rfid application in waste monitoring management

International Journal of Electronic Business Management, Vol. 6, No. 3, pp. 161-173 (2008)

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RFID APPLICATION IN WASTE MONITORING MANAGEMENT OF ELECTRONIC PRODUCTS Ling-Lang Tang*, Ming-Tsang Lu and Wei-Chin Hung Graduate School of Management Yuan Ze University Taoyuan (320), Taiwan

ABSTRACT The increasing awareness of environment protection had made the European Union request the enterprises, through legislation (such as WEEE, RoHS and EuP), to take the responsibility to minimize the environmental impact. Directive of WEEE stresses that producers are responsible for the collection and recycling of all electrical and electronic waste. This paper focuses on how manufacturers can meet WEEE through reducing, re-generating, and recycling the waste materials, what benefits can be gained during the process of RFID monitoring, and what regulations are required for the suppliers and recycling merchants on the environmental protection issues in performing and achieving the Green Management Policy or System. This study examines the current recycling methods, the merchants’ recycling operation procedures as well as the functions of RFID applied into the operation procedures. The efficiency of recycles tracing and monitoring further be discussed based on supply chain forward/reverse checking theory. We used Unified Modeling Language (UML) diagram to explain how to simplify production procedures, consignment procedures, stocking procedures, and recycling procedures. We concluded three major findings: (1) The RFID technique could provide one of the best choices for the recycling procedure. (2) Manufacturers, government, and recycling merchants are all benefited from the lead-in of RFID technique into the operation procedures. (3) The establishment of WEEE monitoring procedures helps the enterprises to reappraise and reinforce their management skills that in return strengthen their competence. Keywords: WEEE, RoHS, Eup, Unified Modeling Language (UML), RFID

1. INTRODUCTION Taiwan is an export-oriented country with a high level of dependence on its exports. With the implementation of environmental protection regulations around the world prohibiting the use of hazardous substances and requiring the recycling of waste materials, the eco-friendly environmental protection system of the future will have a major impact on businesses in Taiwan’s outsourcing industry and component suppliers. The shift towards “international green supply chain” means that all products exporting to the European Union (EU) must be tested to see if they comply with the relevant Waste Electronics and Electrical Equipment (WEEE)/ Restrictions on Hazardous Substances (RoHS) regulations. These product requirements are gradually forming another kind of invisible trade barrier as well. It is necessary to develop ways of reducing financial *

Corresponding author: [email protected]

losses for businesses and to help new entrants to the market. This paper therefore proposes the introduction of Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) technology as a potential solution for tracking or reducing waste materials for electronic products. RFID is a new ID management technology that basically uses radio waves to transmit ID information for recognition. The identifying data is stored on “Tag” chips and can be automatically retrieved using RFID “Reader”. Radio-frequency identification systems have been used as early as the 1980’s to track containers on trains and cargo ships. During the First Gulf War, the U.S. military also applied this technology to the tracking and management of logistical supplies. The anti-theft plastic tags in widespread use among department stores are another application of radio-frequency identification systems. Wal-Mart began requiring in June 2003 a switch by its top 100 suppliers to RFID technology inventory management and tracking by the end of 2004. All

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International Journal of Electronic Business Management, Vol. 6, No. 3 (2008)

other suppliers were required to upgrade this new tagging system by the end of 2005 as well [10]. This announcement was triggered a wave of interest in the development and application of RFID throughout the world. Several major retailers such as Tesco in the UK and Metro in the Germany are already rolling out large-scale RFID initiatives. When businesses implement the requirements of WEEE, they must reduce, reuse, and recycle waste materials or develop alternative recovery methods to reduce the amount of waste material. At the same time, it can also improve the environmental protection behaviour of all workers involved throughout the lifecycle of electrical equipment. Based on the above research background and motivation, this paper arrives at the following research objectives: 1. Construct recovery equipment that utilizes embedded RFID tracking and recognition to provide complete monitoring and recording during the transportation and disposal process. The terminal processing system then generates the complete administrative paperwork required. 2. Use the concept of reverse logistics to send the requests back up through the supply chain. When Taiwan’s downstream outsourced manufacturing industry delivers its products to upstream brands, the goods must conform fully to the basic “green products” requirements. The proposal and strategy to adopt can thus be defined. 3. Work out how to utilize RFID technology to reduce production costs and increase recovery rates. This reduces the negative impacts of waste electronics and electrical equipment. At the same time, restricting the use of hazardous substances to ensure the waste electronics and electrical equipment can be effectively reused, recycled or recovered using alternative methods reduces the amount of waste materials that require disposal. Based on the research background and motivation, we collected local and overseas literature related to the research topic to understand the impacts of WEEE/RoHS implementation on Taiwan’s electronics industry, RFID technologies and developments, recovery management methods, green product design and manufacturing, the disassembly and composition of waste electronics and electrical equipment, the incorporation of RFID into the production process IT management system, and an analysis of the potential benefits from RFID introduction. The methodology was used process analysis tools to identify the potential factors and uncertainties that involved in the use of RFID technology. The Unified Modeling Language (UML) diagram was then used to explain the ways of simplifying the production process, transportation and logistics

process, stocktaking process, and recovery process. Finally, the results were used to arrive at a set of conclusions. These provide manufacturers, governments, and recovery businesses that interested in the introduction of RFID technology with a useful reference.

2. WEEE AND WASTE MATERIAL MANAGEMENT 2.1 WEEE Regulations To deal with the increasing volume of waste electronic and electrical equipment, reducing the load on landfills and incinerators as well as preventing hazardous substances contained in waste electronics and electrical equipment getting into the environment. In 2003, the EU approved on January 27, the “Directive on WEEE” required manufacturers to take responsibility for the collection, recovery, and proper disposal of waste electronics and electrical equipment. The 3R principle was defined in the WEEE as below [14]. 1. Reuse: This refers to the any use of waste electronics and electrical equipment or parts for its original designed purpose, including equipment or parts that are returned to a collection point, distributor, recovery business or manufacturer for further usage. 2. Recycling: This refers to the water material being processed during the production process for use in its original role or elsewhere. 3. Recovery: This is mainly where the waste is used as fuel or generates energy in some other manner, recycling or re-manufacturing using solvents as well as the recovery of energy resources throughout the production process or other alternative bio-conversion methods. All members of the EU were required to set up a recovery system so that private users could return waste electronics and electrical equipment to end-users and distributors for free. When bringing a new product to the market, distributors must also provide free recovery services for waste electronics and electrical equipment from private home users as long as it does not produce radioactive or organic contamination. This means that all member nations have to ensure that the collected waste electronics and electrical equipment could be transferred to a certified disposal agency. The collection and transfer of waste electronics and electrical equipment must be carried out where the reusable and recoverable parts and equipment can actually be reused or recovered. The draft of the WEEE directive also required the member nations to achieve by December 31 in 2005. That is the minimum recovery rate of at least 4

L. L. Tang et al.: RFID Application in Waste Monitoring Management of Electronic Products kilograms of waste electronics and electrical equipment from private home users each year [5]. In the draft WEEE directive, the onus was on member nations to ensure that the manufacturers will set up a system for the disposal of waste electronics and electrical equipment. Examples include capacitors containing polychlorinated biphenyl (PCB) and mercury, batteries, printed circuit boards, liquid or paste-based color cartridges and tapes, plastic products that contain polybrominated flame-retardant retardants, asbestos wastes, cathode-ray tubes gas discharge tubes, CFC, HCF, HFCs and liquid crystal materials with a surface area larger than 100 square centimeters. The substances were mentioned above must be removed from the chemicals or composition of the recovered waste electronics and electrical equipment. Additionally, the disposal or recovery of these substances, chemicals, and components must be in accordance with Article 4 of the European Parliament’s directive 75/442/EEC. The Ministry of Economic Affairs has already established the “Green Design Network” to use the combined resources of the industry, the Industrial Technology Research Institute’s Center for Environmental Safety and Health Technology Development and the Electronics Testing Center Taiwan to develop new technologies, processes, and materials that conform with WEEE. This push it to develop new technologies is vital because once the WEEE directive takes effect in 2006 manufacturers with non-compliant products will not be able to

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export to the EU or must licensed technologies from overseas at a great cost. From above, it can be seen that there are six trends affecting the industry’s business model: 1. Increasing emphasis on the concept of sustainable development 2. Another kind of non-tariff trade barrier. 3. Restrictions on use of hazardous substances: Change in raw materials Æ Increase in material and management costs. Risks increased for the purchasing of materials and parts as well. 4. Clean Production (CP) requirements: Changes in production processes (e.g. lead-free solder) challenge the engineering ability and level of trust for production lines while increasing the pressure from material costs. 5. Packaging material requirements: Must consider cost and form of packaging. 6. Cost and responsibility of recovery: Reduce waste volumes by increasing the reuse, recycling and recovery rate. Yang [17] examined the RoHS directive and noted that the main restrictions were on lead, cadmium, mercury, hexavalent chromium, and polybrominated flame-retardant (PBB, PBDE) content in electronics and electrical equipment parts. The restrictions would take effect on July 1 in 2006. Table 1 lists the restricted substances and the affected production processes.

Table 1: Products that may be affected by the RoHS directive Restricted Substance Lead Cadmium Hexavalent Chromium Mercury Polychlorinated Biphenyl PBDE and PBB (Polybrominated Flame-Retardant)

There may be used in the following components or materials Lead piping, paint additive, packaging part, plastic part, rubber part, stabilizer, dye, paint, coating, ink, CRT, electronic part, solder, glass, batteries, light tubes… etc. Packaging part, plastic part, rubber part, stabilizer, dye, paint, coating, ink, solder, electronic part, electrical fuse, glass, surface treatment… etc. Packaging part, dye, paint, coating, ink, electro-plating treatment, surface treatment… etc. Batteries, packaging part, thermometer, electronic part… etc. Hot solvent, lubricant, capacitor oil. Mainly used as a flame-retardant with PCB, components (such as connectors), plastic parts and wiring.

2.2 Waste Management Lee [9] defined waste management as effective control of industrial waste by managing waste disposal and ensuring that all business units properly store, clean, and dispose of all industrial waste produced to avoid polluting the environment through improper disposal. The “Industrial Waste Report System” audits waste disposal through clean-up plans, permits, and disposal routes managed using an information system. The industrial waste output from

each industry’s production processes are compiled with reference tables set up for their main raw materials and products to provide enhanced on-site audit controls. This helps to effectively reduce the illegal dumping of waste. Environmental Protection Administration statistics indicated that there are nearly 40,000 companies being monitored with 17,000 requiring active reporting. Industrial and medical wastes are accounted for 85%.

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Chu [2] stated that waste management must be built on a cost-effective and practical waste management system in order to meet the targets for safety, hygiene, hazard reduction, and resource reuse. This involved three basic strategies: 1. Total volume reduction - through the use of appropriate processing equipment reduce the volume of waste produced at the source or extract usable resources from this waste for reuse before discharge.

2.

3.

Pollution source control - use measures such as advance government review and approval, registration, audits and waste production and disposal reporting to control the production and disposal of wastes. Waste Disposal - use existing engineering technologies such as burial, compost, incineration and solidification to collect this waste for stabilization and reduction.

Figure 1: The technologies of industrial waste minimization Yang [16] pointed out that the reasonable and proper disposal of industrial waste without polluting the environment depended on having reasonable control measures in place throughout each step of the production chain from the production source, resource extraction, reuse, clean-up, processing and disposal. This includes administrative reporting, approval, and audits. At the same time, after mastering the nature of the industrial waste, in order of priority the technology solutions adopted should be clean production, recovery for reuse and recycling. Only if there was no other choice should cleanup and disposal technologies be used. This approach offers the most efficient solution to the problem of industrial waste and avoids secondary pollution. The MOEA and the EPA of Taiwan established the “Joint Industrial Waste Minimization Team” in 1989 and began promoting a two-phase “5-Year Plan for Industrial Waste Minimization”. Along with stricter industrial waste management regulations and pollution prevention legislation, this initiative has prompted businesses to take waste minimization and recycling seriously. In Taiwan, there are four methods were used for the recycling of industrial waste: (1) reuse as required by government or applied for business, (2) recovery within the factory, (3) dedicated recycling organizations, and (4) shared or jointed processing systems According to data reported by businesses, Taiwan’s waste disposal businesses received authorization to recycle around 2,660,000 metric tons

per year, or 62% of all waste dealt with by waste disposal organizations. However, the Industrial Development Bureau found that around 340,000 tons of waste was recycled within the factory. The ratio between the two figures does not seem to agreement. This situation was showed that there are discrepancies in the definition of industrial waste and the conditions for reuse. This has led to a great deal of confusion in the statistics and management data. Tang [14] believed that industrial waste minimization where sound factory management, reasonable production processes, and proper operations are practiced so that the factory reduces its waste volumes to a minimum through reduction at the production source, raw material substitution, and adoption of recycling technologies. This also improves the effective utilization of resources resulting in reduced production costs and makes the business more competitive. This relationship is shown in Figure 1.

3. THE WASTE MANAGEMENT OF WEEE AND ROHS 3.1 Applying RFID to Waste Management This paper uses the concept of RFID tracking technology to implant all data such as substance information, source, production process, product properties, hazard factors, user instructions, and substance recovery on the RFID chip. RFID readers

L. L. Tang et al.: RFID Application in Waste Monitoring Management of Electronic Products and recognition software could be used to classify and report hazardous substances or recoverable substances to accomplish the goal of reuse and recovery. Due to the nature of RFID, it can be used to tag all objects to be tracked. The complete production process from the start to finish or all hazardous factors associated with the product can be recorded on the RFID chip. Using the principle of electronic tags, the recoverable and non-reusable parts can be separated with post-processing handled by the computer. This achieves waste minimization and maximum recovery. Other benefits include reduced pollution control costs and the capability to trace waste produced back to its manufacturers. For Taiwan’s key export category of electronic products, the environmental protection regulations of the EU are not just a challenge to manufacturers to develop new production processes but also a new hurdle for those seeking to enter the electronics industry. SONY’s recent losses from the cadmium problem provided a very effective reminder. Major motherboard makers such as ASUS, Gigabyte, and Eslite all ran into the problem of products not meeting the new EU regulations. This means that they could not sell their products or export to Europe.

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The industries involved in the manufacture of electronics, electrical equipment and their OEM parts must now take waste disposal into the product’s design and production. If the concepts of easy disassembly and modularization can be integrated into the product’s structural design from the beginning, this would make the product easier to recycle and reuse. The use of modular design makes the product’s parts and components easy to disassemble or repair. The choice of materials should favor easily remanufactured and recycled materials while avoiding those that contain or have as additives hazardous substances. Substitutes should also be found for some heavy metals such as mercury, lead, cadmium, hexavalent chromium and polybrominated flame-retardants to reduce the product’s environmental impact after disposal. A database of non-environmentally friendly part numbers should be set up. Environmental and non-environmental part numbers should be kept separate to encourage R&D and design personnel to use more environmentally friendly materials and parts from the start of the design process. The measures and controls adopted by three companies in Taiwan were collated for this study.

Figure 2: The structure of system for green supply chain management This paper looks at how products could achieve compliance with the export requirements set by WEEE and RoHS. During product design the designer must take the requirements into consideration when choosing the material, packaging, production process, raw materials, and recovery process. Apart from practicing “Green Design”, they must understand the product’s lifecycle and develop products that meet customer needs and manufacture environmentally friendly products that take waste related regulations into account. For recovery markings, WEEE provides clearly defined guidelines and examples. Finally, the set up of a design database and the use of the design software must all emphasize the importance of “Green Design” in products. This is because the most important factor to consider in a product’s lifecycle is its green design. Du [3] discussed how the design should deliver benefits such as ease of disassembly, ease of recovery, and ease of reuse while the selection of materials should take into consideration cost-effectiveness and simplicity of processing. These points were illustrated using the components of a notebook computer as an

example. Du, Zhao and Hsieh [4] pointed out that when it came to green supply chain management, not only must attention be given to design, production process monitoring, packaging and sales, there must also be appropriate recovery measures. Only by all these elements working in concert can the goal of eco-friendliness be accomplished. The relevant flow chart is shown in Figure 2. 3.2 Recovery of Computer Related Products We took computer, monitor and printer as examples to explain their disassembly and recovery process. There may be complications encountered during disassembly and classification that make recovery complex or impossible. Wu [15] described how waste electronic products still contained many recoverable parts or substances after manual disassembly so that manual disassembly was just one of the steps in the recovery process. At the moment, most recycling plants use machine sorting, crushing, classification, acid leaching, and separation to process waste electronics. Goan [6] pointed out that the technique for waste PCB recovery could dissolve the

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raw materials used in PCBs to recover useful or reusable elements. The substances recoverable from the major product types are outlined below: 1. Manual disassembly and sorting of computers into case, hard (floppy) disk drive, motherboard, and power supplies. The hard (floppy) disk drive and power supply can be broken further down into copper, iron, aluminum, and plastic. 2. Waste displays (monitors) can be disassembled and sorted into ABS housing, CRT, and waste electronics. A screwdriver is first used to break the vacuum in the CRT. After removing the electron gun (copper), cut implosion prevention band away with steel shears then a blow-torch is used to take apart the panel glass (barium-strontium glass), tube glass (lead glass) and mask (steel net). The phosphor coating on the panel glass is then removed using vacuum suction. The waste electronics can be divided into wiring, deflection yoke an motherboard. The wiring can be shredded then sorted to recover metallic copper and PVC plastic while copper, iron and plastic can be recovered from the deflection yoke. 3. Computers and CRT (Monitors) disassembly: The removed motherboard (including electronic parts such as IC and connectors) can be fed into a shredder with electronic parts such as IC with nickel-iron pins and connectors separated magnetically. The motherboard itself is passed through a 22-step recovery process including milling, sieving, and electrostatic separation to recover the metallic copper, fiberglass and resin (phenolic resin, epoxy resin). Electronic components such as IC with nickel-iron pins and connectors are pulverized in another machine then passed through magnetic selection (recover nickel-iron) and electrostatic separation to recover the copper (including tin, lead and precious metals such as gold and silver) and epoxy resin. According to Wu [15], the manual disassembly and breakdown processes described above can be divided into the following categories. Waste computers are manually disassembled into: Case, disk drive, motherboard, and power supplies. The disk drives and power supplies are further broken down into copper, iron, aluminum, and plastic. Waste monitors are disassembled into: ABS housing, CRT, and waste electronics. A screwdriver is first used to break the vacuum in the CRT. After removing the electron gun (copper), cut the implosion prevention band away with steel shears then a blow-torch used to take apart the panel glass (barium-strontium glass), tube glass (lead glass) and mask (steel net). The phosphor coating on the panel glass is then removed using vacuum suction. The

waste electronics can be divided into wiring, deflection yoke, and motherboard. The wiring can be shredded then sorted to recover metallic copper and PVC plastic while copper, iron and plastic can be recovered from the deflection yoke. Waste printers can be manually disassembled into: Plastic, capacitor, wiring, transformer, photo conductor drum, printer head, motherboard and iron. Waste notebook computers can be manually disassembled into: Plastic, capacitor, wiring, transformer, motherboard, lithium battery, non-lithium battery, and iron.

4. MONITOR MANAGEMENT BY USING RFID 4.1 Management of Waste Electronics for Notebook Computer Taiwan’s current method of recovery is through the “Four-in-one Recycling System”. Following the general principle of industrial waste management, the government operates the “Industrial Waste Management Project” and “National Industrial Waste Management and Cleanup Program” to strengthen efforts on industrial waste source management, reporting and monitoring of waste movements, audits and inspections (Environmental Protection Administration of the Executive Yuan website: http://www.epa.gov.tw). This approach calls for businesses to honestly report their waste type and volume over the Internet with the waste service providers then filling out the online waste disposal records. Regular audits are conducted on anomalies and selected categories to ensure proper disposal. Computerized reporting has recently become one of the major tasks for supervisory agencies. They help with tracking waste sources and monitoring of waste service providers to ensure effective control of the disposal process. Through the reverse logistic system, the electronic products are broken down into a broad range of recoverable parts. Motherboards in particular offer the most recovery benefits since they contain many precious metals. Further cost-benefit analysis of IC baseboards also suggests that the recovery costs can be examined as part of this study’s proposal to embed RFID tracking technology into the recycling process to meet the requirements in WEEE and RoHS. When analyzing recovery categories it is therefore necessary to discuss which substances can be used, which substances must be destroyed, which substances can be remanufactured and which substances have economic value so that they can be directly used. Whether reversion is applicable to the substances must also be explained. This study chose the notebook computer for discussion because Taiwan is the world’s leading

L. L. Tang et al.: RFID Application in Waste Monitoring Management of Electronic Products OEM notebook supplier and also a key producer of self-branded notebook computers. With environmental awareness on the rise throughout the world, this study expects notebook computer manufacturers to meet the strict requirements of WEEE/RoHS to avoid being branded as “garbage makers” or “environment killers”. The introduction of RFID technology to the tracking of recoverable products, monitoring of production processes and in product applications is therefore an urgent requirement due to the constant stream of new products and technologies. 4.2 UML-based Process Model The Unified Modeling Language is a visual modeling language that can be used to capture decisions and understanding about process that must be constructed [11][12]. A process modeled in the UML through use case modeling, static modeling, and dynamic modeling. The use case model of application RFID describes the functional view for, whereas the class model describes the static view of a system. The dynamic view of a system is described in the collaboration model. The functional requirements of a system are defined in terms of use cases and actors. An actor is a user type. A use case describes the sequence of interactions between the actors and the system, which is considered as a black box. In a use case model, a use case may extend or include another use case at a variation point [8], which is a location at which a use case can extend to or include another use case. The “extend” relationship models alternative paths that a use case might take if appropriate conditions hold [7]. In the extend relationship, the variation point is called an extension point [12]. The “include” relationship models a common use case used by several other use cases. Each use case in the use case model is specified in the use case description to define the interaction between the actors and the system. Once the use case model is specified, each scenario of use cases in the use case model is realized in detail by the collaboration model. The static model is used in the UML to depict the structural aspects of a system. The static model defines the classes in the system, their attributes, and the relationships between classes. Objects in the collaboration model are instantiated from classes in the class model. The interactions among the objects are depicted in the collaboration model. From an application perspective, a class can be categorized depending on the role it plays such as control, algorithm, entity, or interface [7]. The class categorization is depicted using UML stereotypes such as “entity”. The dynamic aspects of a system are captured in the collaboration model through objects and the messages between objects. Once each use case in the use case model has been determined, the

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corresponding collaboration diagram can be developed to model scenario of the use case. The collaboration model is used to depict the objects that participate in each use case, and the sequence of messages passed between them. In this paper, the UML model specifying a system is restricted to the use case, and the sequence of messages passed between them. 4.3 Case Study of a Computer Company 1. Company Profile: Established in April, 1990, the company has now grown to become a global enterprise. In 1998 the U.S. Business Week magazine ranked the company at 18th among the world’s top 100 information technology companies and first place in Asia. Today, Company A’s factories in Taiwan and China provide users from across the world with quality products through its top R&D personnel, professional technical expertise and efficient production resources. As a technology-oriented company, its insistence on high quality and innovative technologies has made it famous worldwide. 2. Main Products: Motherboards (50%), interface cards (5.89%), notebook computers (10.58%), others (6.51%), servers (2.5%), add-on cards (2.5%), CD_ROM (4%), barebones systems (7%), graphics cards (6%), sound cards (3%). 3. Product Waste Management: Waste disposal has become Taiwan’s most serious environmental problem and our company has been actively promoting industrial waste minimization efforts to reduce the amount of waste we produce. The company also practices the sorting and reuse of waste, reports regularly online to the EPA and closely supervises our waste disposal service providers’ operations. 4. Manufacturing Process: From order placement to shipping to customers the supply chain for notebook computer vendors involves 17 steps. The 17 steps can be divided into 6 major operational processes, these being: Order Placement, Production Planning, Preparation of Materials, Production, Inspection and Shipment. This study hopes that RFID chips can be embedded by upstream suppliers in the supply chain so fully monitoring can be achieved throughout each process. This offers the most comprehensive information not only during final disposal but also during the quality assurance and transportation processes. Statistical analysis then showed that the resulting defect rate was lower than the six standard errors – the primary function of the RFID system. This study also discovered that it’s necessary to apply RFID to waste management since RFID data

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capacity is four orders of magnitude larger than barcodes and can be used in a wider range of applications as well. All companies downstream or upstream should therefore be required to work together during the production process to set up a comprehensive RFID supply chain. Just like Wal-Mart, realizing this vision will surely result in a significant reduction to the costs of production, logistics, recovery and disposal. In this chapter we also discovered that all products could be broken down into usable substances and non-usable substances. There exists great market potential in the use of RFID in the recovery of usable substances and the tracking of non-usable substances. If RFID chips can be implanted into every single object, this will certainly increase the recovery volumes for usable substances. Establishing a standard operating procedure for the disposal of all non-recyclable materials will also help avoid the amount of transportation and protection required. For example, RFID can be applied to radioactive waste containers to track their status. Large industrial wastes can be properly sorted and recovered, reducing the amount of manpower needed while allowing resource reuse. In WEEE the ten product categories targeted for minimization have clearly defined standards for the amount of recovery and reuse rates. This study analyzed the product recovery methods at three companies then based on government legislation, controlled categories, controlled areas, funding and benchmarking strategies provided in a table format the problems that companies may need to deal with

now as well as the assistance available from government agencies. In this chapter on product manufacturing, we mentioned the “Green Design” concept that is being widely adopted now. We then undertook an overall evaluation of the situation in terms of design, raw materials, manufacturing, sales, transportation, packaging and disposal. For the quantitative assessment method we used the quantitative benchmarks and usability analysis from Green Design, Life Cycle Management (LCM) technology, green design tools & lifecycle audits and the set up of expansion and functional modules for the lifecycle database. Finally, Company A’s “Green Supply Chain” model and measures were referred to in developing ways that the brand vendors’ product requirements can be met in order to become a Green Supplier. 4.4 Introduction of RFID Monitoring According to the Advance e-Commerce Institute (ACI) of the Institute for Information Industry (III), the applications of RFID will vary according to the type of industry, e.g., different for retail, manufacturing, and transportation. Even individual operators will differ in how they implement RFID within the same industry. Furthermore, RFID covers different standards and technical specifications so that applications will differ in their suitable RFID systems. There may even be a certain level of customization required to meet the requirements of a business.

Table 2: Table of WEEE cost structure Item

Category

Content

1 2 3 4

Collection and storage Disassembly and processing WEEE recovery and remanufacturing rate WEEE marking Refurbishing center, processing plants, recycling organizations Submitting of official reports to local environmental protection agencies

Warehousing and plant facilities Disassembly tools and personnel Product recovery, sorting and re-assembly Cost of label production Fixed expenditure and operating costs for recycling plants Report submission costs and consultant fees

5 6

Chang [1] suggested that the costs for WEEE included: waste collection, warehouse storage, sorting, processing, incineration, and burial. The processing component could be further broken down into: disassembly, shredding and separation, remanufacturing, and extraction. Table 2 shows that in the WEEE cost structure, the most effective way to reduce WEEE costs is to find ways of reducing processing costs, with reducing the costs of disassembly being the most effective. The product design then places a key role in meeting the WEEE objectives on recovery and reuse. A business should

Cost Ratio 25.1% 45.4% 23.1% 2.5% 1.5%

RFID can be used ○ ○ ○

2.4%

therefore devise a comprehensive introduction strategy to serve as a guide when introducing a RFID system for WEEE management and monitoring. Green design and production processes can eliminate most waste but as shown in Figure 3, all products produce waste at the end of their lifecycle, though the volume will be greatly reduced. The wireless properties of RFID can therefore be exploited through the use of installation of fixed readers on production lines in recycling stations in addition to the use of handheld scanners. As RFID can be encoded to record different production serial

L. L. Tang et al.: RFID Application in Waste Monitoring Management of Electronic Products numbers and batch numbers, the uniqueness and exclusivity of chips can be used to analyze the location where a product was sold and the type of buyer. The ID results can also be used to track a product’s suitability and strengths. The fitting of RFID chips to products therefore make tracking the waste product’s final disposal even more important and definitive. Barcodes can be replaced using RFID technology with suppliers required to tag all key components with RFID chips as well. By using RFID to handle the flow of data, administrative time, and unnecessary costs can be reduced to achieve full automation. With notebook computers for example,

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the key components include the CPU, motherboard, RAM, display, HDD, battery, external casing, power supply, and keyboard. Since it all operates on radio waves, a great deal of manual paperwork and labor can be avoided particularly during stocktaking, auditing, and inventory keeping. In the model, RFID replaces barcodes and IT technology records the entire process from the cradle (acquiring of raw materials) to the grave (disposal). Through tracking and management of the reusable parts, 80% recovery by mass can be achieved for the product in accordance with the spirit and letter of the WEEE directive.

Figure 3: The change of production adds recycle rate Currently, a single SMT line moves at a rate of 80~100cm per second. Such high speeds are very demanding on the inspection personnel and increasing the chance for mistakes as well. Switching to RFID will greatly reduce the manpower costs and improve product quality. The interference problems must be solved first however before RFID can be installed on motherboards. The main source of radio interference comes from water and metal. Anti-counterfeit measures use the 2.4GHz RFID band and this is a frequency band with higher speeds. In the presence of metal there’s a tendency for the radio waves to be reflected, causing the signal to break up. As motherboards also contain copper circuit wiring and electronic components, avoiding interference problems becomes particularly critical. The integration of RFID tags and antenna on to a motherboard where the space is very limited is also another problem that must be considered. Overseas manufacturers currently treat the antenna and RFID chip as separate problems. By integrating the antenna directly into the motherboard, the savings in space allow the RFID chip to be shrunk to the size of a standard transistor, solving the problem of size. If the RFID chip conforms to the same specifications as other components then a special insertion machine is not needed either, providing compatibility with existing equipment. As for the problem of interference, integrating the antenna to the motherboard will hopefully improve recognition rates by expanding the transmission surface area.

RFID can do more than connect the up, mid and downstream parts of a supply chain. It also makes possible “up-upstream” and “down-downstream” applications, some examples being the tracking of raw material batch numbers used on the production line, recovery of “defective products”, “environmentally friendly recovery of waste products”, “product servicing record”, “counterfeit detection” and “poisoned products”. In the future the technology will expand to cover inter-industry applications such as the embedding of RFID chips in car tires to make it even easier to recall defective products. Notebook computer manufacturers can embed RFID into computer components to expedite product recycling. The UML process diagram expresses the data flow, processes and exchanging of messages between the subsystems of a logistics operation. When the logistics center receives notification to ship a product, the data is loaded into the logistics IT system. The logistics center begins the shipping process. The goods required on the shipping order are sent to the packaging zone where they are packed by the staff. Once packaged, the logistics box is sent to the automatic sorting machine and automatically scanned by the RFID reader on the sorter. The RFID reader recognizes the EPC code in the RFID tag on the box and sends it to the shipping zone. From there, the loading staff moves the box to the loading dock where another RFID reader checks the tags on the box and the products contained inside to check that the product types and quantities match. It also

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checks that the box is in the right loading dock to ensure that it is not shipped to the wrong address. If the product types and quantities don’t match, the IT system will issue a warning and notify the staff to re-package the box. Staff assigned to the shipping zone must also check that the RFID tag is not

detached or missing. Even if the box is at the wrong loading dock, the IT system can inform the operator the correct location and have it moved to the right location. Finally, the product shipment is confirmed in the system before it is actually shipped. The workflow is as shown in Figure 4.

Figure 4: Logistics operation of RFID process

Figure 5: Recycle operation of RFID process The UML process diagram expresses the data flow, processes and exchanging of messages between the subsystems of a recycling business. As the recycling business also has an RFID system setup, when collecting the recovered objects the recycling workers use fixed or handheld RFID readers to gather the product data. After the data is received by the recycling information center, the recovered products can be sorted and recorded. The sorted products are then taken apart by workers in the disassembly area. The recovered raw materials are then recorded and reported by the recycling center’s IT system for

reporting and quotes. This is shown below in Figure 5. 4.5 Benefit Analysis of RFID Implemented and Unimplemented Based on the two UML process diagrams of logistics operation of RFID process and recycle operation of RFID process for notebook computer, we discussed the benefit analysis with regard to implemented and unimplemented RFID in logistics center and recycling business:

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Table 4: The comparison of the quantity collection for RFID implemented and unimplemented

Logistics Center

1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7.

Index The way of tracking The quantity of monthly production (A1) The quantity of scrap (A2) The quantity of reuse (A3) The quantity of unused (A4) Recycle Rate (A2-A4)/A2 Scrap Rate A1/A2

Unit KG KG KG KG

Unimplemented Bar-code 511500 28220 17496 10724 62% 5.5%

Implemented RFID Tag 511500 19153 12875 6278 67% 3.7%

Table 5: The comparison of the quantity collection for RFID implemented and unimplemented Index

Unit

Unimplemented Bar-code

Implemented RFI D Tag

2. The quantity of monthly recycling (B1)

KG

398872

418872

3. Dismantling –The quantity of useable material (B2)

KG

271145

284833

4. The quantity of monthly recycling for WEEE

KG

144539

269910

5. Dismantling –The quantity of unusable material (B3)

KG

1. The way of tracking

Recycling Business

1.

2.

127727

134039

6. Recycle Rate (B1-B3)/B1

67.98%

68.00%

7. WEEE Recycle Rate

53.30%

94.76%

Logistics center: As the case of logistics center, it produces notebook computer about 511,500 pieces the same type monthly. Before implementing RFID with bar-code, the quantities of scrap are about 28,200 pieces in production. There are 17,496 pieces which could be reused in the scrap. And there are 10,724 pieces could not be reused in the scrap. After implementing RFID, the quantities of scrap are about 19,153 pieces in production. There are 12,875 pieces which could be reused in the scrap. And there are 6,278 pieces could not be reused in the scrap. As these data indicated, we analyze the recycle rate which the percentage of unimplemented RFID is 62 percent. And implement RFID of recycle rate is 67 percent. From this statistics showed, there is more than 5 percent of benefit for adopting RFID in recycle. If using the RFID during the production, the scrap rate will be decreased from 5.5 percent to 3.7 percent. It could be reduced 1.8 percent scrap rate. Table 4 for the comparison of the quantity collection for RFID implemented and unimplemented of the logistics center. Recycling business: Based on the case of recycling business, there are 398,872 pieces which the way of tracking is bar-cord for the quantity of monthly recycling. And about 418,872 pieces with using RFID for monthly recycling. The quantity of useable materials for dismantling with bar-code and RFID are 271,145 pieces and 284,833 pieces. The quantities of unusable materials for dismantling are 271,145 pieces with bar-code and 284,833 pieces with RFID tag. For the quantity of monthly recycling for WEEE, there could be made sure WEEE materials about 144,539 with bar-code and

269,910 with RFID. There are about 127,727 pieces with bar-code and 134,039 pieces with RFID for unusable materials for dismantling. According to the results, the quantity of monthly recycling with RFID is more than 2,000 pieces with bar-code. And the recycle rates of useable materials of dismantling are 67.98 percent with bar-code and 68 percent with RFID. Therefore, there is no difference whether using bar-code or RFID for checking usable materials or not. However, for the WEEE recycle rate, there is 53.30 percent with bar-code and 94.76 percent with RFID. Therefore, using RFID could be easy to make sure the WEEE materials. Table 5 for the comparison of the quantity collection for RFID implemented and unimplemented for recycling business. To summarize, we know the tracking way of using RFID is better than using bar-code, whatever in the recycle rate or accuracy. Therefore, it is more important issues for implementing RFID.

5. CONCLUSION The WEEE Directive aims to reduce end-of-life waste in environmental legislations. Consequently, interest in remanufacturing is increasing as it has the potential to avoid such waste by reusing much of old products for a second life. In order to increase the correct judgment of WEEE recycle rate for electrical product. This paper tries to establish a model that use RFID to track the recovery of objects required in environmental protection. For manufacturers and recyclers, RFID is not a technology that is beyond their reach. The issue of cost is what businesses are

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concerned. Once the tags go into mass production, the level of acceptance would be increased among businesses. RFID not only helps with the automation of recycling operations but can also help to reduce mistakes in the manufacturing process. We hopefully the results can be used to government agencies, the industry, and recycling related businesses. Through literature review and business surveys, this study demonstrates that RFID can indeed provide concrete benefits to businesses and save the time spent on manually scanning barcodes. To increase the level of acceptance among businesses, this study carries out UML process analysis on potential risks. 11 risk factors were identified and UML process diagrams were drawn up to show which processes can be simplified. We concluded three major findings: (1) The RFID technique really provides one of the best choices for the recycling procedure. (2) The manufacturers, the government, and the recycling merchants are all benefited from the lead-in of RFID technique into the operation procedures. (3) The establishment of WEEE monitoring procedures helps the enterprises to reappraise and reinforce their management skills that in turn strengthen their competence. The benefits of RFID application can be divided into two categories: tangibles and intangibles. 1. Tangible benefits: (1) Volume of waste can be recovered that is expected to increase. (2) RFID process monitoring can improve production process. (3) The exacting standards of WEEE and ROHS will offer a great market opportunity for mass future use of RFID in the green markets of the future. (4) Encourage take-up of application that meets future market or environmental requirements. (5) Simplify the recovery categories, transportation and, back-processing operations required by WEEE. 2. Intangible benefits (1) Reduce the amount of pollution from toxic electronic wastes. (2) RFID tagging makes toxic substance information more transparent. (3) Increase speed and accuracy of information processing. (4) Reduce international business disputes and improve connectivity of international systems so that management can be made more directly and easily. (5) Easier factory-side certification. Factory can be certified as RoHS compliant together with HSF (hazardous substance free) certification. (6) Make the establishment of a green supply chain system more definitive and feasible.

(7) Improve stock-in/out processes and simplify parts pickup during manufacturing. RFID is a new technology of application. However, it is less used in waste management of WEEE and RoHS to control all recycled materials which could be correct collected and confirmed for each recycling. To improve this procedure of waste management, it not only needs to support by recycling business but also needs all members of supply chain to integrate with each other and make sure all usage materials be recycled. If that, it will have a big improvement for our environment.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT The authors greatly appreciate the sponsorship provided to this study by the National Science Council, Executive Yuan, Taiwan; under Granted Number: NSC95-2416-H-155-026."

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ABOUT THE AUTHORS Ling-Lang Tang is an Associate Professor in the Department of Business Administration at Yuan Ze University (YZU), Taiwan R.O.C. He received his Ph.D. degree in Business Administration at National Sun Yat-sen University in 1993. His major research interests are Supply Chain Management, E-business, and Quality Management. Ming-Tsang Lu is a Ph.D student of Graduate School of Management at Yuan Ze University (YZU). His research interests are Simulation, Operation Management, and Supply Chain Management. Wei-Chin Hung received his EMBA degree from Collage of Management at Yuan-Ze University. His research interest is Supply Chain Management. (Received March 2008, revised June 2008, accepted July 2008)