Exploiting RFID digital information in enterprise collaboration
| Date | 02 October 2007 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/02635570710822778 |
| Pages | 1110-1122 |
| Published date | 02 October 2007 |
| Author | George Lekakos |
| Subject Matter | Economics,Information & knowledge management,Management science & operations |
Exploiting RFID digital
information in enterprise
collaboration
George Lekakos
Department of Management Science and Technology,
ELTRUN Research Center, Athens University of Economics and Business,
Athens, Greece
Abstract
Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to investigate how a distributed network architecture,
building on web-service orchestration, data-stream management systems and smart-tagging
technologies, can be employed to enable enterprise collaboration and decision making.
Design/methodology/approach – The methodology is based on a technology review in order to
propose a network design as well as a field survey to identify and evaluate the relevance of radio
frequency identification (RFID)-enabled collaboration and decision-support scenarios to industry
executives.
Findings – The paper demonstrates the relevance of the proposed architecture and corresponding
RFID-enabled collaboration to business executives of the grocery retail sector. The responses show
that some scenarios are more appealing to retailers than to suppliers and that certain processes should
be done in collaboration.
Research limitations/implications – Research limitations and future research directions involve
the evaluation of specific design alternatives, in the specific context as well as comparing the
distributed architecture approach with a centralized architecture or with EDI which has traditionally
been used to support enterprise collaboration.
Practical implications – The proposed architecture supports not only internal operations of network
leaders, such as big retailers, but also suppliers who look into opportunities to benefit from the use of IT
in enterprise relationships by gaining either process specificity or domain knowledge specificity.
Originality/value – The paper introduces a novel architecture that moves beyond the centralized
web site paradigm to a distributed one. A European field survey is employed for the evaluation of
several RFID-enabled collaboration scenarios, providing insights to both researchers and practitioners
(retailers and suppliers in the grocery retail sector).
Keywords Businessenterprise, Retailing,Radio waves, Decision supportsystems, Informationretrieval
Paper type Research paper
1. Introduction
The emergence of new technologies, such as radio frequency identification (RFID),
is expected to revolutionize many of the enterprise collaboration operations such as
supply chain management by reducing costs, improving service levels and offering
new possibilities for identifying unique product instances. On the other hand, the
advanced data capture capabilities of RFID technology coupled with unique product
identification and real-time digital information coming from different data sources,
such as environmental sensors, define a new and rich information environment that
opens up new horizons for efficient decision-making activities.
The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available at
www.emeraldinsight.com/0263-5577.htm
IMDS
107,8
1110
Industrial Management & Data
Systems
Vol. 107 No. 8, 2007
pp. 1110-1122
qEmerald Group Publishing Limited
0263-5577
DOI 10.1108/02635570710822778
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