Choosing the right platform for RFID integration

As RFID is finding its way into supply chain processes in different industries, it is becoming increasingly important to devise the best integration architecture possible, one that includes processes and people.

Introducing RFID into a business process involves attaching an RFID chip to an asset and tracking the asset using RFID readers as it moves through the enterprise or across the supply chain. There has been a great deal of discussion as to the type, class, range, scope, capabilities and limitations of the chips and readers. EPCglobal™ community has laid down standards that make hardware from different vendors interoperate. When a reader reads a tag, it gets an EPC (Electronic Product Code) number with possibly additional data. This information in itself is meaningless unless associated with appropriate business semantics and delivered to the relevant processes and people. This article explores the details of an RFID integration platform that can effectively address all these issues.

RFID brings great value to a host of business scenarios. It reduces out-of-stock on store shelf, prevents theft and loss in a retail store, helps locate an item in a warehouse, improves speed of product distribution, tracks items as they move from manufacturers to warehouses to stores, automates delivery and invoicing, improves product security, and streamlines reverse logistics. Each of the above scenarios affects a different business process involving a different set of people. The associated business context is also very different from one scenario to the next. A good platform should be flexible enough to cater to these different needs. We will delve into the details using Wal-Mart™ as a case study.

Case Study: Wal-Mart

As Wal-Mart has led the way for RFID adoption in retail supply chain, it will be interesting to see how a Wal-Mart store uses RFID for reducing out of stock. A recent study conducted by University of Arkansas has concluded that a Wal-Mart store could reduce out of stock by as much as 16% through proper use of RFID. A store usually replenishes the shelves using a “pick list”, created by a manual inspection of all the shelves in the store. This process is manual intensive, error prone, time consuming and not real-time. Alternately, combining point-of-sale information with current inventory in the back room can create a more effective pick list. Appropriate use of RFID can give the store manager an accurate view of inventory in the back room.

Assuming that the cases received by the store contain an RFID label, the store can install RFID readers at receiving doors, backroom storage areas, sales floor door and box crusher area. When a case is unloaded from the truck the reader at the receiving door reads it. When it is moved into storage, the storage area readers read it. As the case is moved into the sales floor the reader at the sales door reads it. Later when the case is disposed at the box crusher the reader in the box crusher area reads it. The store can correlate the reads from all these different readers to infer the latest inventory in back room. This information can be combined with point of sale data to automate the pick list creation process. This eliminates the effort and time involved in manual inspection of shelves, which can be better directed towards improving customer experience.

Conceptually the scenario looks pretty straight forward, but it is very challenging to put the required infrastructure in place. We need to collect RFID data from all the different readers, infer business significance of data read from each reader, and associate RFID data with appropriate business context such as the kind of product and quantity the case represents. This RFID data needs to be integrated with point-of-sale application to infer which products could be running low on the shelves. The integration is best accomplished through service oriented architecture (SOA). This could further drive the pick list creation process in response to real-time store demand. As and when the shelf level goes down, it will send an electronic alert to the store manager to initiate replenishment process.

RFID Integration Platform Features

The above case study outlines the need for a platform that can integrate RFID data with a particular business process to deliver tangible value to key stakeholders. Each scenario presents its own set of challenges in terms of process and people. In this section, we delve into the key features of the platform that will help it deliver best value.

Data Collection

This has been the primary concern of most middleware vendors. It involves collecting RFID data from multiple readers, aggregating data from related readers, applying necessary filters to screen out irrelevant data, and reporting only pertinent information to the registered listeners. In the store scenario, it involves collecting data from readers located at receiving door, storage area, sales floor door, and crushing area. The store may use multiple readers to cover all the receiving doors and all the shop floor doors. We need to create an aggregated view of these reader data to identify products moving in and out of the back room.

Business Event Generation

It is important to identify the significance of reading a particular tag by a particular reader and generate a relevant business event. The reader at the receiving door should generate an “added to back room” event, while the reader at a particular storage area can generate “placed in storage” event. The reader at the shop floor can generate “removed from back room” event, while the reader at the crusher area can generate “package recycled” event. The business event generated provides business context to RFID data. We may associate business relevant information like product details, batch details and expiry date along with the business event.

Alerts and Notifications

The real-time RFID information often gives rise to business conditions requiring immediate attention. In the retail scenario, when we correlate point-of-sale information with RFID data gathered in the crushing area, we can infer that certain item is running low in shelf and thus prompting an alert to the store manager for replenishment action. The manager can verify this and schedule the item for picking. If the inventory in the back room is running low, the system can automatically send a notification to the distribution center for further shipment. Alerts and notification serve as the primary vehicles for delivering actionable information to the responsible parties.

Service Oriented Architecture

The business events should be delivered to appropriate targets to drive relevant processes. The target system could be a software package like an ERP solution or a hardware system like a mechanical arm near a conveyer belt. Considering the wide range of software packages and hardware systems usually deployed in a commercial environment, integrating with them calls for an open service oriented architecture. SOA provides a flexible architecture with greater dynamism, agility and responsiveness. Following diagram shows a sample business process using SOA.

Trading Partner Integration

The relevant business processes often span across company boundaries. Upon receiving a shipment, a Wal-Mart distribution center has to reconcile it with an advance shipment notice (ASN) received earlier. When the shipment is properly verified it has to send a receipt advice back initiating the invoice fulfillment process. This addresses a well established EDI messaging between the supplier and retailer. Often the trading partner integration goes beyond the regular mechanism and requires custom integration. This is a very important facet of RFID integration.

An important feature from RFID point of view is ONS support. As a DNS server resolves an internet URL to a particular web resource, similarly ONS server resolves an EPC code to a particular trading partner server that provides more details about the product containing the EPC code. As an asset with an EPC code moves through the supply chain, information about the EPC code is stored in a central repository, usually maintained by the manufacturer of the product. Whenever a trading partner needs to know the details of the product they can look up in ONS, find the address of the server and query it for product details.

Security

We reap optimum benefit from an RFID deployment only when we share the information with all the participants in the supply chain. At the same time we have to ensure that we protect it from malicious intent. The platform should support robust security infrastructure that authenticates the user and gives him access only to information he is authorized for. In addition, the platform should address privacy concerns with support for decommissioning tags once they serve their primary commercial purpose.

Conclusion

This article highlights the broad set of features an RFID integration platform should have. As the industry progresses further and companies go beyond hardware considerations and integrate RFID information with their internal business processes, we will see more mature requirements surface. When we introduce item level tagging in the supply chain we will see massive amounts of real-time data flooding our enterprise. We will see platforms maturing in features and complexity to effectively respond to this deluge of information. As a key takeaway, we can stress on the need to integrate RFID information with processes and people to deliver the best value. A platform that addresses it well is the one you need.

Author
Bikash Behera, Chief Technology Officer of Supply Insight Inc explains why companies need an integration platform for RFID projects not just a Middleware solution.

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