IoT-based tracking and tracing platform for prepackaged food supply chain

Pages1906-1916
Date16 October 2017
DOIhttps://doi.org/10.1108/IMDS-11-2016-0489
Published date16 October 2017
AuthorZhi Li,Guo Liu,Layne Liu,Xinjun Lai,Gangyan Xu
Subject MatterInformation & knowledge management,Information systems,Data management systems,Knowledge management,Knowledge sharing,Management science & operations,Supply chain management,Supply chain information systems,Logistics,Quality management/systems
IoT-based tracking and tracing
platform for prepackaged food
supply chain
Zhi Li, Guo Liu, Layne Liu and Xinjun Lai
Guangdong Provincial Key Lab of Computer Integrated Manufacturing System,
Guangdong University of Technology, Guangzhou, China, and
Gangyan Xu
Department of Industrial and Manufacturing Systems Engineering,
Faculty of Engineering, The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, China
Abstract
Purpose The purpose of this paper is to propose an effective and economical management platform to
realize real-time tracking and tracing for prepackaged food supply chain based on Internet of Things (IoT)
technologies, and finally ensure a benign and safe food consumption environment.
Design/methodology/approach Following service-oriented architecture, a flexible layered architecture
of tracking and tracing platform for prepackaged food is developed. Besides, to reduce the implementation
cost while realizing fine-grained tracking and tracing, an integrated solution of using both the QR code and
radio-frequency identification (RFID) tag is proposed. Furthermore, Extensible Markup Language (XML)
is adopted to facilitate the information sharing among applications and stakeholders.
Findings The validity of the platform has been evaluated through a case study. First, the proposed
platform is proved highly effective on realizing prepackaged food tracking and tracing throughout its supply
chain, and can benefit all the stakeholders involved. Second, the integration of the QR code and RFID
technologies is proved to be economical and could well ensure the real-time data collection. Third, the XML-
based method is efficient to realize information sharing during the whole process.
Originality/value The contributions of this paper lie in three aspects. First, the technical architecture of
IoT-based tracking and tracing platform is developed. It could realize fine-grained tracking and tracing and
could be flexible to adapt in many other areas. Second, the solution of integrating the QR code and RFID
technologies is proposed, which could greatly decrease the cost of adopting the platform. Third, this platform
enables the information sharing among all the involved stakeholders, which will further facilitate their
cooperation on guaranteeing the quality and safety of prepackaged food.
Keywords Internet of Things, Food supply chain, Prepackaged food, Tracking and tracing
Paper type Research paper
1. Introduction
Prepackaged food refers to the food that is packaged before being offered for sale. It is
recognized with two important features. On one hand, its content cannot be altered without
opening or changing the packaging. On the other hand, it can be directly consumed by
ultimate customers. Prepackaged food plays a more and more important role in modern
lives as it could bring many benefits, for example, it boasts more varieties, with longer
shelf-lives, and is much more convenient for usage and storage. According to the report of
Research and Markets(Hartman, 2015), the market of prepackaged food will bring
Industrial Management & Data
Systems
Vol. 117 No. 9, 2017
pp. 1906-1916
Emerald Publishing Limited
0263-5577
DOI 10.1108/IMDS-11-2016-0489
Received 13 November 2016
Revised 7 February 2017
18 March 2017
Accepted 25 March 2017
The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available on Emerald Insight at:
www.emeraldinsight.com/0263-5577.htm
© Zhi Li, Guo Liu, Layne Liu, Xinjun Lai and Gangyan Xu. Published by Emerald Publishing Limited.
This article is published under the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY 4.0) licence. Anyone may
reproduce, distribute, translate and create derivative works of this article (for both commercial &
non-commercial purposes), subject to full attribution to the original publication and authors. The full
terms of this licence may be seen at: http://creativecommons.org/licences/by/4.0/legalcode
This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (51405089)
(51705250) and the Science and Technology Planning Project of Guangdong Province
(2015B010131008) (2015B090921007).
1906
IMDS
117,9

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