Wireless technology nowadays is developing rapidly throughout the world and also in Hong Kong. The Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) technology is a mature technology which has been applied in a lot of industries in recent years, such as retail, airline, healthcare, pharmaceuticals, logistics, and libraries etc. RFID technology acts as an electronic labelling and data-collection system to identify and track equipment. RFID is a more robust technology than bar coding and does not require line-of-sight to operate. It is able to provide not only the electronic data for unique identification, but also provides a paperless workflow automation solution. The application of palm and wireless technology using the RFID in conjunction with a Web Based Maintenance Service Management System in the Facility Management (FM) has the following advantages: (i) It improves operations and facilitates day-to-day maintenance activities and management of works. (ii) The RFID system helps to improve the management of facilities, decision-making and control of quality by providing enhanced processes and equipment visibility. The RFID system offers a dynamic and centralized approach to facilitate the above FM processes. The objective of this study is to quantify the benefits of RFID technology for the FM. Throughout the study of RFID pilot project carried out by the HKHA, we evaluate the factors that affect the application of RFID system in Hong Kong FM industry. Questionnaires were given out to explore maintenance professionals’ opinions on the satisfaction of RFID system for maintenance of Air Conditioning (A/C) system. The data and hypotheses are analysed by using the statistical methods. The survey concluded that RFID system can improve the user satisfaction rating in FM compared with the paper based system. From the regression analysis, we found that the processes of improvement, quantities of A/C equipment and training & education are more important in determining the satisfaction of RFID system and have positive effect on the use of RFID system. The analysis of various regression models helped to discover the key significant variables that correlated to the satisfaction of using the RFID system. According to the survey findings, the RFID system has proved to be very useful for FM as it offered significant benefits over traditional paper based approaches. From the survey result, we also found that the “Insufficient training for use of RFID system” is the important obstacle to the adoption of RFID system. As education and training are critical for development of staff capability to handle new process requirements and achieve better performance of using the RFID system, HKHA is highly recommended to strengthen the training and education in order to improve their work satisfaction and support the continued use of RFID system. This dissertation offers HKHA managers a valuable perspective on the RFID implementation in their organization. The findings also highlighted the significant potential and obstacle of RFID system for FM. To encourage the use and expand the benefits of RFID system in FM industry, the Government policy is crucial in driving the adoption of RFID system so as to accelerate its diffusion and stimulate the growth of related industries. / published_or_final_version / Housing Management / Master / Master of Housing Management

Counterfeit products, particularly pharmaceuticals, electronic devices, and apparels, are widespread. They threaten consumer safety and cause huge economic losses to licit supply chain partners and governments. Although a number of traditional anti-counterfeiting technologies, such as holograms and chemical tags, are available to combat counterfeiting, they are vulnerable to imitation or being reused. Besides, these technologies are intended to protect individual items, rather than to safeguard an entire supply chain. As such, fake products may likely be injected into the supply chain to hurt end-consumers. Track-and-trace technology based on Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) has recently emerged as a promising tool to combat counterfeiting, because of its automatic and non-line-of-sight capability to identify massive product items. By maintaining an electronic pedigree (e-pedigree) that records the transaction information of product items along the supply chain, this approach stands out for protecting the supply chain against infiltration, eliminating theft and fraud, facilitating recall of defective products, and supporting remote authentication. However, a number of technical and critical issues have yet to be solved for practical implementation of RFID-based track-and-trace anti-counterfeiting. These include generation of accurate initial product e-pedigree in fast moving manufacturing lines, precise e-pedigree updating in batch product distributing and receiving, and fast e- pedigree queries for remote and real-time product authentication from end-customers. Without fully addressing these issues, the accumulated product e-pedigree data would be untrustworthy, rendering any subsequent operations of track-and-trace and product authentication unreliable. This thesis investigates the crucial implementation issues in RFID-based track-and-trace anti-counterfeiting. It firstly presents an innovative track-and-trace anti-counterfeiting system, based on which a TDPS algorithm is proposed for generation of initial product e-pedigree in fast moving production lines. The TDPS overcomes many practical issues, such as tag writing error and tag locking failure, and helps identify the bottleneck of initial product e-pedigree generation. To tackle the bottleneck, the TDPS is further optimized by incorporating a block writing method to enhance the tag EPC writing efficiency and an integration method to balance the overhead of RFID equipment. In product distributing and receiving, a mechanized 3D scanning method is proposed to improve bulk item identification rate and enhance the accuracy and completeness of product e-pedigree. Indeed, RFID-based track-and-trace anti-counterfeiting mandates a relatively high bulk item identification rate for product authentication and e-pedigree updating. Experimental results demonstrate that the mechanized 3D scanning can achieve a bulk item reading rate of up to 98.9%, which largely outperforms the widely documented bulk reading rate (70%) in real applications. In retailing level, the efficiency of e-pedigree queries would hugely impact on customer shopping experience and the effectiveness of track-and-trace anti-counterfeiting. A partition-based method is therefore developed to cluster product e-pedigree data to improve the speed of e-pedigree queries. This approach partitions the accumulated e-pedigree data into fixed and dynamic groups, such that queries are conducted mainly on active data, rather than on the whole historical data sets. By addressing the above key issues, this thesis contributes to making implementation of RFID-based track-and-trace anti-counterfeiting practically viable and reliable. / published_or_final_version / Industrial and Manufacturing Systems Engineering / Master / Master of Philosophy

Thesis (M.Phil.)--Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, 2008. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 68-72). Also available in electronic version.

Thesis (M.S.)--Michigan State University. School of Packaging, 2006. / Title from PDF t.p. (viewed on Nov. 17, 2008) Includes bibliographical references (p. 219-223). Also issued in print.

Thesis (M.S.)--Rutgers University, 2007. / "Graduate Program in Electrical and Computer Engineering." Includes bibliographical references (p. 46-48).

Thesis (MCIS - Computer and Information Sciences) -- AUT University, 2007. / Includes bibliographical references. Also held in print (xii, 126 leaves : ill. ; 30 cm.) in the Archive at the City Campus (T 621.384191 ZHE)

Thesis (M. S.)--Electrical and Computer Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology, 2009. / Committee Chair: Durgin, Gregory; Committee Member: Ingram, Mary Ann; Committee Member: Nikitin, Pavel; Committee Member: Peterson, Andrew; Committee Member: Steffes, Paul.

Thesis (MCIS - Computer and Information Sciences) -- AUT University, 2008. / Includes bibliographical references. Also held in print (ix, 98, xxvi leaves : ill. ; 30 cm. + 1 cd-rom) in the Archive at the City Campus (T 526 TSA)

Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Houston, 2008. / Adviser: Basheer M. Khumawala. Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (M.S.)--Rochester Institute of Technology, 2009. / Typescript. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 61-62).