An RFID Encoding Method for Supply Chain Management

In this paper we consider an inventory control issue, how to identify an incoming package cost-effectively and time-efficiently, in supply chain management. A unique package identifier (determined by the package' contents) can help shorten the package identification process. However it is not easy to design such a unique identifier for all kinds of packages, because any two different packages which are assigned the same identifier will cause an incorrect inventory. Moreover it is impractical to manually identify thousands of items in an incoming package. The identification process should be done automatically and quickly (e.g., within 100 ms). In view of this, we develop an RFID encoding method to deal with the issue. By compressing all items 'keys (e.g., bar codes) into a single RFID tag, this research has made four contributions as follows. First, our method can support time-limited applications, since the verification of all items in a package can be done automatically and quickly. Second, by providing all participants with the same encoding, we can achieve more global data sharing across organizational boundaries. Third, our RFID encoding method can coexist with traditional bar codes. It implies that the related systems and procedures can be rebuilt or modified steadily and incrementally. The implementation risk is thus lowered Fourth, our method can be extended to a ubiquitous computing environment. That is, there is no need to access any remote database. With this universal encoding method, all participants can identify an incoming package in a flash, i.e., within the period of time that only a single RFID tag is read It means they can save a lot of maintenance cost and still retain the same inventory accuracy.