KIT 714 ICT Research Principles
Assignment 3: Literature Review
Research Topic: How to efficiently manage stock of small
warehouse by robot and RFID technology due to COVID
Semester 1, 2022
Student Name:
Dingbang Liang
Yu Gong
Chunguang Wang
Student ID:
573841
572425
543363
Word count:
Abstract:
Industry Insight reports have found that most private ventures don't present normalised
administration, nor do they have solid items of the executives' mindfulness in their
stockrooms. In any case, the board will frequently bring extensive advancement space and
benefit worth to the entire venture.This paper surveys the ongoing writing on the viability of
distribution centre administration and the qualities of RFID innovation in the inventory
network. The reason for this paper is to talk about how to utilise robot and RFID innovation
to successfully deal with the little distribution centre stock.
Introduction:
Small warehouses show that the chain store takes on the conventional counterfeit
stockpiling the board. This implies that staff individuals invest a lot of energy entering data
into the data set. Accordingly, the adequacy and practicality of the work can not be ensured
(Marziali et al. 2021). Notwithstanding, storage management is a significant connection in
the chain store to the executives, which includes the programmed requesting, getting and
warehousing of products. This is the premise of the ordinary flow of grocery store chain
merchandise. It makes the time use of products, buffering and adjusting the inventory of
merchandise to the retail venture (Richards 2018).
RFID innovation has been recorded as one of the ten significant advancements in the
21st hundred years. In light of its benefits and potential, it is generally utilised in varying
backgrounds (Garfinkel & Rosenberg 2006). To help consumer services, whether online
administrations or retail substance services, the utilisation of cutting edge RFID innovation
for compelling warehousing the executives is fundamental, it is related with data about the
actual item. availability of the product, and speedy replenishment (Want & Satyarayanan
2006). In this paper, the characteristics of storage management and RFID technology, the
current relevant literature was reviewed. Storage management was greatly affected by the
COVID event, which is discussed in this article.
Literature Review:
1) Purpose of the research topic
Due to COVID-19, the global logistic system has been impacted significantly. Before the
global pandemic, warehouse management was mainly managed by labour, all stocks and
goods are moved by labour, especially in small and medium sized warehouses. Unlike
Amazon, they have significantly advanced technology to manage warehousing issues
(Yudiansyah et al. 2020), goods are moving between shelves by robotics, Amazon is currently
utilising this technology widely to pick and drop orders in the warehouse. So the purpose of
this research topic is to explore how to widely implement Robot and RFID technology in
other warehouses, especially small sized warehouses. Small sized warehouses may not have
the abilities to implement and afford these latest technologies, on the other side, they are
facing significant labour shortage due to COVID pandemic (Pestoni 2021). Is it time to make
changes to these small warehouses? This is a significant change for these owners of small
warehouses. RFID, Radio-Frequency Identification, is a technology that can provide a lot of
benefits to logistics (Weinstein 2005), management of supply chain, warehouse control and
movement tracking in the warehouse. RFID is a new trend in industry (Chuan et al. 2007), it
now can not only provide help in warehousing, but also can provide help in library
management.
2) The implementation of Robot and RFID
This technology is to utilise robotics to move goods, it is a robot navigation method, it
contains RFID and QR code, the robot can use its RFID reader to scan the QR code which is
positioned on the floor in the warehouses, when the QR code appears in corresponding
camera of the RFID reader, the direction signal will be sent to control the movement of the
robot (Xiao-Long et al. 2017). According to Betsy (2016), Amazon spent around 15 to 20
million USD on the implementation of robotics and RFID technology to improve the
efficiency of warehouse management, but finally the total cost saving on labours and other
costs is 800 million USD, this is a huge change. For small warehouse owners, it is a large
amount of spending compared to the Amazon warehouse system. Some argued that,
compared to the latest technology, small warehouse management is dependent on
collaboration decision making between departments and decision execution instead of
implementation of technology (Ramanathan & Gunasekaran 2014).
3) The advantage of implementing Robot and RFID in warehouse
During COVID pandemic, labour shortage is a main issue in the supply chain, lack of labours
makes significant impacts on moving goods, managing stocks or even stock losses on goods.
However, it is time to implement warehouse automation management (Mocan et al. 2017).
Firstly, robots do not need to do a test for COVID but labourers do, robots do not need to be
quarantined for 14 days, they can efficiently work continuously. Secondly, although some
argued that the implementation of warehouse automation costs a large amount of money,
Amazon proved this, the higher spend the higher gain, small warehouses can start from
implementing half of the warehouse, this can not only maintain their supply chain
continuously working, but also can demonstrate the benefits of warehouse automation to
them, the gaining of warehouse automation should be worthy of its implementation spending
(Lasmana 2018).
4) Challenges of implementing Robot and RFID in warehouse
The warehouse logistics robot industry is an emerging industry, and the rapid development
and growth of the industry has also revealed a number of problems: the robot's intelligence is
not sufficient, leading to a lack of response capability in multiple scenarios; the robot is not
fully functional, with blind spots in obstacle recognition and the need to add independent
switch buttons to the design of the product; the robot's stability is poor when running with a
load, and it is easy to fail to lift shelves or drive off track, etc. The robot manufacturer's
service level is still far from that of developed countries, and there is a need to further
improve the stability of the storage cage system and reduce the robot's failure rate; the
services of e-commerce logistics mainly limit the penetration of storage logistics robots into
other industries. The biggest challenge facing the warehouse logistics robot industry is how to
solve the pain points of customers, such as reducing labour costs and improving the
efficiency of warehouse picking.
As RFID becomes more widely used, it is gaining more and more attention. Many members
of the community, technicians and supporters of privacy have begun to question the use of
RFID. Privacy advocates argue that many companies are using RFID tags to track the flow of
goods while inadvertently compromising the privacy of their customers. Many organisations
involved in secrecy are also becoming concerned because their identity is linked to the item
at the time of purchase and can be compromised by RFID tags embedded in clothing or
carry-on items once they pass through certain malls or centres. This makes it difficult to
determine when the tag is sending information out. If many items are tagged with RFID, it is
easy from the shop's point of view to manage the merchandise, whether it is for sorting or for
quick charging or to prevent theft. However, once the goods are sold, if the RFID tags
attached to them are not removed, the identity of the buyer can easily be compromised. There
may also bring more harm, for example, the thief can get through the RFID reader to attach
the tag of the value of the goods, so as to judge the buyer's economic conditions, for the
crime to bring convenience.
5) Gap
Of course, this method also has some gaps in scope. Previous research on RFID has
focused on warehouse management, while there has been a lack of research on the impact of
such contingencies as COVID. Many storage units struggled to find enough part-time
workers to fill vacancies in Covid.
6) Research question: How does the implementation of Robot and RFID change and
improve the warehousing process during COVID?
Overall, the implementation of small warehouses can reduce their costs on labour spending,
during COVID pandemic, warehouse automation can consistently operate and manage
warehouses, the spending of implementing robots and RFID will not be wasted and will be
earned back.
Conclusion:
The point of this paper is to sum up the writing about the use of data innovation in the
stockroom and the board. The explanation is that with the constant improvement of the
strategies business, warehousing has turned into a significant piece of the framework. Its
capacity is presently not basic products stockpiling, however with an assortment of assistant
capacities, like bundling, arranging and straightforward gathering. Thus, the viability of the
stockroom decides if a venture can accomplish benefits. Current capacity of the board
stresses the dynamic of stockpiling. Through the audit of different writing, we can see that
the use of RFID and robot innovation can influence the adequacy of distribution centre
administration, hence can further develop the administration level and dynamic degree of
undertakings later on, fortifying the centre intensity of ventures. These arguments can lead to
the use of RFID technology to improve the management of goods storage in small
warehouses in-depth thinking. At the same time, there are some storage defects that the RFID
system failed to solve during COVID, and this part of emergency storage may be the future
research direction.
Reference:
Yudiansyah, A et al. 2020, ‘CAN THE MOBILE ROBOT BE A FUTURE
ORDER-PICKING SOLUTION?: A CASE STUDY AT AMAZON FULFILLMENT
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Weinstein, R 2005, ‘RFID: a technical overview and its application to the enterprise’, IT
Professional, vol. 7, no. 3, pp. 27–33.
Chuan, LP et al. 2007, An RFID warehouse robot, IEEE Xplore, pp. 451–456, viewed 14 May
2022, .
Pestoni, F 2021, Warehousing’s Next Challenge Is Teaching Bots to Communicate,
www.supplychainbrain.com, viewed 14 May 2022,
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Xiao-Long, W et al. 2017, A robot navigation method based on RFID and QR code in the
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Mikel, B 2016, Amazon’s Warehouse Robots on Track to Slash Costs by the Billions, Inc.com,
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Ramanathan, U & Gunasekaran, A 2014, ‘Supply chain collaboration: Impact of success in
long-term partnerships’, International Journal of Production Economics, vol. 147, pp.
252–259.
Mocan, A, Draghici, A, & Mocan, M 2017, ‘A Way of Gaining Competitive Advantage
through Ergonomics Improvements in Warehouse Logistics’, Research and Science Today,
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Lasmana, ID 2018, Kiva Robot and System’s Study, library.universitaspertamina.ac.id,
viewed 15 May 2022,
.