I was at a meeting yesterday with a technology solutions provider and a service solutions provider on the topic of best practice in supply chains of the Asia-Pacific (AP) region. When you are facing with choices, and without the domain knowledge of those choices, you like to be able to make a sensible decision based on practices others have taken with relatively good results. Do best practices in supply chains for U.S.A. companies applicable to AP companies of similar nature? Actually, do companies that participate in supply chains in AP regions have the same issues and concerns as those counterparts in the States?

A 'supply chain' is always viewed from a brand name company registered as a trading company here in Hong Kong. The trading company either owns or contracts manufactures in, say, the PRD (Pearl River Delta) region of China. Work-in-progress goods could be re-routed back to Hong Kong for final stage processing before the finished goods are shipped out to buyers in international markets (CEPA). Finished goods could well be shipped out from southern China by sea freight. If so, the issues of customs declaration and clearance will be part of the outbound logistics process. Some finished goods of different countries of origin have to be closely monitored to ensure the buyers are getting the goods from the authorized country of origin - as same (OEM) products now can be made in China or say, Vietnam, but only with a different label.

Getting back to best practice, supply chains in AP region would no doubt have logistics as a key component. Or, are companies here practicing "supply chain?" How could this question be asked properly? (I was overwhelmed by my lack of understanding of some research methodologies today - constructs, hypertheses, relevancy, bias, significancy, etc. - in a research meeting on "logistics flexibility". And most likely we will take similar approach and conduct an empirical study in order to answer the 'supply chain' question.) There were an unspoken consensus of perceivable differences of supply chain practice in AP region and those in the United States. What caused those differences will remain to be seen ("cultural" was one factor mentioned). Let's say that we could establish some understanding of supply chain practices in AP region using some research methodology, we still like to be able to 'validate' the outcomes with current 'supply chain' practices of companies.

That would be the next step (the next phase) - understanding the business processes of companies in the region. The excitement is that, when this is all done, the possibility of characterizing RFID adoption in supply chains may be reachable. So far, we have seen enough case by case examples of RFID adoption at company level (within the four walls), but the impact of RFID adoption is global - from intra (four walls), to inter (between partners), then to global (among industries or markets?). This view is coming from our research that the adoption will have three phases. More on this topic later.

The need for sorting of outgoing (from HKIA) luggage bags was a result of centralized baggage handling for all airlines in Hong Kong International Airport. Incoming luggage bags (arrival to HKIA), as was mentioned by one of the hosts, was sorted by passengers themselves. If the bags are RF-tagged, then the usage of these tags ceased. The "end-to-end" applications of RFID technology in this case would be from one end of the HKIA (checking in) to the other end of HKIA (loading into an aircraft).

This end-to-end view defines the application of RFID for within a company, a warehouse, or a manufacturing plant. There are many case studies described in the literature often fall into this company-level adoption of the RF technology. Of course, this end or that end can be extended - in a supply chain, to include upstream and/or downstream partners. Is there a similar 'supply chain' concept in moving passengers around the world with their luggage bags? When the ends are extended, what are the partners?

For the luggage bags, the destination is usually not the final destination of the luggage bags. So, this end can be extended to the destined place of the luggage bags - a home or an hotel or a transfer (we will not consider this here). Would it be nice if luggage bags arrived in the destination airport's carousel, be scanned by, say, UPS or some 3PL, sorted, and delivered to the owner's home or hotel? The passenger chooses to take care of other matters first before returns to the destined location. Naturally, one would ask who would pay for the costs of equipping the carousel with RFID technology? Well, costs is often a sticky issue in a partnership when the benefits are not clearly defined. Then, there are the issues of imcompatible frequencies and different air protocols when international borders are crossed. [This is a problem exists in other situations - for example, a distribution center operator in Hong Kong that I visited today can provide a better end-to-end solution to a client if RFID tags can be read by a 3PL when the products arrive, say, the UK from Hong Kong.]

Would this 'consolidation' of luggage bags for delivery be the same issue for a distribution center to repackage received goods for distribution to different retails centers (even assuming there are all local stores)? I am sure there are some common threads where if products, goods, or luggage bags are viewed as just RFID tags, relying on an effective information system to manage them.

The use of RFID technology in HKIA (since August 2005) is no doubt reduced handling errors and improved efficiency. Even a few percentage points of improvement will reduce the risk of mistaken luggage getting on an aircraft in the wrong time and the wrong place. We are lucky to speak of low risk of terrorism, the reduced risk does not register much to traveller to and from Hong Kong. To higher risk cities and airports, the reduced risk could be significant.

This story of HKIA will continue, hopefully, in an academic paper, and in here as we look into this case further.

Tagging Incoming (Departing) Bags Manually

I have a chance to visit the Hong Kong International Airport on March 2, 2006. If you travel out of Hong Kong and have some check-in luggage, then you will find that rectangular RF tag (two yellow-orange strips with 'HKIA') on each piece of luggage. The following is what I learned from the visit, accompanied by Mr. WONG Yiu Fai and Mr. Wong Man Ho, and later further briefed by Eric W.L. Wong and Mr. Howard Eng.

As departing passengers of HKIA check in their luggage at the respective airline counters, each luggage piece will be issued a long white bar-code tape and 'tied' likely to the handle of the luggage. It then is routed through to a central baggage handling area. At peak time, there would be around 7,000 pieces in an hour. The baggage handling system is designed to handle 13,000 bags per hour (see the Powerpoint presentation by Howard Eng, Airport Management Director at the Open Forum, June 2005, hosted by the Center of Cyber Logistics).

These luggage bags come into the primary sorting area as they will redirect to two larger sorting areas to the left and right with respect to the primary sorting area. These two areas, the secondary sorting, will sort out the bags and 'drop' the bags to pickup areas for the respective airline. The bags are loaded into ULD's (Unit Load Device) and trolleyed to the airplane for loading.

As the bags enter the primary sorting area, they are manually tagged - yes, someone sitting some point of the conveyor belt, 'armed' with rolls of HKIA RF tags!! Once it is tagged (each RF tag is already written with a UID - unique ID and the tag is read-only), each bag is passed through a bar-code reader and RF reader. The bar-code reader picks up the LPN (license plate number) assigned to the bag by the DCS (departure control system) of an airline at the check-in counter; and the RF reader picks up the UID. Thus, the LPN, as is associated with the passenger, airline, flight, and destination information stored at the back-end system, is now paired with the UID of the RF tag now on the luggage bag.

As this bag travels to the secondary sorting area, it 'knows' where to go as readers/antennas are positioned to read the UID and appropriate actions are enabled. As the bags are loaded on an ULD, its location is recorded along with the ID of the ULD that was keyed into the system also.

Basically, that is the operation of the baggage handling system at HKIA with RFID technology in place. Next, I will discuss issues associated with such application.

Tag me and let me know where not the crowd is in Hong Kong

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remains uncertainties. I begin this blog to log what I have been running into in this new research topic. Thanks to the developer S. Brown of Pebble that making all this personal adventure possible and may benefit a few out there, plus maybe alienated many along the way. That's life.

I was using LaTeX to create manuscripts that had mathematics formulae. So, when I investigate how to 'converse' (e.g., by instant messaging) with others online when the message contains, say, a formula as such $$M \le {log_2 {{2 \pi L^2} \over {\lambda z}}}$$. Well, I just like to type in as such by hopefully it will appear magically across the Internet to my conversing party as a formula!. So, I search the Web!!

T_TH was one I found, but it depended on an existing 'TeX' application installed in the system. I purchased a copy of WebEQ and I have not gone too far into it - Javascript is not my strength. Anyhow, I would stick with the simple process as follows:

• Environment: I am using an instant messaging application in conversing with one party (actually the application allows conversation to anyone online).
• As I typing 'text', I will do so as 'usual' and when I come to an formula, I click on a button to enable 'linear (LaTeX-like) formula' input.
• Once the formula is typed, it will be converted to an image and append to the 'text'
• I continue to type either 'text' or mathematics formula
• The message will be sent as such ('text' and 'images').

What I need is a back-end LaTeX-equations(or formulae) to images (png or jpeg) application. The article by Michael Yuan (01 Feb 2002) provides a description of exactly what I need to have. I especially like the "taglib" (is this the right reference?) approach (SlowMathTaglib.tld). Yet, the knowledge set required to 'install' what was provided at the article site is large (a quick list - jsp, java, tomcat, ImageMagick, TeX/LaTeX, taglib, unix, etc.)

Well, I will have to make it happen.

Searching Google today on 'AOLA Blog' finds http://aolablogs.blogspot.com/ - 'aola' is the name of the blogger and Google 'owns' blogspot.com!

I have trouble typing Chinese (the traditional type) while communicating via MSN Messenger with friends in China (they type simplified Chinese and I do traditional Chinese). The reason is simple for my trouble - I did not learn how to type Chinese using an English keyboard under Windows XP (somehow I was told that doing 'shift-alt' will toggle between Chinese input and English input on my laptop). Wonder if I can toggle into a mathematics symbol and equation inputting environment. Would it be nice to simply type text (English) and mathematics equations without leaving your alphabet keypad?

In LaTeX, you can type the equation in a linear fashion even the equation could be structurally complicated. You will see the 'real' equation once the LaTeX file is processed and output is generated in some format viewable format (e.g., PDF). Or some graphical input environment would allow you to have a visual of the equation structure as you 'type' (see this for an example).

Whatever the method in enabling mathematics input, I like it to be like entering Chinese in an English document. As I type, composing a mathematics lesson (a mathematics activity for the Web, or e-Activity), I should be able to toggle in and out of the mathematics input environment, and be able to see the mathematics equation right away in its intended form (or structure).

This is what I like to look into this next couple of weeks, at the same time I am working on the ActivityML (Activity Markup Language) and the GUI (as a Java applet) that do the presentation. Let me know if you have suggestions.