RFID and Supply Chain Management: Introduction to the Special Issue

A complete RFID system comes at a considerable cost given the requirements for tags, readers, antennas, software, and a computer network used to connect the readers. This represents a major outlay for any business and one of the major issues at the present time - due to a lack of institutional knowledge in the RFID space - is that vendors are not always selling systems that meet business requirements fully. The know-how of "Putting it altogether" to provide an end-to-end functional system is an important obstacle that should not be underestimated, especially if one is considering integration with current large-scale Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) software systems like SAP. Middleware software is also critical to the effective operation of RFID in the supply chain.