An approach for research and training in enterprise information system with RFID technology

Successful implementation of Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) in Enterprise Information System (EIS) depends on exploring the knowledge of RFID technology and providing EIS software training to potential users. The restriction of RFID technology and huge amount item-level data collection via RFID potentially increases the complexity of integrating with EIS. It raises several concerns such as reduced data accuracy, and increased exceptions leading to processes requiring more time to be developed, tested and maintained. However, this approach has not been entirely investigated so far. This paper proposes an integrated research on EIS and a training approach for students and employees who intend to integrate RFID with EIS software in an organization. This integrated research approach applies a typical EIS project workflow from automatic shop floor data collection to customer order fulfillment. This research identifies these stages as transaction, planning and scheduling, integration, execution and control, and automatic identification and data collection. For training and demonstration purpose, this research proposes prototype information systems that emulate the systems used in any organization. This ensures that the logic of the proposed methodology of integrating RFID and EIS software is consistent with that in the business organization. This paper discusses some of the important case studies that were conducted with the suggested prototype systems.