RFID based business process analysis

Abstract

Business processes changed radically in the last four decades with the use of information technology and the concept of enterprise has evolved dramatically as its functionalities and boundaries have extended in response to business and technological changes. But until this day, the integration between IT and the real world is a main problem. The format discontinuity between the abstract virtual representation and the real world is still costly. With methodologies like ABPM companies could automatically adjust their processes to a changing environment and minimize the gap among virtual and real world using RFID technology or autonomous computing. In this thesis, we showed how RFID as an Auto-ID technology can be used to analyze a business process. With RFID new possibilities for automatic identification and decentralized data storage are possible. We used the SCOR model to identify supply chain processes, which can be analyzed based on RFID technology. The acquired data ranges from time data of process activities, hold-ups to sensor data like temperature or acceleration and location data. After identifying the processes we developed a process model for RFID based Business Process Analysis. The process model contains four phases; it starts with the preparation of business process models and the definition of main goals in the first phase, the selection and evaluation of proper technology in the second phase, the execution of the business process analysis and ends with the evaluation and utilization of the acquired data.