Value Creation in Pharmaceutical Supply Chains using Customer- Centric RFID Applications

This study proposes an approach towards generating value in pharmaceutical supply chains using radio frequency identification (RFID) technology. The approach focuses on the relationship between pharmacies, customers and manufacturers. Multiple explorative case studies were conducted and analyzed to identify potential areas for improvement in the supply chain (SC), and means of customer integration supported with Near Field Communication (NFC) devices. NFC is a standard for radio frequency communication between smartphones and related NFC devices, and allows data exchange between devices that are in close proximity (within a four inch area). Our findings allowed us to explore novel use-cases based on NFC and RFID technologies and their applications to enhance value realization in the downstream pharmaceutical SC. Keywords: Radio Frequency Identification (RFID), Near Field Communication (NFC), pharmaceutical supply chain, central information system (CIS), explorative case study