Models for Cost-Benefit Analysis of RFID Implementations in Retail Stores

In this paper, we focus on the models for analyzing radio frequency identification (RFID) implementations in terms of their costs and benefits. We consider the supply chain comprised of the manufacturer, distributor, retailer, and the consumer. We classify the transactions generated by different RFID tag reads and discuss implementations of the data networks connecting the tag readers at the retail store. Our models consider the cost of implementations including the cost of tag readers, the communication network cost and other infrastructure costs. The analytical models we propose consider the benefits of these implementations including automatic checkout at retail stores and reduced inventory costs due to efficient shelf replenishment.