The Institute of Logistics and Warehousing (ILiM) is presenting its expertise at CeBIT – the world’s largest technology trade fair, held in Hanover from March 1-5. Emphasizing the Institute’s authority in the field of knowledge regarding the Polish ICT sector, the Ministry of Economy invited ILiM to deliver a presentation at the Polish stand during this year’s fair. As part of the presentation, ILiM consultants will introduce the MOBIT-GS1 mobile application and the EPC/RFID technology used in supply chains.
Mobile technologies support the functioning of the supply chain and guarantee the proper flow of information, ensuring the correct execution of logistics operations between cooperating companies. The dynamic development of mobile telephony and the systematic introduction of increasingly advanced and cheaper phone models by hardware manufacturers mean that in the near future, solutions that have so far supported supply chain operations may change our daily shopping. The target market is huge – it is over 5 billion phone users looking for information about the products they buy.
Modern phones, in addition to standard equipment such as GPS or a digital camera with autofocus, can, among other things, support the creation and storage of shopping lists, scan barcodes and provide data for comparing product properties, enable access to discount coupons and promotions related to products, and also help consumers find the nearest route to a store where the desired product is located. A condition for success and one of the greatest challenges of the initiative defined within GS1 (the organization creating global product identification standards) as Mobile Commerce is the development of mechanisms that will enable the linking of data processed from barcode scanning with reliable product information. The Institute of Logistics and Warehousing has prepared a pilot mobile application called MOBIT-GS1. It allows users of Android phones to scan barcodes and access product information gathered, among other sources, in a reliable data source such as the GS1 Poland resources, where product information is published by manufacturers. The application offers additional functionalities: – multimedia presentations related to the product (video recipes), – data on the composition and nutritional values of the product (especially important for people on diets and allergy sufferers). MOBIT-GS1 is enjoying great interest. According to user requests, the application will be made available for further phone models later in the year, and in addition to product information, other functionalities will also appear (including the highly anticipated prices).
The second solution being presented is EPC/RFID (Electronic Product Code/Radio Frequency Identification). EPC/RFID is one of the fastest-growing automatic identification techniques. And there is no doubt that it is a solution of tomorrow that will introduce enterprises to a completely new reality, just as barcodes did in the past. The establishment of global standards for the electronic product code, further improvement of RFID technology, and the reduction of implementation costs have accelerated its practical use. The application of EPC/RFID brings many benefits. The advantages of this technique primarily include supply chain transparency, i.e., enabling the monitoring of goods flow online and increasing the speed and accuracy of reading goods flowing through supply chains.