The promise of RFID-based sensors in the perishables supply chain

Abstract

Perishable goods present some of the biggest challenges for today's supply chain management due to the high number of product variations with different perishability characteristics, requirements to account for the flow of products, and large volumes of goods handled over long distances. The elimination of even a small percentage of spoilage can add up to a significant performance improvement for the business. The optimal management of the perishables sup ply chain depends on the level of granularity (and timeliness) of product visibility, which can be used to provide answers to questions such as "where is my product" and "what is the condition of my product." The foundation for such visibility is an effective and efficient information system enhanced with sensors and RFID technology. In this article, we provide a brief tutorial and applications survey of RFID-based environmental sensors in the perishables supply chain. We also report on the results and lessons learned of an exploratory study where we use RFID-based temperature sensors to examine the condition of perishable products in two long-distance product shipments.