Increasing efficiency in the supply chain for short shelf life goods using RFID tagging.pdf

Increasing efficiency in the supply chain for short shelf life goods using RFID tagging Mikko Ka?rkka?inen Introduction Short shelf-life goods present some of the biggest challenges for supply chain management (Shulman, 2001; Dilger, 2000). Supply chain management is challenging, and important, in the field of short shelf-life grocery goods owing to a high number of product variants, strict traceability requirements, short shelf-life of the products, and the need for temperature control in the supply chain (Kantor et al., 1997; To?yryla?, 1999; Bubny, 2000; Raman et al., 2001). Furthermore, the large volume of goods moved in the supply chain makes efficient practices a necessity, as small percentual changes in operational cost add up to significant amounts, thereby impacting on profit margins. Efficient supply chain management is, therefore, of paramount importance in the field of short shelf-life goods. The goal of cost efficiency and a continuous cool-chain makes fast handling a requirement in the supply chain. As large volumes of goods are handled, all savings in time in handling become an important competitive advantage. From the temperature control point of view, all operations that are not performed in chilled premises need to be completed promptly. For example, expediting the loading and unloading of trucks, reduces the risks of contamination of goods (Shulman, 2001). The number of product variants in the short shelf-life category has increased over a relatively short period of time due to an increase in the offering of ready meals and pre-packed meat products. The high number of product variants greatly increases the complexity of supply chain control, and thus often degrades supply chain performance by causing scheduling, capacity planning and inventory management to be more complex (Cooper and Griffiths, 1994; Raman et al., 2001). It is, for example, difficult and time-consuming to forecast the consumption of all variants (Holmstro?m, 1997). Only a limited