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Article: What is the value of real-time shipment tracking information?(Technical report)
- Article from:
- IIE Transactions
- Article date:
- December 1, 2009
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2009 Institute of Industrial Engineers, Inc. (IIE). This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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1. Introduction
Carriers such as UPS, Federal Express and the United States Postal Service have provided tracking information on shipments to their customers for many years. Such tracking information is typically provided for entire shipments, indicating shipment status, such as the expected shipment arrival date or time. With advances in information technology such as Radio Frequency Identification the vision of real-time tracking information on shipments, even down to item level, is now closer to reality (see, for instance, Angeles (2005), Kohn et al. (2005) and Murphy-Hoye et al. (2005)). Such real-time tracking information can enable better supply chain ...