STUDY OF LOGISTICS MANAGEMENT ON INTERNET
OF THINGS
Sun Chunling
College of Information Science and Technology, Heilongjiang University
No.74 Xuefu Rd., Nangang District, Ha'erbin, China
Keywords: Logistics Management, the Internet of Things, RFID Technology.
Abstract: Along with electronic commerce's rapid development, the physical distribution the role which plays in the
electronic commerce development is getting bigger and bigger. Typical logistics processes became
significantly more complex and dynamic during the last decades. RFID technology is particularly
promising. At present our country electronic commerce still occupied the stage which needs to consummate
and to improve, the present physical distribution system has restricted the electronic commerce development
to a great extent. If wants to break through our country electronic commerce development the physical
distribution bottleneck, the urgent matter is establishes socialized, the industrial production and the
modernized highly effective reasonable physical distribution allocation system on Internet of Thing as soon
as possible.
1 INTRODUCTION
Electronic commerce was the 20th century
information, the network product. Along with
electronic commerce's rapid development, the
physical distribution the role which plays in the
electronic commerce development is getting bigger
and bigger, the physical distribution is regarded as is
the electronic commerce development cornerstone.
Electronic commerce involves the information flow,
the commercial interchange, the fund class and in
the physical distribution four base elements, first
third-class may realizes through the computer and
the network service equipment. But takes in four
class the most special physical distribution, besides
some information product, the majority commodities
and the service must with the aid of a series of
mechanized, the automated tool transmission.
Obviously, the physical distribution is the electronic
commerce important component.
Our country's physical distribution horizontal
and the developed country compares also has the
beginning evening, the level is low, when introduces
the electronic commerce, does not have can support
the electronic commerce the physical distribution
pattern, therefore the present physical distribution
system is restricting our country electronic
commerce development to a great extent. Looked
from present's trend of development that will
develop the modernized physical distribution system
vigorously to our country electronic commerce
development the important promotion effect, also
only will then solve the physical distribution
bottleneck problem, can through the electronic
commerce develop economy, create a bigger
economic interest truly.
If wants to break through electronic commerce
development the physical distribution bottleneck,
the urgent matter is establishes socialized, the
industrial production and the modernized highly
effective reasonable physical distribution allocation
system on Internet of Thing as soon as possible.
2 WHAT IS THE INTERNET
OF THINGS?
Since Premier Jiabao Wen visited the engineering
and technology center of Gaoxinweina sensor
networks in China Scientific Academy in Wuxi in
Aug, 2009, the concept of Internet of things (IOT,
Internet of Things) has spread all over our country.
As a fact, IOT is not a new and fresh word.
In the early 1990s, a small news item in Wired
magazine described an obscure software product
developed out of the University of Illinois. The
522
Chunling S..
STUDY OF LOGISTICS MANAGEMENT ON INTERNET OF THINGS.
DOI: 10.5220/0003591505220526
In Proceedings of the 13th International Conference on Enterprise Information Systems (ITLS-2011), pages 522-526
ISBN: 978-989-8425-56-0
Copyright
c
 2011 SCITEPRESS (Science and Technology Publications, Lda.)

application was called Mosaic, and it soon proved to
be the "killer app" of the Internet. Within a matter of
several years, an entire industry had been built
around it and its successors. Mosaic was not the first
application of its type, but it delivered a new
paradigm of usability to the previously arcane task
of "browsing" hypertext links.
The EPC network, using tiny RFID (Radio
Frequency ID) tags, will enable computers to
automatically recognize and identify everyday
objects, and then track, trace, monitor, trigger
events, and perform actions on those objects. The
technology will effectively create an "Internet of
things." RFID will fundamentally impact the
industries of manufacturing, retail, transportation,
health care, life sciences, pharmaceuticals, and
government, offering an unprecedented real-time
view of assets and inventories throughout the global
supply chain. And in the process, whole new vistas
(and challenges) will open up to software
developers.
With the official release of the Electronic
Product Code Network, we are about to see the
"Internet of things" paradigm enter the big time --
the world of mainstream commerce.the term
Auto-ID refers to any broad class of identification
technologies used in the world of commerce to
automate, reduce errors, and increase efficiency.
These technologies include bar codes, smart cards,
sensors, voice recognition, and biometrics. But the
Auto-ID technology currently on center stage is
Radio Frequency Identification (RFID). RFID is a
generic technology that entails using tiny wireless
transmitters to tag individual objects, uniquely
identifying them. Such RFID tags allow companies
to automatically track objects, trigger events, and
perform actions upon the objects. RFID chips have
now been made as small as 0.3 millimeters (about
the size of a pencil tip). There are a variety of
different types -- active (battery-driven),
semi-passive (also battery-driven), and passive
(driven by the inductive energy of a tag reader).
Figure 1: An Ant Playing with RFID Chips.
It is put forward that sensor networks is a
development opportunity in the next century on an
international conference on mobile computing and
networks in 1999. In 2003, American Journal,
Technology Comments, proposed that the
technology of sensor networks would be the first
technology that changes human’s life. International
Telecommunication Union released the ITU report
on Internet 2005: Internet of Things on the world
peak conference on information society held in
Tunis in 2005, thus the concept of IOT was
proposed.
Figure 2: Diagram of IOT.
The Internet of Things is a network of Internet-enabl
ed objects, together with web services that interact w
ith these objects. Underlying the Internet of Things a
re technologies such as RFID (radio frequency identi
fication), sensors, and smart phones.
3 WORK PRINCIPLE
OF THE INTERNET OF THING
The product sticks while producing completion up
or inside the saving Qian has the electronics of EPC
code of label, henceforth in the whole life cycle of
product, the EPC code will become the only
marking of product. With this EPC code for the key
is worth an ability solid of unite in the thing on-line
the related information of search and renewal
product. Can also take it as clues, each circulate link
to carry on a fixed position to track to the product in
the supply chain .In any links, such as conveyance,
sale and use, recall...etc., be a certain read and write
the existence that the machine reads to monitor label
inside the scope at it, will know to read(can also to
write in the information needed in the label) the
electronics coding information that label contains,
and the information spread to arrive to connect with
STUDY OF LOGISTICS MANAGEMENT ON INTERNET OF THINGS
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each other with it of Savant in the center piece, take
the EPC data as key to be worth, send out claim to
obtain the network address(IP address) of the EPC
information server of including the product's
information toward the local ONS server(or Internet
ONS server), then Savant search an information
server according to the address and read PML data,
acquire the related information of product combine
from Savant replication the PML document , after
carrying on a necessary processing, make the
information carrying the business enterprise
application after delivering to procedure to do the
calculation processing of deeper time. At the same
time, local EPC information server and source EPC
information the server read and write a machine to
read to carry on record and modification to
correspond a data to this. Filter, collect, compute,
check, solve to adjust after savant the EPC data, data
transmission, data saving manage with task etc.
system processing after, deliver to Internet, can
apply to manage a system use for upper level.
Table 1: The composing of IOT.
System Main contents Exegesis
EPC codes
system
EPC codes
standard
Identify the
particular
code of target
The radio
frequency
identifies
system
EPC label Stick at the
product on
Read and write
a machine
Know to read
EPC label
Information
network
system
Savant(EPC in
the center
piece)
the software
of IOT to
support
system
ONS（the object
name analyzes
service）
EPC label
with save the
network
address of the
information
server of
having the
product
information to
carry on
matching
PML （ entity
marking
language）
Describe the
language of
product
information
4 THE ADVANTAGE OF RFID
IN LOGISTICS MANAGEMENT
The emergence of RFID (Radio Frequency
Identification) technology has been greatly increased
efficiency in the production process management,
material flow management, logistics and transport,
retail and distribution and other fields of the national
economy industries, including electronic
information industry. RFID may eventually replace
the ubiquitous bar code in the future and become the
main technology in logistics and supply chain
management field .
Compared with the popular bar code
technology, electronic tag has many advantages:
omitting the manual control, waterproofing,
antimagnetic, bearing the high temperature, a long
service life and wide reading distance. Moreover, on
the electronic label, data may encrypt, the storage
capacity is big and the canned data can be changed.
Thus, it has wider and more convenient application
than the bar code. The popularization and the
application of RFID will bring revolutionary
changes to the retail and logistics industry.
The advantages of RFID technology make it
have extensive application. In logistics management
field, the RFID system can be applied to the cargo
management of intelligent warehouse. It not only
can process the cargo to go into storage, leave the
storehouse and the stock management, moreover
also can supervise and manage all the information
about the cargo. At the same time, to introduce the
RFID technology to the logistics management field,
it can effectively save the artificial cost, enhance the
work’s accuracy, guarantee the product quality,
accelerate the processing speed. Moreover, the cargo
with tags on them can effectively avoid being stolen,
damaged or lost by using the read-write equipment
in logistics management center.
The RFID technology is a flow control
technology. It can provide the strategic significant
incremental benefit to the supply chain of
manufacture, logistics, wholesale and retail industry.
RFID industry can help enterprises increase the
exchange quantity and accelerate the flowing speed
of information to promote the efficiency and save
the cost. In recent years, the RFID technology
attracts so much attention. Experts in the industry
analyzed reasons.
Reduce stock and the sales personnel aspect
cost: Generally speaking, for retailers, the stock and
retailer cost will occupy 2-4% of their operation
expense. The bar code recognition process which
consumes much manpower can be replaced by using
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the read-write equipment to recognize the goods
plate, the vessel, the box and the products. The
RFID technology can reduce the number of sales
person for >30%.
Reduce labor cost of reading the code: The use of
RFID product can help retailer reduce labor cost as
well as regular cargo management and service fee of
goods shelf. Through enhancing the self-service,
reducing inspection time and mistake, the RFID
product can greatly improve present inspection
method of automatic scan.
Reduce the goods in stock: The accurate stock list
can reduce the occurrence of decreasing the book
value intentionally. RFID can effectively reduce the
stock mistake; highly promote the validity of stock
report. Through, the use of RFID to track
commodity accurately, the company can clearly
grasp the sales historical record and enhance the
accuracy of forecast of stock in need.
Reduce the occurrence of larceny: For retailers, the
loss of larceny reaches as high as 30 billion dollars,
occupying at least 1.5% of total sales by
conservatively estimation. By RFID technology, we
can reduce loss of stock by tracking the commodity
in supply system and finding the concrete position
of commodity at anytime. The RFID technology has
been applied successful in some stores, especially
for the high profit or expensive goods.
Reduce the occurrence of out of stock situation: For
retailers, the out of stock means making customers
disappointed, or going to their competitors. Until
now, the loss of out of stock is up to 4% of total
sales, for food grocery. RFID technology can track
the products, make clear stock list and forecast the
supply-demand situation accurately. By this way,
RFID can make stock volume reasonable. If retailers
improve customers service and satisfaction degree,
the sales volume will certainly largely increase.
Suppliers can write commodity style, origin,
producer, product batch and other detailed
information into the tag. When the cargo box with
tag passes through the read-write equipment, the tag
transmits the product data to the read-write
equipment. Then equipment downloads the data to
the central processor to generate the management
database of product list. Thus, the total process from
production, stock to sale can be clearly handled. The
purchase, stock and delivery process will be more
convenient. With RFID technology, the company
also may realize the real-time monitoring on raw
material, half finished product, end-product,
transportation, stock, delivery, putting on the shelf
and sales even returning the goods (Ames, 2004).
By this way, the company can control the stock
reasonably, realizing the intelligent management of
logistics.
5 PROBLEMS
IN THE DEVELOPMENT
Generally speaking, China’s sensor industry is still
in initial stage, within, if it could use existing
experiences and efficient modes as reference,
China’s logistics information construction and the
development in Internet of Things field could
achieve rapid development in short time, but the
development still has many problems, which mainly
reflects at enterprises sizes different levels, the
absence of technological standards, imperfect
innovation system, narrow application fields, low
level and immature operation mode, so we must pay
attentions to the following aspects:
Sensor industry has the characteristics of strong
explosive force, great correlation degree, high
penetration and wide application scope. Sensor
network could promote the development of modern
logistics industry belongs, so in modern logistics
industrial development process, it could give
attentions to sensor, sensor network chip, sensor
node, operation system, database software,
middleware, application software, system
integration, network and content services, intelligent
control system core industries, IC, network and
communications, and software support industrial
development.
Meanwhile, it also should accelerate innovation
platform and qualified personnel construction, pay
more attentions to improve independent innovation
ability, especially develop logistics industrial parks,
adopt introduction, cooperation and cultivation
mode, rapidly gather a passel of high-level R&D
strength and institutions in sensor field, establish
sound technology and intermediary service system,
strengthen talents introduction and cultivation and
master core technology through independent
innovations.
6 CONCLUSIONS
Logistics industry is not only one of National Top
Ten Industrial Revitalization Plans, but also the
important field of information and Internet of Things
applications. Its intelligent and comprehensive
logistics management and process monitoring could
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525

bring logistics efficiency improvement and logistics
cost control to enterprises, improve enterprises and
related fields information level so as to achieve the
purpose of promoting the whole industrial
development.
Judging from China domestic market, the core of
logistics information is integration, and it covers IT
solutions design and configuration, host
management, trading partners development and
operations management services.
RFID-based Asset tracking and trace solutions.
supply chain solution department will use RFID
technology, wireless technology and sensor
technology to provide real-time supply chain with
good scalability and improved functions, assets and
operation visibility solutions. Through this
cooperation, RFID, UWB, Wi-Fi RTLS, mobile
handset, PLC and sensor have unified convergence,
which could significantly reduce cost and provide
powerful services.
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