Enhancing ERP System with RFID:

Logistic Process Integration and Exception Handling

Dickson K.W. Chiu1,4, Kai-Pan Mark2,5, Eleanna Kafeza3 and Tat-Pui Wong4

1 Dickson Computer Systems, 7 Victory Avenue, Homantin, Hong Kong 2 Department of Information Systems, City University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong

3 Department of Marketing & Communications, Athens University of Economics & Business,

Greece 4 Department of Computing, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hong Kong

5 Department of Information Engineering, Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong

AbstractVarious contemporary information and communication technologies (ICT) have revolutionized the

global computing environment. This impacts most companies, especially traditional stand-alone ERP

systems are inadequate to handle the current requirements of logistics applications. In this paper, we

study the integration of RFID and mobile technologies with Web-enabled applications to an existing in-

house ERP system. This enables management to utilize accurate information for analyzing their business

performance and then perform any other further decisions quickly. Benefits include retrieving

information more easily, reducing order processing and delivery time, increasing sales performance,

enhancing communication with customer, and improving data accuracy for in-house ERP System. In

particular, we illustrate how this infrastructure can help the integration of logistic processes and the

handling of exceptions in key business processes. We further evaluate our approach with respect to the

requirements of key system stakeholders.

Key words: Information integration, process management, mobile technologies

IntroductionThe Internet has become a global and common platform for every organization and individual.

Organizations have lots of opportunities and benefits when they fully utilize the Internet such as

introducing their company, products, services, and supporting on-line transactions and data processing.

Traditional ERP systems, therefore, are insufficient to integrate different stakeholders such as customers,

suppliers, and other business parties, especially when they are out of the company premises (Li & Peng,

2005). In this case study, one of the authors is an IT Supervisor for the Hong Kong telecommunication

service company being studied. We found that typical computer infrastructures of web-1

enabled systems need to be enhanced to fit the recent logistic business environment and increase the

competition power at a timely manner. Otherwise, this leads to lowered productivity, competitiveness,

and revenue.

This paper studies the requirements, design, implementation, and advantages of enhancing an in-

house ERP system with Web-enabled applications, mobile, and Radio Frequency Identification (RFID)

technology. With such integration of disparate business functions and data, we focus on how the key

business processes concerning logistics can be improved through effective automation support for

exception handling.

Web-enabled system (Dahanayake & Gerhardt, 2003) is a technology that allows staff, partners, and

outsiders to connect to the back-end system through the Internet. Using a Web-enabled system, staff can

connect to the in-house ERP system through a Web browser and perform any actions similar to using a

thick client. Based on this, we further enhance the support of mobile technologies (Chiu, Cheung, Leung,

et al., 2010; Chiu, Cheung, Kafeza, & Leung, 2003), i.e., various types of mobile clients, such as mobile

phone, PDA, notebooks, to connect to the back-end system. This enables roaming users (e.g., sales and

management), who need to work outdoors, to access the in-house ERP system through the Web server

anytime and anywhere to support their business need. RFID (Rosenberg & Garfinkel, 2005) is a

technology that uses radio waves to automatically identify objects. A microchip is used to store the stock

information, and the stock information can be transferred using radio-frequency waves automatically.

RFID supports anti-counterfeiting and is being applied to supply chain management with mobile

technology. Using RFID, warehouse staff can manage stocks more efficiently(Meng, Chiu, Kafeza,

Wenyin, & Li, 2010) .

We share our experience in integrating the above technologies to an existing ERP system to

facilitate the exception handling in various logistic processes, which is inadequately studied before. The

remainder of this paper is organized as follows. First we introduce the background and related work.

Then we highlight an overview of the requirements for the logistic process integration. Next, we describe

our system design and implementation, followed by a tabulation of the key exception handling scenarios

for the logistic processes. Finally, we discuss the advantages of our approach with respect to different

stakeholders before concluding our paper with future work.

Background and Related WorkThe company being studied mainly focuses on telecommunication business (such as PABX,

Keyline, data communication, and voice systems) in Hong Kong. Owing to its business nature, the

delivery process must be smooth in order not to affect other service parties to perform their jobs (e.g.,

Installation Team, Training Team). According to the existing system infrastructure, some of the systems

need to be upgraded or enhanced. Basically, the ERP System had been running for over 8 years with just

some new business operational features and some bug fixes. There was no integration to other system or

employment of new technologies. Based on the system functionalities and constraints, the 2

existing system could only fulfill basic internal usage but not the external ones. The users often

complained that they could not obtain the information from outside. Meanwhile, most of the competitors

have developed Web-enabled system and can support mobile devices. To increase the productivity and

competitiveness, it is necessary to develop a Web-enabled system that supports mobile devices in

addition to desktop devices, as well as enhanced exception feature (Chiu, Cheung, Till, Narupiyakul, &

Hung, 2010). To enhance the warehouse operation (e.g., to avoid mis-packing or mis-delivery, improve

stock keeping and the update interval for delivery status, etc.), it is necessary to have a system to verify

every delivered item. A RFID system can perform this kind of checking effectively (Meng et al., 2010).

Information Technology has a significant impact on every sector. RFID and ERP cause tremendous

impact on the transportation and logistics industries (Gunasekaran, Ngai, & McGaughey, 2006). Several

research papers on integrating ERP systems with RFID have been published. Attaran (2007) explored

RFID’s capabilities in the industries and evaluated the success factors on RFID integration. He further

pointed out that RFID is not only a technical issue but in fact it changes the whole business process.

Chow et. al. (2007) proposed a model to integrate RFID and web-based applications to optimize

information flow in supply chain parties. Cochran et. al. (2007) mentioned that the most threatening

incident is the re-use or re-transfer of information to third parties rather than the initial disclosure which

implies that the systems need privacy protection mechanisms.

There are many successful cases of building a Web-enabled system for different purposes. CJ-GLS,

a Korean-based Third Party Logistic Operator, successfully gains competitive advantages by deploying

RFID technology in electronic logistics business (2008). Similar RFID case studies on Shanghai Port are

presented by Wang et. al. (2006) as well. Enhancing a Web-enabled system with support for mobile

devices, users can communicate with the internal ERP system at anytime and anywhere. The security of

RFID is becoming a concern of technologists. A recent report indicates that it would be possible to

introduce RFID virus. RFID systems are subject to sniffing, spoofing, tracking and denial of service

attack like an ordinary computer system (Sparkes, 2006). At the meantime, security issue will then be

introduced because managing secure interactions over the Internet is an important issue. One method of

protecting the Web system is to build a Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) (Shimonski, 2003) and place the Web

server inside it. Typically, a DMZ is used for connecting servers that need to be accessible from the

outside world, such as e-mail server, domain-name servers (DNS), Web servers, other Web services, etc.

The Web server must have the ability to encrypt the data transferred in the public network so that the data

can be protected against eavesdropping.

For supporting mobile users, a key issue is that they must have a Web server that can be contacted

by mobile devices such as mobile phones and PDA. Such devices must have the ability to connect via

mobile networks (e.g., GSM) to the Internet (Küpper, 2005). The most common way to connect to the

Internet is to subscribe some add-on services from a GSM network provider such as GPRS, WAP, etc.

When a mobile device is connected to a service subscriber, the GSM system can then authenticate and

validate the user’s identity and then assign the user with an IP address for using GPRS. The 3

mobile device can then use this IP address to access the Web server through the GPRS Internet tunnel.

Another import issue for serving the mobile user is that the mobile interface must be light-weight because

the mobile devices have limited computing power and screen size. Therefore, there is a need to develop a

different Graphical User Interface (GUI) to serve mobile users. For example, Ngai et. al. (2007) presents

a practical implementation of such web-enabled mobile logistics management system with RFID support

that has successfully improved container port operations.

For technical principles and details on how RFID works, we skip this in this paper as there have

been many papers and textbooks discussing such details. For example, Hassan and Chatterjee (Hassan &

Chatterjee, 2006) propose and evaluate taxonomy of various RFID systems currently available for the

understanding of this technology, the factors for implementation of a successful RFID system, its

strengths and weaknesses, as well as scalability options. Viehland and Wong (2007) identify the most

important and unsolved issues that will determine the future of RFID, with a review of the RFID

business-oriented literature. Rosenberg and Garfinkel (2005) introduce RFID applications as well as their

security and privacy issues in their book. Poirier and McCollum (2006) further detail some RFID

strategic implementation and basic adoption strategies in their book. RFID implementation in Taiwan

has been deployed in diverse areas including security, asset management, access control, logistics, and

pharmaceuticals (Chang & Yen, 2008). In particular, the high price of most stock items related to

telecommunication in our case study justifies the cost of employing RFID (Meng et al., 2010).

Lefebvre et al. (2005) present a pilot study in the context of warehousing activities in one specific

supply chain in the retail industry. Results indicate that RFID appears to be a disruptive technology as it

supports a new business model, entails major redesign of existing processes and fosters a higher level of

electronic integration among supply chain members. They further attempt to track key performance

indicators in order to assess the impacts of RFID technology in a five layer supply chain in the utility

sector, with the focus of inter-company connectivity and relationship management (Bendavid, Lefebvre,

Lefebvre, & Wamba, 2007).

However, the focus of this paper is an in-depth study on the integration of ERP systems with RFID

technology. We have based on some successful cases as an example. One of the successful stories of

using RFID is Wal-Mart Stores (Roussos, 2006). Wal-Mart uses RFID tags to the automatic tracking of

pallets and cases of goods. The RFID tags contain a chip that is imparted with information and can also

be used in the manufacturing process, which helps suppliers to become more efficient. Holmqvist and

Stefansson (2006) discuss the feasibility of a mobile RFID solution in the automotive business-to-

business of Volvo from the perspectives of operational reliability, usability, and productivity. We also

have successful experiences in utilizing RFID technologies for tracking expensive equipments for the

telecom industry (Meng et al., 2010). Most studies have been performed in the context of large

enterprises but not on small-and-medium enterprises (SME) as we did.

In summary, there have been many successful cases in using all these technologies (Angeles, 2005).

Implementation of business rules that handle new exceptions, especially to deal with the extra 4

volume of data generated from the use of RFID, remains an important point of research(Niederman,

Mathieu, Morley, & Kwon, 2007). However, there have not been any studies explicitly in integrating all

of these technologies for exception handling of logistic process integration.

Requirements Overview

Figure 1. Stakeholders of ERP System with RFID

After interviewing with some of the key users, we arrived at the requirements for a new system

using Web-enabled technology, RFID technology for the process and information integration. Different

stakeholders can connect to the system through the Internet from different locations and devices. Figure 1

summarized the stakeholders of the system. Their roles and requirements are as follows.

For Internal Staff

Internal General Staff – They are located in the office and perform general business operation tasks

in the intra-net, e.g., create quotations, contracts, invoices, service orders, work orders, maintenance

agreements, etc. The mobile enhancement and RFID integration can better support their information

needs.

Warehouse Staff – They need an efficient system to check in, check out, validate, verify, and locate

the stock. Also, they need to provide updated stock status reports to the management. When they check

out stock items, they need to use the RFID Reader/Scanner to scan the RFID tag based on the order.

After scanning, the items will be flagged as reserved status and are ready for delivery.

Management – They are the decision makers of this project and responsible for budgeting and

forecasting. They need to decide and approve who can use the Web-enabled system and what features

can be released. They need various up-to-date reports for analysis and actions as well.

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IT Staff – They need to handle all the development activities of the project, including the design of

the system workflows, functions, logics, and exception handling. Also, they need to evaluate different

vendors’ solutions and select the best ones to integrate to the existing ERP system. They also handle all

technical activities such as testing, documentations, sys-tem support, further system enhancements, and

debugging.

For Mobile Staff

Salespersons – They need to retrieve the information of product items such as item description and

price through the Web-enabled system, sometimes outside the office. They also need to create and update

quotations and send them to their customers immediately in an electronic form.

External Warehouse Staff – They need to communicate with the ERP system outside the office and

warehouse to update the delivery status. When they reach the destination, they need to use RFID readers

to scan the RFID tags based on the order. After scanning, the item status will be updated as delivered.

They then can use their PDA to update the order delivery status immediately. So, there is no need to wait

until the truck is back to the warehouse and then update the order delivery status manually.

Roaming Management Staff (e.g., Financial Officer) – They need to connect to the ERP system

when they are out of town in order to access the management reports immediately through the Web-

enabled system by themselves.

Roaming General Staff – Some staff working at home can use their PCs to connect to the Web-

enabled system. For example, some staff may need to work outside office hours for urgent tasks or

separate because of unpredictable events such as sickness, weather, or accidents.

System Design and ImplementationIn this section, our system design and implementation issues are discussed. The technical details on

RFID process conceptual model, system architecture and integration architecture are being explained,

followed by the business process issues on workflow enhancement with RFID and process integration

with an example. The last section gives an emphasis on security issue, which is a challenge in system

design and must be handled with extra care.

System Overview

There are two user categories based on the different requirements of different stakeholders: the

mobile user group and the normal user group. A user is classified as a mobile user or normal user based

on the process flow of the Web-enabled system. The mobile users and normal users are presented with

different front-end programs of different Graphical User Interfaces (GUIs) that are designed for different

devices. The purpose of having different GUIs is that appropriate GUI components enhance the usability

of e-Commerce applications (Chiu et al., 2003; Zou, Zhang, & Zhao, 2007).

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After presenting users with different GUIs according to device type, users then can select different

modules that they have the privilege to access. For example, staff member of different sales teams are

granted permission to access their own product module. Another example is that accounting staff can

access the account, contract and inventory modules.

Error control is implemented in every module. For each operation, alert message is sent to the user if

a process is invalid. Possible further actions are recommended to the user at the same time. For example,

when the user enters an invalid password, the system will prompt “Your password is wrong, please re-

enter.” to the user. When the user accesses the wrong service module that he has not been granted

permission, the system will prompt “You do not have enough privilege to access this module/function,

please contact the system administrator.”

RFID Process Conceptual Model

Figure 2 shows the conceptual model of the integration of RFID and ERP tasks based on the

requirement of different stakeholders. The process can be split into two smaller modules, RFID and ERP,

which further contain a number of tasks.

Process Request ERP TaskRFID Task

Warehouse Module

Object Identify Task

Stock Item

Object Registration Task Object Disposal Task

1 0..*

1

*

Figure 2. Conceptual Model for RFID integrated with in-house ERP system

The main function of RFID module is to handle stock identification and to transfer the stock data to

the ERP system automatically. Before a stock object can be identified, it must be registered in the RFID

database so that the relevant information can be made available to the whole system. While a stock object

is being disposed of, appropriate operations must be done to ensure that record of the stock object is

deleted from the system. This keeps the inventory record accurate and up-to-date, which guarantees that

the ERP system operates on the latest accurate inventory data.

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The RFID process is invoked by object identification. When a RFID process is executed, the RFID

Reader/Scanner scans the RFID tag to identify the object automatically. Relevant information is then

passed to the ERP system for further process.

The ERP system handles the stock. The warehouse module, which is a major module in the ERP

system, can perform any stock transactions (e.g., deducting the delivery quantity, increasing the reserved

quantity, etc) based on the data supplied by the RFID module. If stock is in shortage, the RFID system

can handle it separately as an exception, which can trigger replenishment automatically. More

information on exceptions are discussed in the next section.

System Architecture

This subsection describes our Web-enabled system with mobile user infrastructure together with

functions and features of each system component. Figure 3 depicts an infrastructure of a Web-enabled

system for in-house ERP system with mobile support, showing its key components.

Figure 3. Web-enabled system with Mobile Users Infrastructure

The whole system consists of several key components that perform RFID and ERP functions. In

addition to this, two firewalls are installed to maximize system security. The functionalities of different

system components are summarized below.

Mobile Devices - These devices have the ability to connect to the Internet from any places (say, by

using GPRS or Wireless Access Point technology) with a mobile Web browser. Examples include mobile

phone, notebook, PDA, and so on. Staff working outdoors is equipped with mobile devices, which enable

them to connect to the ERP system at anywhere and anytime through wireless network.8

Front-End Web Server – The Front-End Web server is placed strategically between the public

Internet and the private Local Area Network in order to protect it against malicious intrusion from the

public Internet by the External Firewall. The Web Server is a Linux-based server with Apache Tomcat

Web service. It has two main functions: to accept the connections from outside users, and to establish

connections to the back-end ERP system. Other core functions are placed in servers inside the private

Local Area Network. This networking topology helps to minimize the risk of intrusion by filtering the

incoming connections from the Internet. Only authenticated genuine connections are permitted to access

the Intranet resources.

Firewall - There are two firewalls installed to protect the whole system. The External Firewall is to

protect the Front-End Web Server by only accepting incoming traffic from the Internet using the SSL

protocol (TCP Port 443) and rejecting any other unsolicited traffic. This can protect the server and reduce

the chance of the Front-End Web Server being hacked. Internal Firewall only accepts the traffic

authenticated by the Front-End Web Server in DMZ to the Internal Local Area Network (LAN) so that

the ERP system can further be protected by double authentication.

In-House ERP System – This tailor-made and self-developed system is used for daily business

operations, maintaining quotations, contracts, packing lists, delivery notes, collect notes, invoices, service

orders, work orders, maintenance orders, maintenance agreements, etc.

Thick Client - Thick clients are installed with self-developed software to connect and communicate

to the In-House ERP system. All the operations must be carried out through this thick client for security

enforcement.

Integration Architecture

Figure 4 depicts an integration of RFID system for In-House ERP system, showing the key

components to be built in the Web-enabled system.

In-House ERP System - This tailor-made and self-developed system has been used for daily business

operation for over 8 years. Its functions have been mentioned above.

RFID Server – It is a Linux based server with Sybase Database System containing the information

for all registered RFID tags, and is integrated to the existing In-House ERP System. Information of RFID

tags can be exchanged between these two servers.

Warehouse Staff (Internal) - Internal Warehouse Staff use RFID Reader/Scanner to scan the stock

items with RFID tags before packing them for delivery.

Warehouse Staff (External) - When reaching the destination, external warehouse staff use RFID

Reader/Scanner to scan the goods with RFID tag to finish delivery process. The delivery status for items

will then be sent back to RFID Server & ERP System.

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Figure 4. Integration of RFID with ERP System

Figure 5. System Integration Architecture

Figure 5 shows the overall integration architecture. It is based on three main modules, namely, Web

Engine, ERP Engine, and RFID Engine, together with other supporting modules, including Process

Definition, Process Execution, and System Workflow and Application Logic.

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Web Engine – It is used to receive and to respond to the requests from outsiders. If the request is

accepted, it will forward the request to the ERP Engine for further actions.

ERP System – It is used to receive the request from the Web Engine. The ERP System then

dispatches the request to its Process Execution Module, Process Definition Module, and System

Workflow and Application Logic to verify and execute the process operation.

Process Definition Module – It is used to clarify each request and define which program module is

to be executed.

Process Execution Module – Based on the definition from Process Definition Module, it creates a

process and it triggers the appropriate program handler in the application logic.

System Workflow and Application Logic – It is used to handle the program logic and workflow. For

example, when a delivery order is posted, it updates all the items information such as quantity on hand

and average cost. Also, it triggers other programs to update the accounting module like job costing,

invoicing, etc.

RFID Engine – It is used to update and validate each RFID tag’s information and then transfer all

the available information to ERP Engine for further processing.

Figure 6: Integration the data of ERP System & RFID System

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We need all the existing features for the ERP System be remaining. To enhance the efficiency of the

warehouse process, some of the features must be rewritten, e.g., order posting. The update is that external

warehouse staff can use a PDA to enter the order number and post the order to complete the process.

For database design, some existing tables and fields can still be used. The key extension is to link up

RFID information to the ERP System. Figure 6 shows some integration data schema between ERP

System and RFID System.

Workflow Enhancement with RFID

Integrating RFID with ERP module brings several advantages by automating the workflow. Figure 7

shows the shipping flow after RFID is integrated into the ERP system.

Figure 7. Shipping Workflow with RFID

RFID speeds up the whole delivery process by automating stock identification. Stocks being

delivered to customers are being recorded automatically through RFID system. Traditionally, stock level

is maintained manually that it is often too late to realize stock shortage. RFID stock management enables

warehouse staff to obtain accurate stock level instantly so that decision on delivery schedule can be

made. Warehouse staff may defer delivery schedule, or arrange partial delivery based on the statistics.

Automation of receiving workflow is shown in Figure 8. RFID gives accurate product information

on stock level and order delivery status and prevents much manual errors on data entry by workflow

automation.

Workflow automation in logistics chain optimizes warehouse space. At the same time, better

customer satisfaction can be achieved.

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Figure 8. Receiving Workflow with RFID

Process Integration and Example Scenario

Figure 9 shows a key process of the Web-enabled system and integration of RFID to in-house ERP

system.

Figure 9. Typical System Workflow in UML Activity Diagram

When a user logins to the ERP system through the Web server, the user can create, update, cancel,

and query the transaction according to his/her privilege. If the user is a warehouse staff member, he needs

to perform the RFID function to complete a transaction. The system flow can be described as follows.

A user first accesses the system by entering appropriate login name and password. As described in

the above section, relevant GUI is displayed to the user based on the device being used. The user is

presented with different modules that he has the privilege to access. For instance, warehouse staff can

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access the warehouse module interface, which allows them to validate the RFID and to update logistics

transactions. Administrative staff may use the administrative module for transaction management and

enquiry. Finally, the system responses with latest status of the transactions involved.

Security

Security of the Web-enabled system is important as all the information such as customer, supplier,

and accounting are very sensitive business data. These kinds of sensitive information must not be

compromised by intruders. Most importantly, if the information is stolen by other third parties, this will

affect the company image and reputation.

Security and privacy issues of RFID remain a major concern as well (D. S. Kim, Shin, & Park,

2007). Therefore, the traffic from Front-End Web Server is encrypted using electronic certificates. Using

certification, the client browser will then use a secure channel to communicate with the Front-End Web

Server. Also, there are two Firewalls to protect any unauthorized traffic in and out to the DMZ. When a

user tries to establish a connection to the Front-End Web Server, a login screen will appear. The user

must type in the username and password to validate his/her identity. If not, the user is not allowed to

enter the system. This validation process is using the Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP)

protocol to query the Back-End Authentication Server, i.e., no user information is hosted in the Front-

End Web Server.

Exceptions and HandlingThe key benefit of the new integrated system is that it can adequately support exception handlings,

though the adequate integration of disparate business functions and data. Robust business processes

should be able to handle various exception scenarios (Chiu, Cheung, Till, et al., 2010; Chiu, Karlapalem,

Li, & Kafeza, 2002). Table 1 summarizes some of the key scenarios and events. Otherwise, previous

manual handling of these frequently occurred exceptions in the logistics is very much inefficient and

ineffective, which not only impairs customer relationships but also hinders the growth of the company.

Scenarios/Events Exception Handling

1. Order, delivery location or schedule delivery date is confirmed, but amendment on order, delivery location, or schedule delivery date is needed.

As stocks are not checked out yet, only amendment of order is needed.

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2. Stocks are checked out at Warehouse, but amendment on the order, delivery location or schedule delivery date (if not delivered) is needed.

As the stocks are reserved, the warehouse needs to release the order to go back to the normal situation so that Stock Administration Department can amend the order. During this release operation, the ERP Engine will update stock availability status and RFID tags information through the RFID Engine. After the order is confirmed again by the Stock Administration Department, if items are added or the quantity is changed, warehouse staff needs to run the operation again as shown in Figure 7.

3. Stocks are checked out at Warehouse, but order cancellation (if not delivered) is needed.

As the stocks are reserved, warehouse needs to release the order back to normal situation so that Stock Administration Department can cancel the order. During cancellation, the ERP Engine updates the Stock availability status, cancels the reserved quantity, and updates the RFID tags information through the RFID Engine.

4. Stocks are checked out at Warehouse, but amendment on the order, delivery location or schedule delivery date (if stocks are on the way) is needed.

Order status is updated as "Pending" by warehouse staff. During the "Pending" status, external warehouse staff is permitted to delay delivery of the goods to the customer location until further notice and the goods need to be sent back to warehouse for further actions.

5. Stocks are checked out at Warehouse, but cancellation of order (if stocks are on the way) is needed.

As the stocks are reserved, the warehouse needs to release the order back to the normal situation so that the Stock Administration Department can cancel the order. During cancellation, the ERP Engine updates the Stock available status, cancels the reserved quantity, and updates the RFID tags information through the RFID Engine.

6. Stocks are delivered; external warehouse staff has not updated the order status yet, but amendment /cancellation of order is needed.

External warehouse staff needs to update the order status to "Completed". No other action is carried out. For additional items or change in quantity, the Stock Administration Department needs to revise the contract and amend the related items quantity and create separate delivery order or collection note. For cancellation, refer to case (8).

7. Stocks are delivered; external warehouse staff has updated the order status already, but amendment/cancellation of order is needed.

The Stock Administration Department needs to revise the contract and amend the related items quantity and create a revised delivery order or collection note. For cancellation, refer to case (8).

8. Stocks are delivered, but order cancellation is needed.

The Stock Administration Department needs to create a collection note and send to the Warehouse. Warehouse staff then goes to the customer’s premise to collect the stock and then uses a RFID Reader/Scanner to scan the RFID tags for that package lot. While updating the collection note order status, the ERP Engine updates the quantity in the Warehouse and also the RFID tag's information through the RFID Engine.

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Table 1. Typical exception handling scenarios

DiscussionIn this section, we evaluate the applicability of our implementation approach with respect to the

major stakeholders, including users, management, and IT staff.

Users’ Perspective

Users want a system that is powerful and user friendly to perform their daily operations. Users

benefit from the Web-enabled system and RFID integrated in streamlining their work through improved

organizational interoperability and connectivity. System and information can now be easily accessed

through the Internet even they are in the warehouse or roaming outside of the office. Traditional

information request through telephone conversation can therefore be speeded-up through direct

information access. In particular, tedious and error-prone manual exception handling can now be

streamlined and automated.

Management’s Perspective

The major concern of the management is the costs against the benefits of whole project. In

particular, if any of the improvements to the process as discussed in the previous sections can

significantly help improving their productivities, the costs can be justified. Efficiency is also a key factor

for automation. Otherwise, if the system just supports the storing of information, the business value is

minimal.

Company image is very import to customers. The new system helps external workers to perform

their job more smoothly, and they can get enough information when needed so that it can reduce the

workload of the internal staff for handling lots of enquiry. Also, they can reduce the response time to the

customers so as to enhance the customer service level. Using RFID, warehouse staff can perform their

job more smoothly. The programmed exception handling also helps capture organization knowledge and

to ensure quality and consistent handling of the exceptions. A good warehouse system plus good delivery

team can help the customer build up confident, especially when exception conditions are properly

handled.

IT Staff’s Perspective

Project managers often concern about system development cost and subsequent maintenance efforts.

These concerns can be addressed by systematic fine-grained requirements elicitation. Analysis is one of

the important issues in the study. Capturing requirements from domain specific knowledge and expertise

is ultimately important in designing detail business processes and asynchronous event-triggered rules for

exception handling and relation-ship management. Documentation is also important for maintenance and

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further enhancement the system. Any errors or bugs can refer to the system specification to handle. Any

enhancement can than based on the system specification to further develop.

ConclusionThe paper has presented a pragmatic case study on the enhancement of an existing in-house ERP

System by integrating with mobile and RFID technologies to overcome some key existing system

weaknesses. We show the key components that are needed for the deployment. Secondly, we have

analyzed requirements of different stakeholders. Thirdly, we have presented the system architecture

required integration, and the workflow for new RFID processes in logistics. Fourthly, we show how

systematic exception handling can be facilitated with the new system. Finally, we discussed the

advantages gained by different stakeholders.

As the company studied is a typical SME in the region requiring enhanced logistics support to

increase its competitiveness, such approach of extending and integrating existing systems in phases

enables them to adopt new technology in a affordable pace and manner. The high-price tag of individual

stock item is also characteristics of high value-added industries and trading operations in the region,

justifying the use of RFID technologies. So, we expect our experience is relevant and applicable to many

similar and related industries in the region.

Our future work is mainly on the detailed performance evaluation of the system in order to

determine how much the new system helps the business operations. We will also compare the service

response time to the existing practice. Also, the effect of the tuning parameters inside the ERP System

(such as the SQL Statement and Store Procedure) to search time and quality are also important to

investigate. Using questionnaires, we also evaluate the satisfaction of various stakeholders in comparison

with the existing services. Secondly, we consider the integration of an alert system (Chiu et al., 2009;

Meng et al., 2010) so that documents and notifications can be routed automatically with deadline

enforced.

References

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