Challenges of Tagging Goods in Supply Chains and a Cloud Perspective with Focus on Some Transitional Economies

Sanja Bauk
University of Montenegro, Faculty of Maritime Studies Dobrota 36, 85330 Kotor, Montenegro

Mimo Draskovic
University of Montenegro, Faculty of Maritime Studies Dobrota 36, 85330 Kotor, Montenegro

Anke Schmeink
Institute for Theoretical Information Technology, RWTH Aachen University, Germany

Abstract

This paper considers some of the barriers in implementing the RFID (radio frequency identification) technology for identifying, locating, tracking and tracing goods in supply chains, along with a model for adopting cloud services that can mitigate these obstacles in the transitional environment. The analysis is based on the assessments of the implementation impediments, given by the experts in the field of logistics: university professors, assistants and entrepreneurs from three Western Balkan countries (Montenegro, Serbia, and Bosnia and Herzegovina). Since the professionals’ assessments are influenced by their experiences from the transitional economies, which are faced with limited abilities to invest in expensive business information systems, the main hypothesis is that moving the logistics into the cloud may resolve or at least alleviate the considered problems. On the basis of the available secondary literature resources on pros and cons of RFID implementation into supply chains, and the statistical analysis of the consciously completed questionnaires in the survey, the model for adopting cloud services for providing RFID-enabled goods and related activities in the considered economies is proposed at a logical level. The paper also gives some directions for further research work in this domain.