RFID BUSINESS PROCESSES
5.3 ORGANIZATIONAL MATURITY
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IBM and TIBCO and determine which ones offer the flexibility to perform a range of functions and turn information in real-time, to achieve the most improvements in business processes and get earlier return of investments.
Table 5.1 is a suggested checklist along with response examples.
Other questions you want to ask are related to what kind of process flow you need to accomplish a series of tasks both on the screen and behind it.
1. How do you want the initial query screen to appear?
2. How do you want locations and products to be listed?
3. How do you want a manager to select a location?
4. How do you want the application to use EPCGobal to return information about the customer?
5. Do you want the application to automatically specify target quantities based on a predetermined criterion?
6. Does the application allow you to determine what level the inventory should be maintained at specific locations?
7. What types of target quantities of the application can you specify at distribution center, store backroom, store sales floor, and even real- time shelves?
8. Does the application allow you enter custom types of target quantities?
Other questions you should consider in the checklist include:
1. To what extent will the application allow you to tailor the way the information appears on the screen?
2. How well and how fast can the application look up the appropriate EPC information?
3. How well can the application perform with a complex set of queries?
4. What databases are to be used with the application?
5. Does the application provide you with query templates?
6. Can you enter own query specifications?
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Table 5.1 Software Checklist How does the
inventory screen appear? Does it apply to your situation?
TIBCO application focuses on inventory reports for the retailers. It divides the Retailer Inventory Report Screen into three distinct zones. They are Product Search, Locations, and Current View of Inventory Level. On the other hand, IBM application shows the Management of Inventory Targets screen of three parts. They are Target Structure Detail, Target Inventory Level Alerts, and Last Check Levels.
Although the TIBCO application provides the Locations zone on the Retailer Inventory Report Screen, the IBM application offers P&G a list of locations (and products) in response to the Retail Inventory Query Screen within the Manufacturer Supply Chain Inventory Reporting Application. After the selections are made, the applications bring up the Management of Inventory Targets.
How do you want to search the product?
Will you be able to search the product on the opening screen? Will you need to use a screen to query a product and see the inventory levels in the next screen?
TIBCO runs a query on one screen to show P&G inventory levels at requested locations in the Retailer Inventory Report Screen. The Product Search zone gives a hierarchy of the product found. If the inventory is below the specified target, the report offers a button to send an e-mail to the retailer selected (Wal-Mart).
IBM application on the other hand will show P&G the selected products, locations, and SKUs. It will ask the user to specify inventory targets. Locations with inventory below target levels are highlighted. In both applications, the last time the inventory checks were done is available. There is one difference, however. The IBM application categories the locations into backroom and selling for each location whereas the TIBCO application lists all backroom and selling locations into a single column without categorizing them.
How do you want the alerts to be sent?
Where and to whom do you want to send them? What types of alerts do you want to be triggered?
TIBCO software allows a supplier to send an e-mail request to a customer to move “excess” items to another location where inventory is below specific targets. IBM takes a different approach. It selects from a list of locations and products, specifies inventory inputs for the locations, and creates an alert if a location does not match the target inventory levels.
The alert takes two forms: active and passive. The active form is an alert sent to mobile users and the passive form is the locations below target levels are highlighted on the screen.
134 RFID in the Supply Chain: A Guide to Selection and Implementation
accommodate future RFID technologies and emerging applications. It also is contingent on how the organization takes actions as defined not only by business processes but also by existing contracts and legislations.
If the organization is not mature regardless of how long it has been in business and how successful the pilot studies were in implementing the RFID technology, there will be some problems of reengineering business processes. The less mature organizations would focus on meeting the base requirements of the mandates from the large customers without considering the potential ROIs of RFID deployment, the changing standards, and the capabilities of existing storage facilities to expand for growing RFID data.
The mandates that the suppliers provide their own equipment or accept them from the customer only require them to begin a foundation for build- ing a RFID infrastructure. These mandates did not give suppliers opportu- nities for developing business strategies on reengineering of business processes. The mandates also require the suppliers to comply with existing standards without considering the possibilities of new or emerging stan- dards (see Appendix M) for technologies that could affect future implemen- tation of RFID infrastructure.
To better control and monitor future implementation impacts, the more mature organizations build business strategies on top of the base require- ments of the mandates to allow for adapting the RFID infrastructure to changing standards, compliance regulations, and changing network scenar- ios. It is the network and storage infrastructure that should receive the most attention in business strategies as the RFID technology allows the collection of a wider range of data on the labels than its bar-coding technology counterpart can. This requires the use of middleware to integrate the RFID data into various legacy systems, ERP, CRM, databases, and so on.
The problem here is that not all mature organizations have the legacy systems they need to communicate with the RFID infrastructure. Most medium-sized and small businesses may find it necessary to link up with the external legacy systems. This means a loosely coupled environment of middleware technologies connecting, for example, via a gateway to a closed-loop system to an open system that can be adapted to meet changing business process requirements. One most popular middleware technology is Web services seen as bridges among disparate platforms, applications, and systems. It is useful when the supplier has to deal with multidimensional approaches particularly when the supplier sells their products to multi- customers and gets supplies from other suppliers to complete the business processes of the RFID infrastructure of emerging technologies. Not all sup- pliers who provided supplies to the requesting supplier have RFID infra- structure in place completely or partially.
Keep in mind organizational maturity is not the same thing as the tech- nology maturity. An organization can be mature while it is handling and
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implementing an emerging technology. That is because the organization already has business strategies in place and continually updates it as tech- nology changes or emerges.
However, assessing organizational maturity of an organization is not enough to meet the challenge of RFID implementation. It needs to be supplemented with a Multi-Layer RFID Business Process Model of three types: basic, adaptive, and predictive.