Product Informations modelling within the supply chain based on communicating object's approach

Overview & Synopsis

This article aims to analyze and contribute to the implementation of the communicating object concept in the supply chain. This approach considers a product as a service provider or a service requester. The proposed methodology is based on the ambient services architecture concept in order to manage product's services in an automatic and ubiquitous way. The UPnP technology (Universal Plug and Play) was chosen to manage the services of the communicating objects. In this approach, the direct communication with the products is supported by means of the automatic identification of the products using RFID technology. UML (Unified Modelling Language) was used with the aim of modelling the interactions and the services associated with the physical products. Finally, laboratory prototypes were created to validate the feasibility of the methodological proposition in order to manage the supply chain based on services interactions of communicating objects.