A systems approach to the evaluation of Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) in the defense industry

Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) is a wireless technology with possible applications in the supply chain. RFID tags' fast read rates, non-line-of-sight identification and large storage capacity may revolutionize supply chains in the defense industry and commercial world. Widespread adoption of RFID will require that companies achieve a return on their investment. System interactions between the implementation decisions, costs, benefits and performance of an RFID installation makes determining the optimal RFID system difficult. This thesis enumerates the various choices which affect the return on investment and describes how each is dependent upon the others. Formulating the problem as a optimization program allows one to maximize the return on investment. A three-stage process is proposed for evaluating RFID opportunities in any complex enterprise. RFID swim lanes, a new process mapping tool, is used in order to understand the complexities of material flow through facilities. A Microsoft Excel TM tool is used to formulate the optimization for the specific facility or enterprise contemplating RFID.

Department dc:contributor.department

Leaders for Manufacturing Program at MIT

Grantor dc:publisher

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Year dc:date.issued

2005

Author dc:creator

• Shah, Ronak R

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Daniel E. Whitney and Stephen C. Graves.

• Sloan School of Management.
• Engineering Systems Division.
• Leaders for Manufacturing Program.

Statement dc:rights

• M.I.T. theses are protected by copyright. They may be viewed from this source for any purpose, but reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without written permission. See provided URL for inquiries about permission.

Licence dc:rights.uri

• http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/7582

Language dc:language.iso

eng

Handle dc:identifier.uri

http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/34860

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:dspace.mit.edu:1721.1/34860