OPERATIONS MANAGEMENT ASSIGNMENT Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3500 words - 1

OPERATIONS MANAGEMENT ASSIGNMENT - Essay Example Radio Frequency Identification (RFID), Data Interchange (EDI), Electronic Data Interchange (EDI), Point of Sales (POS), mCRM – (mobile CRM), Inter Organizational Information Systems (IOIS), and various other Data Mining (DM) technologies are used across various departments in the retail industry. The use of the above mentioned technologies in various stages of the supply chain in a retail industry is shown in Figure 2. â€Å"RFID is a term that describes any system of identification wherein an electronic device that uses radio frequency or magnetic field variations to communicate is attached to an item" (Glover, Bhatt, 2006). It comprises of two key components namely – a tag and a reader. The tag functions as an identification device and is attached to an item while the reader is a device which is used to identify / detect the RFID tags attached to various items (see Figure 3). The software used is known as an RFID middleware. Recently huge retail giants such as IKEA and Wal-Mart are known to depend on the RFID technology for enhancing their supply chain management process. RFID helps in better management of the retail supply chain through eliminating wastage, reducing labour cost and improving customer service (Jones et al., 2005). Electronic Data Interchange refers to a standardized process where data / business transactions take place in a computer-to-computer system (Walton, Marucheck, 1997). Within the retail industry, a significant portion of business documents including purchase orders, delivery schedules and notes, invoices, payment transfers etc are created and maintained in an electronic format. The EDI system helps in transmitting this paperless data in a hassle free manner and with minimum human intervention, thus eliminating the chances of human errors (Becker et al., 2001). Point of sale refers to a system which facilitates the sale of the product / service to the customer by accessing a product in store, and dynamically updating the inventory