Modeling the Impact of RFID Technology on the Healthcare Supply Chain

Abstract

Due to increasing competition in the healthcare industry, healthcare providers must find ways to reduce their costs of operation or potentially lose customers to more affordable options. For many years, the healthcare supply chain has significantly lagged behind the retail supply chain in terms of supply chain efficiency. Certain disruptive technologies that have become widespread in the retail supply chain have yet to be integrated by a significant number of healthcare providers, and as a result, there are large opportunities for improvements in the healthcare supply chain that could lead to both cost and time savings. Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) technology is a disruptive technology in the retail supply chain that utilizes readers to automatically identify and track tags attached to objects. This paper leverages modeling and simulation techniques to explore the impact that RFID technology could have on the healthcare supply chain. Keywords Healthcare Supply Chain, Retail Supply Chain, Disruptive Technology, RFID Technology, Simulation, Modelin