An investment evaluation of supply chain RFID technologies: A normative modeling approach

As Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) technology advances rapidly and major retailers start to push their suppliers to adopt the technology, RFID cost-benefit analysis has become a subject of great focus. RFID complements or replaces barcode systems and traditional manual tracking systems to identify, retrieve, track, and store merchandise automatically. The adoption of this technology is gaining momentum rapidly as technological, societal, and competitive pressures push firms to transform and innovate themselves. Because of the potential benefits gained and high investment costs incurred by RFID, firms need to carefully assess every RFID opportunity and challenge to ensure that their resources are spent judiciously. This paper presents the Supply Chain RFID Investment Evaluation Model, and provides a basis for enhancing our understanding of RFID value creation, measurement, and ways to maximize the value of RFID technology. A future research direction is also discussed.