How RFID technology enables the supply chain and retail 4.0: A survey with Italian stakeholders

Abstract

The research aims at assessing the level of interest towards and adoption of Radio Frequency IDentification (RFID) technology among a sample of manufacturers, retailers, logistic service providers, solution providers and vertically integrated fashion retailers belonging to the Fashion, Consumer Goods and Healthcare sectors in Italy. A survey was created in collaboration with GS1 Italy, a no-profit organization that develops standards for enhancing collaboration between companies, associations, institutions and consumers and enrols more than 40,000 companies. Overall, 58 useful responses were collected. Statistical analyses were carried out with the support of Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) for Windows and MS Excel. Results show that RFID solutions are implemented by 31% of the interviewees and tested by 21% of them, mainly thanks to the favourable ROI and the possibility of gaining a competitive advantage over competitors through the automation of logistics processes, visibility of inventory and production progress, and avoided stock out. The RFID users often achieved results above expectations regarding the order picking errors reduction, the increase of operational efficiency and inventory accuracy. The few obstacles encountered are the read failures or the over-performing reading, but they are not perceived as relevant. Overall, most experimenters and non-users currently adopt barcode solutions, but showed their intention to implement RFID systems in the future, underlying a strong interest towards this identification technology.