Critical management issues for implementing RFID in the Fashion Industry Supply Chain

Radio frequency identification (RFID) technology offers attractive ways to improve supply chain efficiency through greater coordination between marketing and manufacturing. RFID enables real-Time tracking of items, safety monitoring and automation of warehouse operations, which leads to increase in sales volumes and improved profitability for suppliers and retailers. With the growth of RFID deployments in the fashion industry, more complex and ambitious projects have been developed in the last years. The great variety of applications that RFID technology can offer has been exploited by retailers and manufacturers to increase the efficiency of one or more supply chain processes. Although several RFID research publications focused on various applications of RFID there is a dearth of review of the literature on the application of RFID in fashion products manufacturing and retailing. Hence, an attempt has been made in this paper to review various applications of RFID in such industry with the related critical issues management. Furthermore, this paper aims to propose a framework for RFID implementations in the fashion supply chain. The aim of this research is to support practitioners and managers in evaluating a priori the complexity of their supply chain processes in order to achieve the highest benefits from RFID implementation; indirectly, this approach is also expected to increase the success of RFID-based project implementations while reducing the uncertainty in terms of performances and economical results.