Sensor applications in the supply hain: The example of quality-based issuing of perishables

Abstract

Miniaturization and price decline are increasingly allowing for the use of RFID tags and sensors in inter-organizational supply chain applications. This contribution aims at investigating the potential of sensor-based issuing policies on product quality in the perishables supply chain. We develop a simple simulation model that allows us to study the quality of perishable goods at a retailer under different issuing policies at the distributor. Our results show that policies that rely on automatically collected expiry dates and product quality bear the potential to improve the quality of items in stores with regard to mean quality and standard deviation. © 2008 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg.