Discovery Services in the EPC Network

Recent advances in Auto-ID technology, especially RFID, provide great potential for the innovation of existing processes in Supply Chain Management (SCM). Accompanied with item level identification using the EPC, companies are able to capture product lifecycle information at unprecedented levels of detail. RFID readers placed at strategic points in the supply chain automatically capture information about passing objects while they move along their way from the manufacturer to the consumer. Modern RFID tags can be equipped with sensors for temperature, humidity or other physical conditions, providing information systems with instant data on the current location and status of objects. Auto-ID bridges the gap between the physical and the digital world, providing real-time information about current supply chain operations. It provides companies with increased supply chain visibility [Melski et al. (2008)], resulting in reduced uncertainty, regarding operational and tactical supply chain planning. Overall, Auto-ID supports companies by providing higher information quality and quantity. While most of the aforementioned aspects concern company internal processes, an even greater potential is being anticipated for company-overlapping supply chain collaboration. The possibility to provide real-time information about intra-company operations to trading partners, upand downstream the supply chain, allows companies to increase value creation over all levels of the supply chain. In particular, planning activities of adjacent trading partners can be performed with a higher degree of certainty, reducing the need for high safety stock levels, which in turn reduces inventory costs [Simchi-Levi et al. (2003)]. On the other hand, many industries struggle with volatile demands, leading to the risk of running out of stock in times of higher demand. Real-time information can help to detect critical stock levels early. Sharing that information instantly with suppliers allows them to take immediate action such as rescheduling of shipments or increasing production rates to cope with temporary increased demand. Section 2 of this chapter will go into the details of two selected industry use cases that outline the benefits of company-overlapping collaboration. The existence of practical scenarios for supply chain collaboration based on Auto-ID data demands for an infrastructure of information systems to support these use cases. EPCglobal, a joint venture between GS1 (formerly known as EAN International) and GS1 US (formerly the Uniform Code Council, Inc.), introduced the EPCglobal Architecture Framework, which is suppose to increase visibility and efficiency throughout the supply chain as well as to 8