses.............................................................................................................8
Summary................................................................................................................................8
Research Methodology...............................................................................................................9
References................................................................................................................................11

Introduction
The focus of this paper is to understand or investigate the relationship between RFID and the
real time supply chain visibility. RFID refers to Radio Frequency Identification. Companies
around the world are operating in fasts changing environment and more stakeholders are
engaging with each other on daily basis. The major challenge the companies are facing
nowadays is to handle the increased amount of information (Christopher, 2000). The
identification of right information and interpretation of them to make appropriate decisions
has become challenging. However, if the organizations that are engaged in the supply chain
activities gain and use information effectively and efficiently, then it is likely that the quality
of the supply chain will improve along with the cost of conducting the supply chain activities.
The supply chain visibility has been identified as one of the supply chain aspects that is being
considered as the popular method to handle the challenge that is being faced by the
organizations. The researchers have stated that the increased information visibility is likely to
improve the supply chain management. The involvement of technology with the supply chain
is one of the aspects that can help in improving the supply chain visibility. Technologies are
constantly improving and the organizations are adopting these with faster pace than before. It
has been identified that now the organizations are willing to adopt the technology in various
functions whether it is managing the manufacturing of consumer products, handling the
customers on daily basis or managing the employees within the organization.
The focus of this research paper will be to understand and analyse Radio Frequency
Identification technology that is likely to assist in effectively managing the supply chain by
improving the tracking ability. The RFID technology can be utilized in the tracking of
product transportation, shipment tracking, and effective management of inventories (Michael
& McCathie, 2005). This improved tracking ability directly converts to the efficient

management of the supply chain aspects with the reduced chances of error. Moreover, it has
been identified that the RFID technology is likely to enclose or supply comparatively large
number of information than the previous techniques of product or shipment tracking.
The current paper will assess the RFID technology in relation to the supply chain
management. Along with that, the focus would be on understanding the assistance of RFID in
improving the visibility of supply chain. The conduction of research will be based entirely on
the secondary research method where various past research papers of the researchers will be
picked to reach the research goal.
Research Background
The supply chain arena is continuously getting complex and the organizations can witness
competition in the supply chain. Few of the researchers have stated that the competition that
used to take between two organizations have shifted towards competition between two supply
chain network (Christopher, 2000). The change in the orientation can be credited to the
development of business environment that witnesses increase in the need of the consumers,
decrease in the life cycle of the products, unlimited mushrooming of numerous products from
every corner of the world, globalization of supply chain activities, and constantly changing
everything. Lee (2004) states that the environment has become complex than before and
therefore if the companies are willing to stay ahead in the competition while meeting the
needs of the consumers, then it is likely that they have to deliver quality goods to the
consumer as fast as possible and in lowest cost possible.
Along with that, the organizations should be able to supply the products through various
channels with the same efficiency so that they can ensure the shortest and cheapest route
possible in supplying the products to the consumers. The achievement of these supply chain
objectives is important to ensure that the firm stays profitable and sustainable for longer

period. Moreover, to achieve such efficiency, it is important that the firms have good amount
of information that can be utilized to make effective decisions. Information within the supply
chain can be of various forms and types and availability of all of them is sure way to make
informed decisions. The flow of the information within the supply chain network should be
form end to end and should be without any hurdle or challenges (McFarlane & Sheffi, 2003).
The smoothness of information flow is important along with the availability of the
information in the real time with the visibility to the different entities in a supply chain
network for good decision making. The individuals engaged in the supply chain activities
should be able to clearly visualize the entire supply chain network.
Research Problem
The limited presence of information in the supply chain management is likely to impact the
decision making of the organization in relation to supplying the products to the consumers in
timely and cost effective manner. Moreover, the organization will not be able to beat the ever
increase challenge in the competitive market. Therefore, it has become an important aspect
that the effective information should be available to the decision makers. The quality and the
quantity of the information decide whether the organization will be successful in the market.
The current advancement in the technology has led to the assumption that the visibility in the
supply chain can be improved due to the presence increase amount of information regarding
product or shipment movement (Francis, 2008). The challenge that is being addressed in this
paper is to understand whether the RFID, being a current technology in supply chain tracking
mechanism, is appreciable enough to assist in the visibility of supply chain. The RFID
technology is used to track movement of supplies by providing information of each product’s
delivery from one location to another (Delen et al, 2007).

Moreover, another aspect is to ascertain whether the improved visibility leads to the
improvement in the overall performance. The inclusion of technology is not only constrained
to the data shared by the RFID technology. There are various transactional data that are
generated at each supply chain points such as order negotiation, order fulfilment, shipment,
delivery, supplier information, providers, and others. Collectively, the vast amount of
information can be used to make improved decisions. The current research paper is oriented
towards understanding the same in detail in the further chapters.
The next sub-section shows the aim of this research paper followed by the research objectives
and scope. The research questions have been developed that are likely to guide in the
conduction of this research.
Research Aim
The aim of this research paper is to understand the relationship between RFID technology
and real time supply chain visibility.
Research Objectives
Based on the research aim above, the research objectives have been developed for this
research paper. The research objectives are given below:
- The first objective of this research paper is to understand the impact of RFID
technology on the supply chain. The focus would also be on briefly understanding the
RFID technology as it has been assumed that the understanding the RFID technology
will give greater understanding in its impact.
- The second objective of this research paper is to understand the aspects of Supply
Chain Visibility. There are various facets of Supply Chain Visibility and in this
research paper, major ones will be assessed that are directly associated with the
research aim.

- The third objective of this research paper is to understand the utility of RFID
technology in improving supply chain visibility. It is expected that the understanding
of the various aspects of RFID technology and supply chain visibility while fulfilling
the previous two research objectives will lead to understand the utility of RFID
technology in improving the supply chain visibility.
Research Scope
The research scope refers to the premise within which the entire research will be conducted.
The current research paper only considered the aspects that are directly related to the topic
under study and the subjects that are vaguely related to the research topic has not been
considered for discussion to keep the research paper brief and to the point. The research
scope of this research paper has been developed to increase the feasibility for conducting the
research. The research scopes are given below:
- The first research scope of this research paper is to assess the research papers
developed by other researchers or academicians in relation to the various aspects of
the research topic. The focus here would be to analyse what has been written and said
about the research area which might help in achieving the aims and objectives of this
research paper.
- The second research scope is to assess the suitable research methodology that will be
employed in meeting the research aims and objectives. The availability of
methodology is numerous from which suitable one will be picked for this paper.
- The third research scope associated with the research paper is to come up with detail
understanding of various facets of research topic and then recommend ways that can
be adopted in the supply chain management that can aide in improving the visibility
and better decision making by the stakeholders.

These research scopes have defined the premise within which the research will be conducted
and the research aims and objectives will be achieved.
Research Questions
The research questions developed will help the researcher in staying focused towards
achieving the aim of this research paper. The research questions will be answered in the
conclusion section of this research paper after the completion of the research.
Given below are the research questions:
- What is RFID technology?
- What is the impact of RFID technology on the supply chain?
- What are the aspects of Supply Chain Visibility?
- What is the utility of RFID technology in improving supply chain visibility?
- Does supply chain visibility support organizations in improving the supply chain
management?
Research Hypotheses
The research hypotheses developed for this research paper will be either proved or disproved
based on the studies conducted ahead. The research hypotheses are given below:
- There exists relationship between use of RFID technology and the visibility of supply
chain.
- There supply chain visibility is important for the organizations to make better supply
chain management decisions.
Summary
Overall, it can be stated that the organizations in the contemporary period are highly
dependent on the supply chain efficiency. The increasing competition has created an

environment where it has become important that the companies should be able to reach their
customers faster and in a cost efficient manner. Moreover, the needs of the customers are
changing faster due to change in the product development and availability innovative
products in the market. The companies around the world are in rush to fulfil the short term
demand of these consumers and stay ahead of the competition. In such scenario, it has
become important that the advanced technologies are adopted to ensure that the product
deliveries are tracked effectively to ensure cost and time saving. The increase in the visibility
in the supply chain has become an important aspect. Technologies such as RFID are used to
track the product movement. It is expected that such technologies help in improved tracking
of the products and better management of the entire supply chain system.
The current paper is divided into various chapters. The second chapter discusses about the
research methodology adopted to conduct this research. The focus in this chapter is on the
discussion about the secondary research method which is the preferred method here. The
subsequent chapters after that build on what has been discussed in the Research Methodology
section. In the end, suitable recommendations are given along with conclusive remarks from
the researcher. The conclusion chapter covers the answers to the research questions of this
paper in brief.
Research Methodology
This chapter is concerned with the understanding of the methodology that has been adopted
in the conduction of this research. The secondary research method has been considered for
this research paper. The secondary research method is related to referring the secondary
sources to conduct the research (Stewart & Kamins, 1993). This research method is also
called as desk research as the entire research is conducted with the help of various articles
and books developed by other researchers, academicians, and practitioners. The current paper

will consider research papers written by other researchers covering the time period of around
one decade. The secondary research method has been selected for the study as it is cost
effective and requires minimum time for the study as there is no dependency on the
respondents for any kind of data collection. Unlike primary research, the secondary research
has been preferred for this research as it has been expected that the secondary research alone
will fulfil the objective of this research. Moreover, considering the time band and resources
available to conduct the research, the secondary research is the most suitable at present.
RFID Technology is relatively new with not more than a decade old and there are various
papers available that can be referred to understand this technology in detail. Moreover, there
are some of the research papers that have showcased case studies on RFID technology that
can be used to fulfil the requirement of this research paper.
Apart from that, the supply chain visibility is equally new to the supply chain management
arena and there are limited numbers of papers available on this aspect. However, as per the
topic of this research paper is concerned, it is expected that the existing number of research
papers and books will fulfil the objectives. Some of the books have been used also to
generate information relevant to this research paper. Books on RFID technology, supply
chain visibility, and other related topics have been referred.
The chapters ahead and their sub-sections have been developed considering the flow of the
research and based on the level of importance.
[To continue]

References
Christopher, M. (2000). The agile supply chain: Competing in volatile markets. Industrial
Marketing Management, 29, 37- 44.
Christopher, M. (2000). The agile supply chain: competing in volatile markets. Industrial
marketing management, 29(1), 37-44.
Delen, D., Hardgrave, B. C., & Sharda, R. (2007). RFID for better supply‐chain management
through enhanced information visibility. Production and Operations Management, 16(5),
613-624.
Francis, V. (2008). Supply chain visibility: lost in translation?. Supply chain management: An
international journal, 13(3), 180-184.
Lee, H. L. (2004). The triple-a supply chain. Harvard Business Review, 82(10), 102-112.
McFarlane, D., & Sheffi, Y. (2003). The impact of automatic identification on supply chain
operations. The international journal of logistics management, 14(1), 1-17.
Michael, K., & McCathie, L. (2005, July). The pros and cons of RFID in supply chain
management. In Mobile Business, 2005. ICMB 2005. International Conference on (pp. 623-
629). IEEE.
Stewart, D. W., & Kamins, M. A. (1993). Secondary research: Information sources and
methods (Vol. 4). Sage.