Web Services and RFID—Enabling Dynamic Supply Chains
I am currently researching ways that web services and RFID technologies can be combined to create dynamically integrated supply chains. As technologies, web services and RFID are very similar in that they both rely on XML-based transfer protocols to transmit information over the Internet.
Within the web services suite of technologies is the capability to create software agents to automatically find and transact with other businesses. RFID, on the other hand, has the capability of unifying a disparate supply chain members by tracking inventory goods at a very granular level and communicating this information up and down a supply chain.
If these two technologies can be successfully combined, entire supply chains could be dynamically formed and automatically integrated. Of course, for such an arrangement to work would require industries to establish standards to support this type of activity. However, from a technological standpoint, the capability already exists.