Empirical applications of RFID in the manufacturing environment

Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) technology has recently begun to receive increased interest from both practitioners and academicians due to the well-known mandates to suppliers from major global retailers and the United States (US) Department of Defense. Though the deployment of RFID in the supply chain is relatively new, propriety RFID systems have been utilised in the manufacturing environment since the early 1990s. This paper examines these empirical applications and presents an analysis of the benefits that have been observed in the field. This encompassing collection of six empirical applications of RFID in the manufacturing environment discusses how RFID technology is presently being utilised and its potential for use, by manufacturers to control internal operations and for supply chain management. In addition, we identify the implementation challenges and the corresponding strategies to enable RFID in the manufacturing environment. Our analysis offers insights that can be useful to practitioners who are considering RFID installations and to academicians who are studying RFID systems.