Product-oriented transportation using RFID technology: A simulation-based study

The paper describes the application of the intelligent products concept in a road freight transport by instrumenting this activity in certain ways to create an ongoing informational continuum that connects products, vehicles and the persons making the transportation decisions. This instrumentation is developed and implemented under the aegis of the PRODIGE project, whose purpose is to design technical solutions based on RFID, GPS and GSM technologies. The article discusses how the use of RFID technology enhances road freight transport performance, specifically investigating whether its implementation is relevant to loading, unloading and routing processes. We pay particular attention to the way in which the transport chain responds to certain events that occur when products are transferred to customers, assessing its performance in terms of responsiveness and capacity utilisation of resources. The study's simulation-based approach offers a quantitative comparison between the performance of a real system that has adopted barcode technology, and the changes that occur when this evolves into a system featuring RFID technology.