Design of RFID-enabled Aircraft Reverse Logistics Network Simulation

Abstract

Design of RFID-enabled Aircraft Reverse Logistics Network SimulationKehinde Oluyemisi AdetiloyeThe reverse logistics (RL) of aircrafts pose a big challenge to its owners due to the complexity of its RL network, and the inherit problems of realizing a reliable system for efficiently monitoring and tracking the numerous parts of end-of-life (EOL) aircrafts in the RL network. Radio frequency identification (RFID) technology, through its automatic and wireless data capture capability, offers great potential for counteracting this problem.Although widespread and cost-effective, traditional barcode system, unlike RFID technology, requires manual scanning and line-of-sight for its use.In this research, thorough review of literature was conducted to identify the technological and economical impacts of RFID technology in both forward and RL network, and the knowledge acquired was employed to develop a scenario based approach for determining suitable RFID solutions for use in different sections of the EOL aircraft RL network.Process maps for case-level barcode tagging, item-level RFID tagging, case-level RFID tagging and pallet-level RFID tagging in EOL aircraft RL were developed and simulated in Arena simulation software in order to comparatively analyze the Return-On-Investment (ROI) of the different RFID technology levels. iv The results of our research, focusing on passive RFID technology, demonstrate that use of RFID technology in EOL aircraft RL network offers great potential compared to barcode system; however, the high initial investment cost of RFID technology deployment may necessitate proper planning, such as business process re-engineering (BPR), tag reuse and phased implementation, to achieve more positive ROI.