Radio Frequency (Un)Identification : Results from a Proof-of-Concept Trial of the Use of RFID Technology to Measure Microenterprise Turnover in Sri Lanka
Accurate measurement of stock levels, turnover, and profitability in microenterprises in developing countries is difficult because the majority of these firms do not keep detailed records. This paper tests the use of radio frequency identification...
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| Format: | Publications & Research |
| Language: | English en_US |
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World Bank Group, Washington, DC
2014
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| Online Access: | http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/2014/10/20299285/radio-frequency-unidentification-results-proof-of-concept-trial-use-rfid-technology-measure-microenterprise-turnover-sri-lanka http://hdl.handle.net/10986/20496 |
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okr-10986-204962021-04-23T14:03:56Z Radio Frequency (Un)Identification : Results from a Proof-of-Concept Trial of the Use of RFID Technology to Measure Microenterprise Turnover in Sri Lanka de Mel, Suresh Herath, Dammika McKenzie, David Pathak, Yuvraj ALTERNATIVE APPROACH ANTENNA ANTENNAE ANTENNAS APPLES AVOCADOS BAR CODE BAR CODES BARCODE BARCODES BARS BASIC BASINS BEVERAGES BOTTLES BREAD BUSINESS ACTIVITY BUSINESSES CAPABILITY CASHEW NUTS CELLPHONES CHOCOLATE COMPACT DISCS COOKIES COOKING CREAM CREDIT CARD CUSTOMS DATES DESKTOP PRINTERS DIGITAL DOMAINS DVD EGG EGGS ELECTRONIC PRODUCT CODE EQUIPMENT FIXED COSTS FRUITS GEOGRAPHIC REGIONS HARDWARE HIGH LEVELS IDENTIFICATION NUMBER IMAGES INNOVATIONS INSTALLATION INTERFACE INVENTORIES INVENTORY INVENTORY LEVELS INVENTORY MANAGEMENT LEARNING MANGO MANUFACTURING MEDIA MILK POWDER MOBILE PHONES NEW TECHNOLOGIES NEW TECHNOLOGY OKRA OPEN ACCESS ORANGE PACKAGING PC PDA PEANUTS PHOTO POINT OF SALE POTATO PRIVATE SECTOR PRIVATE SECTOR DEVELOPMENT PRODUCT CATEGORY PRODUCT INFORMATION PROGRAMMING PROGRAMMING LANGUAGE QUERIES RADIO RADIO FREQUENCY RADIO FREQUENCY IDENTIFICATION RADIO-FREQUENCY IDENTIFICATION REGISTERS RESULT RESULTS RETAIL STORES RFID RICE SCANNERS SCANNING SEARCHES SPICES SUPPLY CHAIN SUPPLY CHAIN MANAGEMENT SUPPLY CHAINS TABLE SALT TAGGING TEA TECHNICAL ISSUES TECHNICAL SUPPORT TELEPHONES TRANSACTION TRANSMISSION USER USES VEGETABLES VIDEO VIDEOS WASHING WEB WEBSITES XML Accurate measurement of stock levels, turnover, and profitability in microenterprises in developing countries is difficult because the majority of these firms do not keep detailed records. This paper tests the use of radio frequency identification tags as a means of objectively measuring stock levels and stock flow in small retail firms in Sri Lanka. In principle, the tags offer the potential to track stock movements accurately. The paper compares the stock counts obtained from RFID reads to physical stock counts and to survey responses. There are three main findings. First, current RFID-technology is more difficult to use, and more time-consuming to employ, than had been envisaged. Second, the technology works reasonably well for paper products, but very poorly for most products sold by microenterprises: on average only about one-quarter of the products tagged could be read and there was considerable day-to-day variation in read-efficiency. Third, a comparison of survey responses and physical stock-takes shows much higher accuracy for survey measures. As a result, the study concludes that this technology is currently unsuitable for improving stock measurement in microenterprises, except perhaps for a few products. 2014-10-30T20:43:40Z 2014-10-30T20:43:40Z 2014-10 http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/2014/10/20299285/radio-frequency-unidentification-results-proof-of-concept-trial-use-rfid-technology-measure-microenterprise-turnover-sri-lanka http://hdl.handle.net/10986/20496 English en_US Policy Research Working Paper;No. 7064 CC BY 3.0 IGO http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/igo/ World Bank Group, Washington, DC Publications & Research Publications & Research :: Policy Research Working Paper South Asia Sri Lanka |
| repository_type |
Digital Repository |
| institution_category |
Foreign Institution |
| institution |
Digital Repositories |
| building |
World Bank Open Knowledge Repository |
| collection |
World Bank |
| language |
English en_US |
| topic |
ALTERNATIVE APPROACH ANTENNA ANTENNAE ANTENNAS APPLES AVOCADOS BAR CODE BAR CODES BARCODE BARCODES BARS BASIC BASINS BEVERAGES BOTTLES BREAD BUSINESS ACTIVITY BUSINESSES CAPABILITY CASHEW NUTS CELLPHONES CHOCOLATE COMPACT DISCS COOKIES COOKING CREAM CREDIT CARD CUSTOMS DATES DESKTOP PRINTERS DIGITAL DOMAINS DVD EGG EGGS ELECTRONIC PRODUCT CODE EQUIPMENT FIXED COSTS FRUITS GEOGRAPHIC REGIONS HARDWARE HIGH LEVELS IDENTIFICATION NUMBER IMAGES INNOVATIONS INSTALLATION INTERFACE INVENTORIES INVENTORY INVENTORY LEVELS INVENTORY MANAGEMENT LEARNING MANGO MANUFACTURING MEDIA MILK POWDER MOBILE PHONES NEW TECHNOLOGIES NEW TECHNOLOGY OKRA OPEN ACCESS ORANGE PACKAGING PC PDA PEANUTS PHOTO POINT OF SALE POTATO PRIVATE SECTOR PRIVATE SECTOR DEVELOPMENT PRODUCT CATEGORY PRODUCT INFORMATION PROGRAMMING PROGRAMMING LANGUAGE QUERIES RADIO RADIO FREQUENCY RADIO FREQUENCY IDENTIFICATION RADIO-FREQUENCY IDENTIFICATION REGISTERS RESULT RESULTS RETAIL STORES RFID RICE SCANNERS SCANNING SEARCHES SPICES SUPPLY CHAIN SUPPLY CHAIN MANAGEMENT SUPPLY CHAINS TABLE SALT TAGGING TEA TECHNICAL ISSUES TECHNICAL SUPPORT TELEPHONES TRANSACTION TRANSMISSION USER USES VEGETABLES VIDEO VIDEOS WASHING WEB WEBSITES XML |
| spellingShingle |
ALTERNATIVE APPROACH ANTENNA ANTENNAE ANTENNAS APPLES AVOCADOS BAR CODE BAR CODES BARCODE BARCODES BARS BASIC BASINS BEVERAGES BOTTLES BREAD BUSINESS ACTIVITY BUSINESSES CAPABILITY CASHEW NUTS CELLPHONES CHOCOLATE COMPACT DISCS COOKIES COOKING CREAM CREDIT CARD CUSTOMS DATES DESKTOP PRINTERS DIGITAL DOMAINS DVD EGG EGGS ELECTRONIC PRODUCT CODE EQUIPMENT FIXED COSTS FRUITS GEOGRAPHIC REGIONS HARDWARE HIGH LEVELS IDENTIFICATION NUMBER IMAGES INNOVATIONS INSTALLATION INTERFACE INVENTORIES INVENTORY INVENTORY LEVELS INVENTORY MANAGEMENT LEARNING MANGO MANUFACTURING MEDIA MILK POWDER MOBILE PHONES NEW TECHNOLOGIES NEW TECHNOLOGY OKRA OPEN ACCESS ORANGE PACKAGING PC PDA PEANUTS PHOTO POINT OF SALE POTATO PRIVATE SECTOR PRIVATE SECTOR DEVELOPMENT PRODUCT CATEGORY PRODUCT INFORMATION PROGRAMMING PROGRAMMING LANGUAGE QUERIES RADIO RADIO FREQUENCY RADIO FREQUENCY IDENTIFICATION RADIO-FREQUENCY IDENTIFICATION REGISTERS RESULT RESULTS RETAIL STORES RFID RICE SCANNERS SCANNING SEARCHES SPICES SUPPLY CHAIN SUPPLY CHAIN MANAGEMENT SUPPLY CHAINS TABLE SALT TAGGING TEA TECHNICAL ISSUES TECHNICAL SUPPORT TELEPHONES TRANSACTION TRANSMISSION USER USES VEGETABLES VIDEO VIDEOS WASHING WEB WEBSITES XML de Mel, Suresh Herath, Dammika McKenzie, David Pathak, Yuvraj Radio Frequency (Un)Identification : Results from a Proof-of-Concept Trial of the Use of RFID Technology to Measure Microenterprise Turnover in Sri Lanka |
| geographic_facet |
South Asia Sri Lanka |
| relation |
Policy Research Working Paper;No. 7064 |
| description |
Accurate measurement of stock levels,
turnover, and profitability in microenterprises in
developing countries is difficult because the majority of
these firms do not keep detailed records. This paper tests
the use of radio frequency identification tags as a means of
objectively measuring stock levels and stock flow in small
retail firms in Sri Lanka. In principle, the tags offer the
potential to track stock movements accurately. The paper
compares the stock counts obtained from RFID reads to
physical stock counts and to survey responses. There are
three main findings. First, current RFID-technology is more
difficult to use, and more time-consuming to employ, than
had been envisaged. Second, the technology works reasonably
well for paper products, but very poorly for most products
sold by microenterprises: on average only about one-quarter
of the products tagged could be read and there was
considerable day-to-day variation in read-efficiency. Third,
a comparison of survey responses and physical stock-takes
shows much higher accuracy for survey measures. As a result,
the study concludes that this technology is currently
unsuitable for improving stock measurement in
microenterprises, except perhaps for a few products. |
| format |
Publications & Research |
| author |
de Mel, Suresh Herath, Dammika McKenzie, David Pathak, Yuvraj |
| author_facet |
de Mel, Suresh Herath, Dammika McKenzie, David Pathak, Yuvraj |
| author_sort |
de Mel, Suresh |
| title |
Radio Frequency (Un)Identification : Results from a Proof-of-Concept Trial of the Use of RFID Technology to Measure Microenterprise Turnover in Sri Lanka |
| title_short |
Radio Frequency (Un)Identification : Results from a Proof-of-Concept Trial of the Use of RFID Technology to Measure Microenterprise Turnover in Sri Lanka |
| title_full |
Radio Frequency (Un)Identification : Results from a Proof-of-Concept Trial of the Use of RFID Technology to Measure Microenterprise Turnover in Sri Lanka |
| title_fullStr |
Radio Frequency (Un)Identification : Results from a Proof-of-Concept Trial of the Use of RFID Technology to Measure Microenterprise Turnover in Sri Lanka |
| title_full_unstemmed |
Radio Frequency (Un)Identification : Results from a Proof-of-Concept Trial of the Use of RFID Technology to Measure Microenterprise Turnover in Sri Lanka |
| title_sort |
radio frequency (un)identification : results from a proof-of-concept trial of the use of rfid technology to measure microenterprise turnover in sri lanka |
| publisher |
World Bank Group, Washington, DC |
| publishDate |
2014 |
| url |
http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/2014/10/20299285/radio-frequency-unidentification-results-proof-of-concept-trial-use-rfid-technology-measure-microenterprise-turnover-sri-lanka http://hdl.handle.net/10986/20496 |
| _version_ |
1764445537625440256 |