Employing RFID in the aviation industry to reduce loss of Customer Baggage:

Case of sky Prime airlines

Sky prime airline is a private airline company incorporated in Arabia and owned by business man Mohamed Aziz. Since it began operating over a decade ago, the airline has witnessed significant growth that has been characterized by increase in the company revenue and expansion of the airline services to other destinations. For instance in 2012 the airline recorded revenue of $210 million, in 2013 the revenue grew by 3% to 216.3 Million while in 2014 the company revenue hit $223 Million (SkyPrime, 2014). Today the airline operates in more than 15 destinations globally from the mere 4 destinations 10 years ago. The growth of Sky prime airline can be attributed to the adoption of agile technology and adoption and execution of viable business strategies. For instance, the use of low traffic markets has been significant in reducing the turnaround time which has lead to customer satisfaction and equally high profits (Ettlie ,2013) . Secondly, the adoption of paperless cockpits by pilots enables pilots to access the flight manuals and perform requisite calculations prior to take off in a relatively short period of time.

However, despite this increased growth of the company, it faces some challenges especially in regard to security of the passenger’s luggage. For instance in 2014 the company lost about $5M due to the loss of customer baggage a mainly due to increase in the number of customers ,adoption of the dual transfer flights and cost pressures that lead to tracking of the customers language an elusive activity (SkyPrime, 2014). Remarkably the current aging barcode system that has been employed by organization has proved inefficient to track and effectively indicate where the customers luggage are located . According to (Ettlie, 2013) if this trend continues to be experienced the airline will be in a danger of losing significant market share which will be detrimental to its profit maximization motive. Therefore to address this challenge, employing RFID technology will be of significant importance. this statement is supported by the based on the following reasons;

Firstly, incorporating the RFID technology will provide an opportunity for the company to provide relatively excellent services to the customers. Since the technology will help in both baggage tracking and baggage delivery. Indeed, adoption of this RFID technology has proved to be significant in other airlines. For instance, since the implementation of the RFID technology in tracking the movement of customers baggage, Southern airline has been able to cut down the loss of the customer baggage by 5% a fact that has contributed to the airline to ranked among the best performing airline companies not only in the USA but globally(Gunday, Ulusoy, & Alpkan, 2011). As such, by emulating this technology Sky prime airline will be able to harness from the strengths of this technology thus increase customer experience as well as increase its competitive advantage.

Secondly, the RFID technology will enhance baggage reconciliation. This activity will allow exchange of information between various points of the airline. This implies therefore that it will be possible to hold the luggage and release it in several security checks and then load it back to the aircraft in relatively short period of time.

Finally, the RFID technology will lead to improved customers services. this is based on the fact that the system will enable the management to sequentially track the progress the passengers thus allow quick processing of their documents- a fact that will reduce congestion at the gate and ensure that planes departure on time.

To be able to achieve the above goals it will be paramount to first establish end users requirements. This is will be basic in implementing an RFDI technology that is aligned to their specific needs. The following are basic end users requirements for the xx airline.

• Enhance scalability and reliability
• Enhance security
• Reduction of the cost of operation

With the above requirements in mind, basic standards have to be adopted in order to ensure that each component optimally executes its functions. This standards include among others , ISO-7813 for the development and implementation of the RFID card , IATA standard for the RFID tags and EPC Global standards which will be basic in enhancing reliability of data types and data structures.

In integrating the RFID technology, it is paramount to identify the hardware requirements that the organization has to have in place. This includes first, RFID tags this tags should be compliant to the IATA stands, RFID card, RFID reader and a Network which should be running on high speed optic to enhance performance and avoid instances of security breaches.

The implementation of the RFID should also be performed in phases. This provides room for identifying and fixing any anomaly that may hinder the ultimate performance of the system before advancing to the next level. To be specific in implementing a viable RFID in Sky Prime airline the first phase will entail developing and implementing the RFID tags in the airline main airport and key destinations. During these phase premium customers will be the major focus. Second phase will be implementing the system in high volume areas. This will ensure that customer’s service delivery is streamlined. The final phase will involve rolling out the system to all destinations where the airline operates.

The system will be tested in two distinct phases, i.e. unit testing and system testing. Unit testing will involve testing the specific component to evaluate its efficiency whereas system testing will involve testing the entire system to establish the compatibility of the components that make the system.

Submit a 4 page research paper on the RFID standards which apply to your selected industry. If there are no specific standards that you think apply to your selected industry then research how an existing RFID standard could be modified to support your selected industry.