Assessment of Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) Technology in Transport Logistics in Nigeria

Abstract

The logistic technologies for effective and efficient ‘transport operations’ in the areas of stock tracking, machine tracking, workers tracking, time tracking, stock sizes and shape, location identification, and stock routing and schedule shipment are deficient in the Nigerian construction industry, when compared to manufacturing and retailing sectors which are known to have fully adopted the RFID technology in these operations for effective performance. This article assessed the benefits of RFID technology for transport logistic operations in the construction industry. Lagos State and the F.C.T. Abuja, Nigeria were the selected geographical study areas, from which 5 manufacturing companies, 5 retailing companies and 5 construction projects were purposively selected. Mixed methods research strategy was used. The research instruments included an observation guide (quantitative) and interviews (qualitative). The collected quantitative data were analysed, using descriptive analytical tools: frequencies and percentiles. The qualitative data was analysed, using the thematic method. The study found that 80% and 60% of the manufacturing and retailing sectors respectively, observed, adopted RFID technology for transportation processing operations. The study revealed further that, RFID technology was not utilised in construction for transportation purposes. It was found that the key benefits of utilising the RFID technology are: improved degree of material traceability; improves safety of resources; improvement in control of material; easy to tracking of materials on site; check on the availability of materials; and allows for contactless identification in construction. It can be concluded that implementation of RFID technology in construction would translate into improvement in material control, checking, tracking, safety and traceability onsite.