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T his paper presents a case study of the research and development of an RFID-based traceability system in an aircraft engineering company in Hong Kong. We report the system design and implementation, and discuss our experiences and lessons learned. The aim of the RFID system is to effectively support the tracking and tracing of aeroplane repairable items in the company. The study reveals eight critical success factors for the successful implementation of RFID systems, namely, create strong internal and external motivation for improvement, stir up desire to keep abreast of the latest technology for global competitiveness, strive for cross organizational implementation, avoid major process changes/limit process changes, start with a small RFID project scope, facilitate equipment vendor's investment, use cost-effectiveness reusable tags, and transfer RFID skills and knowledge from university to industry. We also summarize 13 lessons learned, including three lessons concerning RFID implementation at strategic level, six lessons at management level, and four lessons at operational level resulting from carrying out this project. Given the contextual details of the study, the lessons learned can help other firms to better anticipate the hurdles they will experience, and make them aware of the possible ways to cope with such difficulties before embarking on the journey of RFID implementation.

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This study presents an assessment of supply chain performance (SCP) in transport logistics by service providers in the transport logistics industry in Hong Kong. The industry is broadly defined as encompassing firms involved in the business of serving the physical flows of goods from a point of origin, i.e., shippers, to a point of destination, i.e., consignees, in a supply chain. These firms include those in sea transport, freight forwarding, air transport and third-party logistics services. A cross-sectional survey was conducted with firms in the industry to evaluate their perceived SCP in transport logistics and the attached importance from both cost and service perspectives. The study findings provide managerial insights for firms in the industry to understand their SCP in transport logistics and benchmark areas for performance improvement.

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