Antonio Rizzi

Università di Parma | UNIPR · Department of Engineering and Architecture

The research aims at assessing the level of interest towards and adoption of Radio Frequency IDentification (RFID) technology among a sample of manufacturers, retailers, logistic service providers, solution providers and vertically integrated fashion retailers belonging to the Fashion, Consumer Goods and Healthcare sectors in Italy. A survey was cr...

PURPOSE: The present paper investigates the real performances of Software-Based Shielding (SBS) in two different stores of fashion retailers located in Northern Italy. DESIGN/METHODOLOGY/APPROACH: The study is based on a double case study analysis. Six different factors have been chosen, with two levels each. Namely, we investigated two different (...

The well-known Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) technology is now evolving its applications: indeed, at the industrial level, it was firstly conceived at the pallet/case level for enhancing productivity and accuracy of logistics processes, while at present the focus is shifting towards item-level tagging applications for also managing in-store...

Given the promising results obtained by the Software-Based Shielding (SBS) in our previous work entitled “Software-based shielding for real-time inventory count in different store areas: a feasibility analysis in fashion retail”, in this paper, we go into more detail by exploring the effect of certain surrounding aspects, such as (i) the partition...

A second way of representing the SC, in addition to the physical one described in Chap. 2 which contemplates its players and infrastructures, is through the corporate structure, i.e., the business functions involved in the SC process described in the first paragraphs of Chap. 1

In the previous chapters, we saw that it is possible to represent the supply chain in diverse ways.

A third way of seeing the SC, in addition to representing it through physical flows and through the corporate business functions involved, is through the information flows that characterize it and which the SC players exchange among themselves.

If we want to talk about Supply Chain Management (SCM) we ought to start by explaining the literal meaning.

When we attempt to describe the SC using a physical representation, on the one hand we want to highlight the players involved, and on the other the physical structures with which these players operate.

RFID is an established technology and its implementation has been increasing steadily in different industries in the last decades. An important and relatively recent RFID breakthrough has been that of moving the level of tagging from pallet- or case-level, to item-level. This development has opened up a new set of use cases and benefits, especially...

span lang="EN-US">Experimentation plays an essential role in engineering education, allowing to balance theoretical proofs and emphasis on physical intuition. Laboratories can fulfil several goals at once, but they also involve high costs, mostly due to equipment, space, and human resources for operating and maintaining them. Remote-access labs hav...

A comparative evaluation of the environmental/economic performance of High Pressure Processing (HPP) technology for food processing is made using Life Cycle Costing (LCC) and Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) methodologies. Thermal pasteurization (TP), in the form of indirect system (with energy recovery) and of retort process, and modified atmosphere pa...

Objectives: Fashion and apparel retail have been driving the adoption of UHF RFID for the last 10 years. This paper strives on the one hand to present an overview of the current adoption of UHF RFID in this sector, and on the other one, starting from Rizzi et al. (2016), to better understand the evolution of use cases (UCs). Which are the most freq...

Industry 4.0 and lean production are two key topics in manufacturing in the last decades, and they have attracted a great interest both from practitioners and researchers, as it is testified by the great number of studies and projects on those two topics. The diffusion of lean principles has revolutionized the industrial context, both from a manufa...

The paper strives at benchmarking performances of dual frequency inlays, operating in UHF and HF bands, when deployed in the apparel logistics and end-user retail processes. The developed testing protocol makes it possible to evaluate performances of RFID devices in simulated supply chain and end-user-oriented processes. It has been designed accord...

Industry 4.0 and lean production are two key topics in manufacturing in the last decades, and they have attracted a great interest both from practitioners and researchers, as it is testified by the great number of studies and projects on those two topics. The diffusion of lean principles has revolutionized the industrial context, both from a manufa...

The last two decades have seen a growing trend towards the application of item-level RFID technology in the fashion and apparel retail sector, with the main goals of automating supply chain processes and increasing their accuracy. Extensive research has shown that the chief advantages of deploying RFID technology in this sector are, amongst others,...

RFID item-level tagging is a powerful tool for improving inventory accuracy, which is a prerequisite for both omnichanneling strategies and store floor replenishment from the backroom. This paper explores how retailers can leverage RFID item-level tagging further to optimise product merchandising in the store area, to map store floor performance an...

This paper presents the result of the RFID logistics pilot III (RLP3) project, which has dealt with the deployment of the radio frequency identification (RFID) technology and the development of an IT infrastructure for the management of the real-time data collected in a fresh food supply chain. More specifically, we report the benefits achievable i...

In this paper, the testing and deployment of an RFID-based Real-Time Locating System (RTLS) at a fashion retailer is presented. An RTLS is a combination of hardware and software systems to determine automatically and in real-time the coordinates of an object. Although this goal might be achieved with different technologies, several studies suggest...

OBJECTIVE: This paper aims at proposing a new framework for the classification of RFID deployments in fashion and apparel retailing. The framework encompasses several different use cases (UCs) pursued by fashion and apparel retailers in the last decade, and updates, expands and goes beyond what has already been presented in the related literature....

Focused on food industrial districts, this paper proposes an integrated approach to increase sustainability and efficiency of logistics activities. The approach is conceived to design an integrated food district, starting from a set of independent companies, and to quantify the economic savings that could be gained from the pooled management of log...

OBJECTIVE:The objective of the paper is twofold: on the one hand, to design a testing protocol to measure performances of RFID devices. The protocol matches operational conditions in supply chain processes and is particularly tailored to the apparel industry. On the other one, the paper strives at benchmarking performances of inlays, fixed and hand...

This chapter examines the benefi ts achievable when radio frequency identification (RFID) technology is implemented into the fashion supply chain, and is based on three of our earlier studies in this field. A theoretical feasibility study demonstrates how the logistics processes of a typical fashion retail store (RS) and distribution centre (DC) sh...

The objective of this paper is to point out how Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) technology can be used to improve the First In First Out (FIFO) policy of fresh products warehouses in the large-scale retail channel. The relatively short shelf life of fresh products forces to maintain a punctual control of the rotation of cases in the warehouse...

In this paper, we aim at analysing and punctually quantifying the benefits of the adoption of Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) technology for a better management of shop floor operations and reduction of out of stocks (OOS). To this extent, we first selected a panel of about 100 products belonging to different consumer packaged goods categorie...

The purpose of this paper is to present and quantify the business benefits that can be achieved through the deployment of Radio frequency identification (RFID) technology in the apparel and fashion supply chain. The goal is to provide quantitative results regarding logistics and store processes, as well as different areas and processes that could b...

The purpose of this paper is to explore the potentials of implementing UHF Class 1 Gen 2 RFID technology to support Electronic Article Surveillance (EAS) applications in the apparel supply chain. The study consists of two parts. The first one aims at quantitatively assessing the technical performance achievable by means of RFID technology, and is c...

Il presente capitolo illustra l’impatto della tecnologia RFID nella gestione dei processi logistici di una supply chain di beni di largo consumo.

Questo capitolo si propone di analizzare e quantificare in maniera sistematica i benefici derivanti dall’utilizzo delle tecnologie per il monitoraggio delle vendite sul punto vendita. Tramite tali tecnologie, e grazie alla condivisione delle informazioni mediante EPC Network, è possibile abilitare e successivamente gestire informazioni di tracciabi...

Tracciabilità è la parola chiave dello scenario agroalimentare moderno, e racchiude al suo interno sia la risposta alle esigenze di sicurezza alimentare manifestate dai consumatori, sia una possibilità, per le aziende, di innovarsi per mantenere la propria competitività sul mercato. Il presente capitolo inizia con una descrizione del problema gener...

Uno degli ambiti in cui la tecnologia RFID si sta rapidamente diffondendo è quello della tracciabilità degli asset. Sempre più spesso aziende del settore alimentare implementano soluzioni di identificazione automatica a radiofrequenza per tracciare il flusso diretto e inverso di contenitori a rendere (cassette, bins, fusti ecc.) nella supply chain...

In questo capitolo di apertura vengono delineate le caratteristiche generali di un sistema RFID. Dopo una breve parentesi iniziale, che offre alcuni richiami di fisica delle onde elettromagnetiche e risulta essenziale per capire il funzionamento di un sistema di identificazione in radio frequenza, si analizzano in dettaglio le caratteristiche dei p...

Le caratteristiche funzionali della tecnologia RFID sono state descritte in dettaglio nel capitolo 1; saranno ora esaminate le performance di tale tecnologia quando utilizzata per l’identificazione di imballaggi primari, secondari o terziari di prodotti alimentari e di generi di largo consumo in generale.

Questo capitolo fornisce alcuni concetti basilari necessari per la comprensione degli argomenti affrontati nel prosieguo della trattazione. Dopo un’introduzione alle principali tematiche di logistica e supply chain management, viene presentato il concetto di costo totale logistico, con le relative componenti, rappresentate dai costi delle singole a...

Come si è visto nel capitolo 2, una supply chain consiste in un sistema coordinate di organizzazioni, persone, attività, informazioni e risorse, coinvolto nel trasferimento fisico o virtuale di prodotti o servizi, dal produttore al consumatore (Nagumey, 2006). Una cold chain è una supply chain nella quale si inserisce anche il controllo della tempe...

This paper investigates how to improve the efficiency of cross-shipments between warehouses and shipments between factories and warehouses in multi-divisional firms with a high level of inter-facility material handling activities. Specifically, the paper focuses on the optimisation of the freight transportation of finished goods between the firm's...

The adoption of RFID has undoubted economical advantages in the fast moving consumer goods (FMCG) supply chain, where it allows reducing labor costs, out-of-stock expenses, warehouse management costs, and inventory levels. Such improvements, however, are only a part of the overall RFID benefits, which also include new business opportunities and str...

This paper aims at quantitatively assessing the impact of radio frequency identification (RFID) technology and electronic product code (EPC) system on the main processes of the fashion industry supply chain. A fashion supply chain, composed of a distribution centre (DC) and a retail store (RS), is examined. A questionnaire survey and several site v...

This paper examines the impact of radio frequency identification (RFID) and EPC Network on out-of-stocks of promotional items during a sales promotion in the fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) context. A mathematical model is developed to estimate savings achievable by reducing the main causes of unavailability of promotional items. In particular, t...

This paper describes a research whose aim is to quantitatively assess the impact of radio frequency identification (RFID) technology and electronic product code (EPC) system on the main processes of the fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) supply chain. A three-echelon supply chain is examined, composed of manufacturers, distributors and retailers of...

In this paper, a structured approach to select the most suitable dyad supplier/purchased items with the purpose to streamline the procurement process is proposed. Due to its characteristics, the approach is particularly suitable to be adopted when a wide number of vendors and purchased items have to be pondered. To progressively reduce the amount o...

We present a discrete event simulation model reproducing the adoption of Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) technology for the optimal management of common logistics processes of a Fast Moving Consumer Goods (FMCG) warehouse. In this study, simulation is exploited as a powerful tool to reproduce both the reengineered RFID logistics processes and...

This paper analyses some relevant supply chain management issues for Italian firms operating in the footwear industry. The analysis is carried out on representative firms, located in a specialized regional district with a high density of shoe manufacturing companies. Companies were experiencing substantial problems in the management of supplier rel...

The practical implementation of hazard analysis and critical control point (HACCP) and in particular the definition of the critical control points (CCPs) in the food industry is usually a complex structured task. This is particularly the case of small medium enterprise (SMEs), where quality/safety manager ability, knowledge of the production proces...

This paper introduces an analytical methodology to estimate the “potential” freight traffic volume that could be attracted by an intermodal terminal. The “potential volume” is understood to be the local road traffic share that is likely to be diverted from road to rail-road intermodality. The methodology is particularly tailored for the design and...

Purpose To present a multi‐attribute approach for the selection and ranking of the most suitable 3PL service provider. Design/methodology/approach The approach is based on the TOPSIS technique (Technique for Order Preference by Similarity to Ideal Solution) and the fuzzy set theory. Findings A quantitative methodology based on a structured framew...

Logistics and Supply Chain Management literature indicates that customer service management has become a strategic issue for companies in the new millennium. By improving logistics performances, companies increase customer satisfaction and gain market shares.The aim of this paper is to propose an original approach for the management of customer ser...

Many studies have addressed which criteria have to be considered in order to weight potential suppliers when traditional vendor–buyer purchasing transactions take place. However, due to the peculiarities of the e-procurement process, new paradigms and criteria have to be added to traditional ones for the selection of viable suppliers when these kin...

This paper presents the results of a panel of experts, made up of academics in the field of operations and supply chain management, enterprise requirement planning software developers, and end-users, whose work has aimed at defining the main features that characterize an enterprise modeller for the fashion industry. The characteristics required by...

Nowadays, the industrial seasoning of dry sausages is usually carried out in forced flow ripening chambers. In these industrial plants, air flows are preset and strictly controlled both from a fluid dynamic and a thermodynamic point of view, in order to maximize the efficiency and the productivity of the ripening stage.In this paper a parametric mo...

In this paper we introduce a simulative model, designed and developed to optimally manage an integrated finished goods inventory system, and suitable for adoption in a wide range of make to stock manufacturing firms. The goal of the model is to manage optimally finished goods inventory levels, in order to minimize costs deriving from holding invent...

When scheduling jobs in a flow shop no single dispatching rule works best for all performance criteria. Hence, it becomes paramount to assess which rule is more balanced in terms of different conflicting achievements. An alternative to the simulation based comparison of different dispatching rules can be represented by a linguistic based decision m...

This research seeks to provide an understanding of the MRP adoption process using classic adoption models for prediction. To this end, four classical adoption models were used to provide the foundation for the constructs tested in this study. The framework of research strives to investigate the relationships between benefit analysis, feasibility st...

The management of internal distributive logistics can be a major issue for modern firms and can have a significant impact on the profitability of companies. An operational analysis tool is developed for the management of the internal shipment of finished goods in multidivisional companies where there is a high level of inter-plant freight transfer...

Planning for business contingency means, among the other activities, choosing between alternative layout configurations, which often require different investment levels. Such investments are targeted at establishing appropriate redundancy levels that reduce the likelihood of incurring in inefficiency costs, which sometimes are far higher than the i...

Deals with the issues related to the implementation, in a manual finished goods warehouse, of an ERP information system aimed at improving warehouse internal logistics efficiency. Specifically it is observed that the mere implementation of an integrated warehouse management information system does not actually guarantee the optimization of warehous...