Using RFID to Track and Trace High Value Products: The Case of City Healthcare

Using RFID to Track and Trace High Value Products: The Case of City Healthcare

Judith A. Symonds David Parry

Idea Group Publishing

Journal of Cases on Information Technology, 10(1), 1-13, January-March 2008 

Using RFID to Track and Trace High Value Products: The Case of City Healthcare Judith A Symonds, Auckland University of Technology, New Zealand David Parry, Auckland University of Technology, New Zealand

Executive summary Certain businesses call for a high level of traceability to track high value products. This case study of City Healthcare,1 New Zealand, focuses on the complex management issues related to the initial decisions to use radio frequency identification (RFID) technology on such a product, instead of a barcode. RFID devices are effectively tiny memory storage devices that can be read and sometimes written to from a distance using radio waves through an appropriate interrogation device. RFID devices have been touted as a replacement for barcodes in supply-chain applications. Issues and challenges investigated here include the ability of RFID to replace barcodes, business benefit from technology investment, technology adoption, and the role of external regulations in the adoption process. Keywords: ���� IT managememt; ������������ supply ������������������������� chain management; �������������������������������� radio frequency identification,

Organization Background City Healthcare is a designer and manufacturer of healthcare devices. The factory is the only production site for the organisation and overseas offices are supported from here. Sales offices are located in Australia, U.S., UK, France, Germany, and India. All City Healthcare manufacturing line products are uniquely identifiable using barcodes. RFID (radio frequency identification) was not used anywhere in the factory at the time of the case study analysis although management was aware that RFID tags could be used in place of barcodes. City��������������������������������������������������� Healthcare entered the respiratory care market in 1971 ������������������������������� with the development of a respiratory humidifier system for use in critical care. It has since developed humidification technologies and now offers products for use in intensive care respiratory medicine, neonatal care, operating rooms, and the treatment of obstructive sleep apnoea (OSA). City������������������������������������������������ Healthcare is the tenth biggest company on the New ���� ������������������������������� Zealand stock exchange and has 830 staff in New Zealand. ������������������������������ The company������������������� sells products to �������������� 90 markets in �������� Europe, ������ North ��������� America, UK, Australia, and Asia, achieving sales of NZ $���� ����� 241 ����������������� million annually.

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Journal of Cases on Information Technology, 10(1), 1-13, January-March 2008

City�������������������������� Healthcare spends around ��� 7% ���������������������������������������������������� of its revenue on R&D and consistently produces new lines and products. The company continually enhances its existing products and develops new, related products, focuses on new medical applications for their technologies and expands their sales network, with the focus on achieving a better patient outcome.

Setting the Stage As a much cheaper alternative and a requirement by many healthcare governing bodies, barcoding still has precedence amongst healthcare companies over other technologies for identifying products (Best, 2005). RFID may be seen as a replacement for barcodes but manufacturers of medical devices have a lot to consider when adopting RFID technology. Issues include standards, cheaper alternatives, and regulations. For example, in the U.S., medical device manufacturers must get third party approval from regulatory bodies such as the Food and Drug Administration2 (FDA) to allow them to sell their products. FDA requirements mainly include safety, quality, and standardisation. Having mastered barcoding technology, companies are in a position to consider the functionality of RFID. In healthcare particularly, RFID is considered more suitable for locating people and products than barcoding and has many potential advantages such as field reading, as opposed to line-of-sight reading. RFID devices can store more data than barcodes and some RFID tags can have data written to them by the interrogator. There has been a great deal of interest recently in the use of RFID in the supply chain (Singh & Lai, 2007), and a number of major projects are underway.

Readiness for RFID in Healthcare Medical healthcare devices are often high value products manufactured in low volumes with supporting processes that must comply with regulations. There could be catastrophic consequences for a healthcare device manufacturer if a product was involved in a serious accident or other bad publicity. Therefore, regulatory bodies require medical device manufacturers to individually label every product manufactured. Unique identification makes it possible to achieve full traceability and archive test data records in the supply chain. All these factors can affect RFID adoption in the industry and initially suggest that medical device manufacturers have the margins and pressure from external actors to motivate them to invest in the technology (Brooke, 2005). Brooke (2005) identified several aspects of the healthcare industry where RFID can be beneficial, including the ability to trace high value assets in the hospital and the ability to track assets over time, thus verifying that certain procedures have been completed (in this case, decontamination of surgical instruments).

Tracking and Tracing

The supply chain is described by Christopher (2005) as a network (supply chain network) where different actors and functions are working together to control, manage, and improve the flow of material and information from suppliers to end customers. The underlying philosophy behind the supply chain is the logistic concept of planning and co-ordinating the flow of material through a supply chain as a series of dependent activities within functions, with the overall aim of sending the right product, to the right destination, at the right time. Business has long recognised that the key to success of the supply chain is the use of information technology. Information technology has in many ways transformed the way different actors in the supply chain can connect with each other. Information has always been central to increasing supply chain efficiency. Now, enabled by information technologies, the complex flow

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Journal of Cases on Information Technology, 10(1), 1-13, January-March 2008 

of materials, parts, subassemblies, and finished products can be well co-ordinated and monitored (Christopher, 2005). The ability to track and trace the flow of material across the supply chain network is enabled through the use of information systems (Walker, 2005). Tracking means following products as they move through the supply chain, stage by stage. Tracing means getting information about a specific product and is mostly done at the end of the supply chain. An example of a traceability problem is the need to find out which actor has been involved in the manufacturing of a product. The information in this case is traced backwards (upstream). The central issue in tracking and tracing is collecting information about products both internally and when the material crosses organisational borders. Figure 1 shows tracking and tracing capabilities possible in both directions. Achieving end-to-end tracking and tracing through the supply chain network is enabled through information technologies. The barcode has been used to enable end-to-end tracking but is not without problems. For example, when a manufacturer wishes to store several pieces of information about a product in its supply chain, the size restrictions of barcode become limiting. Newer technologies are not as limiting, as discussed by Walker (2005). For example, RFID has the potential to store several pieces of information such as store lot code, date code, serial number, and expiration date. A richer information flow gives more real time information about the products. The integration of functions becomes more possible when the end-to-end view makes it possible for any actor to see individual product movement (Heinrich, 2005).

Identification and Data Collection

Auto identification and data collection (AIDC) includes several identification systems using barcodes, magnetic strips, or RFID technology (RFID Journal, 2005). An RFID system uses RFID tags and RFID readers to collect data. The RFID system can be compared to the barcode system using the scanner and the barcode label. Instead of the barcode label, the RFID tag is attached to an object and the scanner is the RFID reader. Barcode systems use infrared to communicate, but RFID systems use radio frequency for data transmission. The data flow necessary for an RFID reader to access the data on an RFID tag is shown in Figure 2. The advantages of RFID technology are summarised in Table 1. In a quantitative performance evaluation of printing supply chains, Hou and Huang (2006) measured the time required for item identification using barcode and RFID technology and found that to identify 1000 items by barcode took 33 minutes compared with 1 minute and 40 seconds

Figure 1. Track products and trace information about products Trac� downstream

Supplier

Purchasing

Manufacturing

Distribution

Customer

Trace upstream

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Journal of Cases on Information Technology, 10(1), 1-13, January-March 2008

Figure 2. Data flow of RFID reading (Wang & Liu, 2005) Control commands

tag Control

Application Received Data

Transmitted Data

HF Interface Antenna

Table 1. Benefit analysis (Source: Garfinkel & Rosenberg, 2005; Heinrich, 2005; Bose & Pal, 2005; Sarma, 2004) �rea

Benefit

The RFID tag

- small size - uniquely identifiable - memory capacity - reading range - write capability

�on line-of-sight

- penetrate material - independent of tag orientation - read multiple tags - process improvements (speed up)

Better information

- more information (frequent reading) - accurate information - end-to-end view (track � trace)

using RFID. They translate this time saving into an increased operational efficiency for each stage of the supply chain and provide lookup tables to allow managers to forecast cost savings from the implementation of RFID. When compared to the barcode, vastly improved performance in item identification is the most attractive benefit of RFID. Lee, ������������������������������������ Cheng, & Leung (2004) quantify the indirect benefits of RFID use within supply chains using a simulation model. They identify inventory accuracy, more efficient shelf replenishment, and inventory visibility, resulting in an improved supply chain fill rate.

RFID compared to the Barcode

RFID is often said to be an alternative to today’s product barcodes. It may seem that the advantages of using RFID are already accomplished by barcodes, but barcodes have limited capabilities (Sarma, 2004). Barcodes cannot identify individual product items; they only identify a product group. Also, although barcode reading is much faster than manual reading, it still requires human intervention and reads only one at a time. RFID can make operations more automatic and can

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Journal of Cases on Information Technology, 10(1), 1-13, January-March 2008 

attach uniquely updateable information to the product that the information refers to. As a result, each RFID tag will be read many more times during its lifetime compared to a barcode, which is used mainly only at check out. Barcodes get much of the blame for the limitations in current business processes by Lucket (2004), who implies that business processes today are optimised as far as the barcode will allow. Table 2 summarises RFID disadvantages and barcode advantages. Lai & Hutchinson (2005) discuss some of the disadvantages of RFID in their study of RFID adoption in China. The largest challenge for companies contemplating RFID implementation is that of standards because it is not clear which will be chosen as an international standard. Markets that have no intellectual property rights to standards are required to pay a high price per unit for standards patents. This has lead to nations like China choosing neither UID (unique ID) nor EPC (electronic product code) and developing their own RFID standards. Another disadvantage of RFID technology according to Lai & Hutchinson (2005) is the prohibitively high cost of tags which is still as high as U.S. $0.30 per tag compared to the cost of barcodes at about U.S. $0.0024 per label. Another challenge for Chinese companies according to Lai and Hutchinson (2005) is that in order to effectively use the information collected by RFID it must be connected to backend systems such as ERP (enterprise resource planning), CRM (customer relationship management), and DSS (decision support systems). This requires the presence of such systems and the ability of management to use such systems. However, as reported by Jones, Clarke-Hill, Shears, Comfort, and Hillier (2004), many companies have difficulty interrogating consumer buyer patterns and consumer reward databases. A final challenge according to Lai and Hutchinson (2005) is that of the security and privacy of systems. RFID has security problems of its own, which may serve to aggravate information systems that are not adequately secure. As discussed by Ohkubo, ���������������� Suzuki, and Kinoshita (2005), if items are identified by a unique identification number, then a person’s physical movements can be tracked over a period of time. Tags can be ‘killed’ after one use, but this negates the advantages of using RFID tags. Ohkubo et al. (2005) suggest that the likely solution is encryption of the unique tag ID. As highlighted by Jones et al. (2004), RFID tag read ranges are currently limited to within a short range of the reader, and therefore, to achieve any accurate surveillance there would have to be sensors placed everywhere. However, the technology is capable of much longer read ranges and these are likely to be implemented in the future.

Case Description The scope of the case study was limited to the range of devices that provide continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) as well as a range of interface solutions, for the treatment of obstructive sleep apnoea (OSA), offered by City Healthcare. All applications in the series are portable

Table 2. Disadvantages of RFID and advantages of barcode system (Source: Piasecki, 2005; Heinrich, 2005; Lucket, 2004; iStart, 2005; Staake, Thiesse, & Fleisch, 2005; Gunther & Spiekermann, 2005) Disadvantages of RFID

Advantages of Barcode

ROI (return on investment) uncertainty Lack of universal standards High cost of individual tags High failure rate in reading in some environments Obstructive materials interfere with reading Privacy issues with info stored on tags

Mature technology and therefore less risky to implement Low cost per product application

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Journal of Cases on Information Technology, 10(1), 1-13, January-March 2008

and designed to be used by the patient in the home. Refer to Appendix A for an overview of the management structure of City Healthcare. However, a general overview of the IT infrastructure at City Healthcare is provided first.

IT Infrastructure City Healthcare has recently moved to a purpose-built factory premises and has installed a 10 Gbps ethernet telecommunications backbone. The main end-users are PC (personal computer) based. The telecommunications network bandwidth allows for large CAD (computer aided design) file transfers. In the future, City Healthcare intends to integrate a voice over IP (Internet protocol) solution with the existing network infrastructure.

The Internal Supply Chain within the Factory The internal supply chain for the CPAP consists of a warehouse of raw material, a manufacturing line (including four subassembly lines, a testing line, and a packaging stage), and a warehouse of finished goods (Appendix B). Before entering the testing line, the subassembly lines are integrated and the different components are all assembled into a fully assembled CPAP. During the transformation stages in the testing line, test runs are performed on a whole unit rather than checking each component, as in the subassembly lines. In total, five test runs are recorded during the manufacturing line, one within the PCB subassembly line and four in the testing line (Appendix C). The test records from these test runs are stored on a runcard (five test runs in total, but four related to the testing line). If the unit fails any of the tests, it must be sent back to the beginning of the manufacturing line for rework. The operator is not allowed to retest the unit; therefore, the testing process must be accurate. After the testing line, the CPAP as well as the other features such as the breathing tube, coming from the tube line, are all packaged together into a box in the packaging line. These boxes are loaded on pallets for delivery. The pallets are picked up by staff from the finished goods warehouse, the final function within the factory.

Runcard and Barcodes At the beginning of the testing line, a piece of paper is attached to each individual CPAP and this is known as a runcard (Appendix D). The runcard is a checklist which the operator signs after each test run (Appendix E). For each test, the date that the test was run, the signature of the operator, and a pass or fail result are recorded. The runcard is the quality record that complies with regulations for accurate auditing and traceability and assures the customer that City Healthcare products have been tested for quality control. The runcard is attached to the CPAP throughout the whole testing line until the CPAP is loaded into the box and loaded on a pallet. In the packaging stage the runcard and the CPAP are separated. The runcard stays at the factory and is stored at the manufacturing line for 10 years. The runcard must be able to be produced at a later date as evidence verifying that a particular device passed all quality controls. A unique barcode attached to the runcard and the CPAP is used to match test results once the device has left the manufacturing line. Appendix Fshows how the information about the product in the field is traced back to the runcard stored in the manufacturing line. Runcards must be kept for the duration of the life of the product and therefore are stored indefinitely. The cards are collected together and archived off-site after the initial 10 year period. Runcards are not retrieved often, but when they are, there can be difficulty in locating the specific runcard in a timely manner. Tracing starts at the customer end and goes back to the manufacturing line in order to find the runcard for that specific product.

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Journal of Cases on Information Technology, 10(1), 1-13, January-March 2008 

Additional test data measurements from each test run are stored in each test machine’s own information system. The test machines will produce a record for each individual test and store all the test data measurements taken during the test. The information from the tests is stored in a flat file in a file directory and is identified by the name of the file. The four information systems for the test machines in the testing line are not linked (see Appendix C). That is, when a unit enters a test machine, the machine has no knowledge of whether previous tests have been passed. This is up to the operator who will check the runcard attached to the unit. Three major requirements override everything else in the manufacturing line within City Healthcare, to manufacture a product of quality, with processes that comply with regulations (safety and efficiency issues) and with full traceability. Obstructive sleep apnoea is a potentially life-threatening disorder. It is important that products from City Healthcare are of a high quality so the product will work properly in any circumstance. When it comes to healthcare products, one incident related to safety for a medical product has the potential to damage the brand when the risk endangers a person’s life. A certain level of quality for medical products is established by following criteria set by regulatory bodies. Different markets are controlled by several regulatory bodies. The U.S. market is important to City Healthcare. The regulatory body in the United States is the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). Medical device manufacturers have to be approved by the FDA in order to be allowed to sell medical products on the U.S. market. Regulations demand that certain quality controls are conducted. The regulations affect the processes in the manufacturing line within City Healthcare. When asked about his work, the production manager mentions, among other things, making sure the activities within the manufacturing line and throughout the supply chain comply with regulations. One major concern he points out is the traceability requirement, he says: Basically we (City Healthcare) have to document a lot of data that other companies might not have to do, like full traceability of our products. From the raw materials right through the assembly line (manufacturing line), to stores, out to the customers. As for any medical device manufacturer, City Healthcare must fulfil the demands of regulatory bodies concerning traceability and archive test data records for their products. The regulations also set criteria for test machine design, validation processes, and for how complaints are investigated. The FDA requirements for electronic records are summarised by Mercuri (2003) as: • • • • •

use validated equipment and computer systems secure retention of records for instant analysis reconstruction user-independent, computer generated, time-stamped audit trails system and data security, data integrity, and confidentiality through authorized system access use of secure electronic signatures for open and closed systems and digital signatures for open systems.

Current Challenges/Problems Facing the Organisation The manufacturing line stores test data from each test run in two places, on the runcard and in separate information systems (see Appendix C). Test data needs to be stored in both places because digital storage does not comply with regulations while the runcard does. At City Healthcare, there

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Journal of Cases on Information Technology, 10(1), 1-13, January-March 2008

are two motivations to change the runcard system; increased efficiency and integration of test data storage. The production manager can see the potential time saved with every unit tested: If we can find ways of doing things faster, I guess ultimately, if we could get rid of that run card… well that’s another 3 or 4 seconds that we save on every single unit, now, on every test… runs faster. Barcode technology currently enables the managers in City Healthcare to record the information they need to be able to trace the serial number back to the manufacturing line, to be able to find the runcard for that specific product. The barcodes seem to fulfil the purpose of traceability requirements. There are two main reasons for City Healthcare to retain the current system; proven reliability and the convenience of the runcard method. However, there are three vulnerabilities in the current runcard system using barcode technology; reading problems caused by poor reader alignment or printing problems, the lack of integration of the test information systems, and the reliance on the operator to fulfil their obligations. For example, it is against quality regulations to test a unit twice. If a unit fails, it must be sent back to service for rework. Compliance with such regulations is checked by internal quality officers and external auditors. Each testing machine has two control lights; a green (pass) and a red light (fail). The operator checks the light and fills in the runcard as appropriate. There is nothing to say an operator will make the right call every time, everyday, when no electronic check is done. However, as the unit passes each test, all the operators will check the runcard to verify that the unit has passed the previous test. RFID technology has the potential to enable automation of the runcard process. When the researcher asked the production manager if RFID could improve the manufacturing line, he said: I’d say yes, I would say the big one would be replacing or getting rid of the paper run cards, that would be the biggest one. However, there are a number of issues that would need to be addressed in an RFID enabled system. These are: compliance with regulations, information requirements met by the current system, the need for a reliable audit trail, usability for customers, difficulties with digital authentication, and usability of computerised systems within the factory. In particular, it would be essential for the unique ID on the RFID to be secure, as it is important that information cannot be modified by any actor in the supply chain. The signature on the runcard is also an important aspect of the quality system and if the runcard became electronic, biometric authentication may be needed as the security of password and swipe card systems can be breached simply by the sharing of codes or cards between operators. Ultimately, innovation at City Healthcare is driven by customer demand (distributors and retailers of healthcare products). Customers are not looking for RFID specifically, but they are looking for increased stock visibility. City Healthcare has come to a standstill in their investigation of RFID and its potential benefits for their business. It is obvious that they need to take stock of the issues and develop a plan for a way forward. But which way next? The most obvious alternative to introducing RFID is changing the use of the current information system to enable the run card data to be stored there. However, this is more risky from a data integrity point of view, as the data will only be accessible via City Healthcare’s internal information system. The possibility of there being more than one electronic version of the runcard

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Journal of Cases on Information Technology, 10(1), 1-13, January-March 2008 

is especially serious for the FDA regulations. The data needs to be accessible by appropriate parties such as the FDA for the life of the machine, and even beyond the lifetime of the company. An RFID-based system could slot into the current arrangement, without major changes to the information system, and supports the possibility of identifying components and assemblies without having to take the device apart. RFID technology is relatively cheap to deploy and the use of such an approach may avoid the necessity of redesigning the whole information system.

References Andrews, J. (2005). The debate: RFID versus barcoding. Retrieved January 17, 2006, from www.healthcareitnews.com Best, J. (2005). RFID spending to rocket in healthcare. Retrieved January 17, 2006, from http://networks. silicon.com Bose, I., & Pal, R. (2005). Auto-ID: Managing anything, anywhere, anytime in the supply chain. Communications of the ACM, 48(8), 100-106. Brooke, M. (2005). RFID in healthcare: a four-dimensional supply chain. Quality Digest, August. Retrieved March 3, 2006, from�������������������������������������� www.avatarpartners.com/QualityDigest_ ������������������������������������� RFIDinHealthcare.pdf Christopher, M. (2005). Logistics and supply chain management. London: Prentice Hall. Garfinkel, S., & Rosenberg, B. (2005). RFID applications, security, and privacy. New York: AddisonWesley. Gunther, O., & Spiekermann, S. (2005). RFID and the perception of control: The consumer’s view. Communications of the ACM, 48(9), 73-76. Heinrich, C. (2005). RFID and beyond. ��������������������� Indianapolis: Wiley. Hou, J. L., & Huang, C. H. (2006). Quantitative performance evaluation of RFID applications in the supply chain of the printing industry. Industrial Management & Data Systems, 106(1), 96-120. Jones, P., Clarke-Hill, C., Shears, P., Comfort, D., & Hillier, D. (2004). Radio frequency identification in the UK: Opportunities and challenges. International Journal of Retail & Distribution Management, 32(3), 164-171. Lai, F., & Hutchinson, J. (2005). Radio frequency identification (RFID) in China: Opportunities and challenges. International Journal of Retail and Distribution Management, 33(12), 905-916. Lee, Y. M., Cheng, F., & Leung, Y. T. (2004). Exploring the impact of RFID on supply chain dynamics. In R. G. Ingalls, M. D. Rossetti, J.S. Smith, & B. A. Peters (Eds.), Proceedings of the 2004 Winter Simulation Conference. Retrieved from informs-sim.org. Lucket, D. (2004). Supply chain. BT Technology Journal, 22(3), 50-55. Mercuri, R. T. (2003). On auditing audit trails. Communications of the ACM, 46(1), 17-20. Ohkubo, M., Suzuki, K., & Kinoshita, S. (2005). RFID privacy issues and technical challenges. Communications of the ACM, 48(9), 66-71. Piasecki, D. (2005). The basics, the Wal-Mart mandate, EPC, privacy concerns, and more. Retrieved on December 19, 2005, from www.inventoryops.com/RFIDupdate.htm

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RFID Journal (2005). What is RFID? Retrieved on December 9, 2005, from www.rfidjournal.com Sarma, S. (2004). Integrating RFID. Queue, 2(7), 50-57. Singh, N., & Lai, K. (2007). Intra-organizational perspectives on IT-enabled supply chains. Communications of the ACM, 50(1), 59-65. Staake, T., Thiesse, F., & Fleisch, E. (2005) Extending the EPC network—the potential of RFID in anticounterfeiting. ACM Symposium on Applied Computing, 1607-1612. Walker, W. (2005). Supply chain architecture: a blueprint for networking the flow of material, information, and cash. London: CRC Press. Wang, F., & Liu, P. (2005). Temporal ������������������������������������� management of RFID data. In Proceedings of the 31st Very Large Databases (VLDB) Conference (pp. 1128-1139). Trondheim, Norway

Endnotes 1

Not the real name. ��������� I�������� n April ��������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 2005 the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) set regulations that require every medical device produced to have a bar code (Andrews, 2005). However, to date, no such regulations have been put in place to support RFID technology (FDA, 2006).

2

Appendix A. Management structure of City Healthcare Cheif of IT System �pplication Specialist (Supports the Manufacturing Knowledge system)

Software Development Manager

Product Development �ngineer

Product Departments Other Departments

Obstructive Sleep Apnea Department

Continuous Positive �irway Pressure (CPAP) Team

Software Team

Blower Team

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Journal of Cases on Information Technology, 10(1), 1-13, January-March 2008 11

Appendix B. Physical flow of material to a CPAP within the factory (Source: Author)

Manufacturing line PCB

Blower Warehouse Raw materials

Testing line

Pac�aging line

Warehouse Finished goods

Case part

Heater

Appendix C. Manufacturing line Subass Warehouse lines finished goods

Pac�aging

Testing line

PCB

Blower

Test 2

Test 3

Test �

Test 5

Pac�aging

Case part

Warehouse Finished Goods

Runcard �. .. 2. .. . . 5. .

Heater

Information system 2

Information system 3

Information system �

Information system 5

* Note that Test 1 occurs during the PCB subassembly process and is not part of the testing line.

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Journal of Cases on Information Technology, 10(1), 1-13, January-March 2008

Appendix D. The runcard Series Information (select one) PRODUCTION ROUTINE CARD TESTING CHECKLIST Component 1

PASS/FAIL

Component 2

PASS/FAIL

Component 1

PASS/FAIL

Component 2

PASS/FAIL

Test 1

Test 2 Component 1

PASS/FAIL

Component 2

PASS/FAIL

Component 1

PASS/FAIL

Component 2

PASS/FAIL

Component 1

PASS/FAIL

Component 2

PASS/FAIL

Test 3 Test 4 Test 5

Appendix E. The runcard is signed along the testing line Test 2

Test 3

Test �

Test 5

Runcard �. .. 2. .. . Pac�aging . 5. .

* Note that test 1 occurs in the PCB subassembly line and is not included in the scope of the case study.

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Journal of Cases on Information Technology, 10(1), 1-13, January-March 2008 13

Appendix F. Traceability from customer back to manufacturing (traceability upstream) Factory Supplier

Warehouse of raw

Manufacturing

Warehouse of finished goods

Sales office

Customer

Judith Symonds is a senior research path lecturer at the Auckland University of Technology, Auckland, New Zealand. Symonds holds a PhD in Rural Systems Management from the University of Queensland (2005, Australia). Symonds has published in international refereed journals, book chapters and conferences, including the Australian Journal of Information Systems. She currently serves on editorial boards for the Journal of Electronic Commerce in Organisations and the International Journal of E-Business Research. Her current research interests include technology adoption and eBusiness development for microenterprise. David Parry is a senior lecturer in the Auckland University of Technology School of Computing and Mathematical Sciences New Zealand. His PhD thesis was concerned with the use of fuzzy ontologies for medical information retrieval. He holds degrees from Imperial College and St. Bartholomew’s Medical College, London and the University of Otago, New Zealand. His research interests include internet-based knowledge management and the semantic web, health informatics, the use of Radio Frequency ID in healthcare and information retrieval.

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