Expert Systems with Applications 39 (2012) 2532–2548

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Expert Systems with Applications

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/eswa

A real-time food safety management system for receiving operations

in distribution centers
S.I. Lao, K.L. Choy ⇑, G.T.S. Ho, Y.C. Tsim, T.C. Poon, C.K. Cheng
Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hung Hom, Kowloon, Hong Kong

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Keywords: Food safety plan is being promoted in the food industry by the Hong Kong Government as a preliminary
Food safety quality control tool. However, it appears to be a challenging task for Distribution Centers (DC) that han-
Receiving operations dles food inventory since most of them are lack of knowledge and know how technology to manage infor-
Operating procedures mation in a real time base. This paper proposes a Radio Frequency Identification based Food Operations
RFID
Assignment System (RFID-FOAS) to help DC facilitates the food safety control activities in receiving areas
Case-Based Reasoning
by generating a proper safety plan. The system has adopted the Radio Frequency Identification (RFID)
technology and the Case-Based Reasoning (CBR) technique to facilitate the inventory data-capturing pro-
cess and assist in formulating decisions, respectively. The developed system aims to help reduce the dif-
ficulties in safety plan development using a knowledge-based expert system. The significance and
contribution of RFID-FOAS in the context of managing the inventory quality in DC for safety plan devel-
opment is demonstrated through the adoption of the system in a Hong Kong-based logistics company.
The generated results show that the decision-making process of the safety plan development is facili-
tated. Moreover, the real-time data capturing nature of RFID technology has further improved the effi-
ciency and timeframe requested for the actions. With the support of RFID-FOAS, the data capture
system and the decision-making time is minimized. As a result, inventory quality and customer satisfac-
tion level are significantly improved.
Ó 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction of manufacturers. Therefore, caution quality control in the receiv-

Food products require cautious and strategic handling proce-
dures because they easily deteriorate and they have a short life
span (Erkoc, Iakovouand, & Spaulding, 2005; Iijima, Komatsu, &
Katoh, 1996; Trienekens & Zuurbier, 2007; van Donk, 2001). On
the other hand, food poisoning, such as food-borne illnesses and
microbiological contamination, occurs easily if food is improperly
handled during its production, storage, and distribution. Thus, food
safety is a burning issue in urban society. In addition, different
regulations have been established to control the quality of food
products for supply chain parties that aim to protect the health
of consumers (Trienekens & Zuurbier, 2007; Unnevehr & Jensen,
1999). In Fig. 1, the raw food supply chain encompasses the raw
food material supply, food distribution centers (DC), food manufac-
turing, and customer retailing. To fully control the utmost product
quality, ensuring the proper management of raw food by upstream
suppliers is imperative (Han, Trienekens, & Omta, in press). Food
Distribution Centers (DC), wherein raw materials are stored and
where value-added activities are performed, refer to the suppliers
⇑ Corresponding author. Tel.: +852 2766 6597; fax: +852 2362 5267.
E-mail address: mfklchoy@inet.polyu.edu.hk (K.L. Choy).
ing operation of a DC is necessary. In Fig. 1, the receiving operation
flow in food DC begins from food acceptance and value-added
activities, and then ends in storage. Measures and controls on these
operations are requisite food safety measures.
In ensuring food safety, Hazard Assurance Critical Control Point
(HACCP) is regarded as the best method. In addition, it is the best
way to demonstrate commitment to food safety (Orriss &
Whitehead, 2000). HACCP is an international tool in which the
implementation is mandated in different continents and countries,
such as the European Union, the United States, Australia, New
Zealand, and Canada. Other governments have voluntary programs
to promote the adoption of HACCP (Unnevehr & Jensen, 1999).
HACCP is recognized as an effective approach in developing
satisfactory and sanitary production and hygienic practices on food
safety; in addition, HACCP is currently considered as a prerequisite
for food manufacturers before they are allowed to enter the
international market (Arvanitoyannis & Mavropoulos, 2000).
Hence, HACCP assists the control process by identifying operation
points in production or handling processes that must be critically
monitored and controlled to ensure safety. HACCP can be applied
to any stage or type of food systems for corrective actions in case
problems arise. Therefore, food companies are keen in implement-
ing the HACCP for food quality control. However, small-scale and

0957-4174/$ - see front matter Ó 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.eswa.2011.08.105
 S.I. Lao et al. / Expert Systems with Applications 39 (2012) 2532–2548 2533

Fig. 1. Operation flow of raw food supply chain and receiving operation in a food distribution center.

medium-scale companies have difficulty in applying the opera-
tions and duties required to implement HACCP. Jobs required in-
clude hazard analysis, identification of critical control points,
controlling and monitoring identification procedures, handling
and keeping track of records, launching of workforce training pro-
grams, and defining maintenance and waste disposal procedures
(ISO/TS 22004, 2005). To monitor food quality, the government
has emphasized the necessity of developing a food safety plan
based on the principle of HACCP system for internal assessment
and control. Based on the food safety plan, companies can address
food-related problems, as well as aid the implementation of HACCP
in the future.
In Fig. 2, a food safety plan consists of potential hazards, control
points, critical control points, control limits, monitoring proce-
dures, and corrective action (HKSAR, 2002). In formulating these
elements, a range of actions are required, such as analyzing the
potential hazard of food product, identifying all check points of
operations, identifying critical food safety check points, etc. Tradi-
tionally, a human decision maker is involved in the process of for-
mulating a decision on the food safety plan for upcoming
inventories. When products are inbound to DC, different Standard
Keeping Units (SKU) are present in the product lot. Decision makers
are required to decide on the present potential hazards. For each
potential hazard, different control points must be identified. Then,
specific control limits are decided. Furthermore, decision makers
need to distinguish the critical control points among the control
points. Finally, specified monitoring procedures and corrective ac-
tions are required to be identified.
With the existing approach of a safety monitoring decision-
making process, DC managers face problems along the food safety
plan implementation. In general, two major problems were found
to exist in the process of formulating a food safety plan in the food
DC.
1.1. Existence of too many parameters that should be considered in
formulating decisions
Currently, different SKUs have different potential hazards; in
addition, based on the potential hazards, different control points
are identified. However, numerous parameters and rules are
required when analyzing elements in food safety plans. These
parameters include operator skills, operation procedures, company
rules, food regulations, operation manual, etc. Scattered informa-
tion increases the difficulty of managing the process. Hence, during
the decision-making process, numerous SKU characteristics, such
as color, texture, storage period, storage condition, water level,
food category, etc. need to be considered. This further increases
the complexity of the process. Hence, with numerous parameters
to be considered, a long timeframe in decision making is needed.

Fig. 2. Existing safety monitoring, decision-making framework based on HACCP (HKSAR, 2002).
2534 S.I. Lao et al. / Expert Systems with Applications 39 (2012) 2532–2548
1.2. Human errors occur while analyzing parameters in the
formulation of food safety plans
While formulating the food safety plan, the decision maker is
involved in identifying the potential hazard, the critical control
points among the control points, and specifying monitoring proce-
dures, as well in corresponding corrective actions. As quality is
intrinsically difficult to be defined, bias and errors may be involved
in the decision-making process. On the other hand, if different
decision makers are involved in case of labor turnover or absence,
the decision outcome may vary. As these decisions are interrelated,
errors made at the beginning would affect decisions executed at
latter stages, which would in turn amplify the negative impacts
on the final outcome. The high occurrence of errors would increase
the number of substandard goods and customer complaints.
In relation to the two previously mentioned problems, a proper
and comprehensive system for food safety management is needed.
For this reason, we focus on facilitating food safety controls in DC
by proposing a Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) technology-
based Food Operations Assignment System (RFID-FOAS). The pro-
posed system has adopted: (i) the RFID technology to visualize
and gather real-time inventory information for inventory arrival
notification and (ii) Case-Based Reasoning engine (CBR) technology
to arrange inventory characteristic-based safety plan. With the
help of RFID-FOAS, a shortlist of critical control points, measure-
ment, and appropriate actions in food handling is generated. In
summary, the diversified safety control can be monitored, to facil-
itate the food safety plan implementation and increase the level of
customer satisfaction.
The remainder of the paper is organized as follows. In Section 2,
literature related to food DC, food safety control, CBR, and RFID is
examined in detail. Section 3 discusses the development and oper-
ation mechanism of RFID-FOAS using RFID and CBR engine. In Sec-
tion 4, a case study on one Hong Kong-based logistics company is
presented to illustrate the use of RFID-FOAS in a real life food DC
using Case Advisor for CBR system construction. The results and
benefits of launching RFID-FOAS are discussed in Section 5. Finally,
the conclusion is presented in Section 6.
2. Review of related studies
This section begins with a review of literature on food DC,
which addressed the importance of implementing safety controls
in the receiving operations. Hence, studies on current food safety
management and difficulties involved are presented. Discussion
of the use of expert system and Radio Frequency Identification
(RFID) technology in decision making and data capturing, follows.
The purpose of this review is to provide an understanding of exist-
ing studies and the rationale for the choice of system and tools in
the current study.
2.1. Background of food DC
Inventory in DC requires a significant length of long time;
hence, these operations appear to be critical in influencing cus-
tomer service and operation lead times (Faber, Koster, & Velde,
2002; Johnston, Taylor, & Visweswaramurthy, 1999). Moreover,
concerns related to controlling DC operations, especially in receiv-
ing operations are increasing because people believe DCs can de-
rive benefits from business operations. For example, the controls
in operations may be tied to the exploitation of growth in demand
of fast supply chains by providing a rapid inventory turnover
(Christopher, 1998; Aghazadeh, 2004; Baker, 2004). Overall, this
leads to increased customer satisfaction. Hence, aside from con-
trolling physical operations like pick and pack, food DC requires
more critical parameters, such as quality and safety controls. Foods
easily deteriorate and have a short life span; hence, additional cau-
tion should be placed in maintaining quality and minimizing im-
pacts on health (Erkoc et al., 2005; Iijima et al., 1996; Trienekens
& Zuurbier, 2007; van Donk, 2001). In recent years, food safety
has been managed and judged by society and the media (Henson,
Holt, & Northen, 1999; Houghton et al., 2008; Kuo & Chen, 2010).
Moreover, the increase in the recorded rate of food-borne patho-
gens and poisoning (Henson et al., 1999; Unnevehr & Jensen,
1999) changed the demand and characteristic of the food supply
chain. This pushes DC operators to further consider the advantages
of launching food safety management to boost competitiveness
(Ziggers & Trienekens, 1999) which led to its adoption. In addition,
with the growth of dyadic quality performance, companies aid the
development of mutually agreed operations and quality require-
ments. Based on the request of the customers, companies imple-
ment new techniques, all of which are specially-tailored to meet
specific requirements (Yang, Wong, Lai, & Ntoko, 2009). Under this
situation, a number of DCs have included production elements
supported by technologies (Garcia, Chang, & Valverde, 2006; Ross
& Droge, 2002). Therefore, the operations performed in DC are
changing to embrace the nature of manufacturing, which highly in-
creased its importance in quality control (Rong, Akkerman, &
Grunow, in press).
2.2. Implementation of safety plans based on HACCP and its difficulties
Quality is defined as a key element adhered to by consumers to
make choices from a wide array of products and features that pro-
vide a closer match to individual desires (Ho, Lau, Lee, & Ip, 2005).
Per Morris and Young (2000) stated that quality has only been uti-
lized in areas of production and that people have always underes-
timated its importance in other supply chain elements. Nowadays,
quality is associated to food safety by customers and is regarded as
an important element for food industry development (Hughes &
Merton, 1996; Morris & Young, 2000). With regard to food quality
management, implementing HACCP is suggested to be the first step
in the attainment of safety management. HACCP is regarded as a
fundamental step that provides an initial building block and core
element for setting up the future status of the quality assurance
system (Holt & Henson, 2000). As a process-based quality assur-
ance tool, the core concerns of HACCP are placed on the front line
operation of work stations. This helps ensure that the inventories
of the food company has taken all preventive measures to attain
quality and safety (Westenbrink, Oseredczuk, Castanheira, & Roe,
2009; Wruck & Jensen, 1998). As mentioned in the Standard
E2590 (2009), the HACCP system consists of seven principles.
These are conducting a hazard analysis, determining the critical
control point, establishing critical limit(s), establishing a system
to monitor critical control points, establishing corrective monitor-
ing of critical control points that are not under control, establishing
procedures for verification of the HACCP system performance, and
establishing documentation of all procedures and records. Compa-
nies have always found the implementation of HACCP complicated
and difficult; thus, they fail to establish it. In an effort to monitor
food quality, as well as guide companies in fulfilling HACCP, the
government has emphasized the development of a food safety plan
based on the principle of HACCP system. In this endeavor, studying
necessary operation processes is required. Hence, specific hazards
and consequences must be correctly identified. The scope of HACCP
ranges from the nature of food safety to incentives of launching
systems on food safety control (Henson et al., 1999). Experts are re-
quested to judge the severity of the hazards and the relationship of
the hazards with the critical control points. Currently, all the justi-
fication processes are based on the knowledge of the workers
(Westenbrink et al., 2009). On the other hand, customers have
 S.I. Lao et al. / Expert Systems with Applications 39 (2012) 2532–2548
become more reliant on DC to assist them in performing value-
added activities (Hsiao, Kemp, van der Vorst, & Omta, 2010;
McPhee & Wheeler, 2006). Therefore, diversified operations further
increased the complexity and difficulties in the arrangement of
safety plans. Quality is intrinsically difficult to define and can re-
sult in confusion when applied (Morris & Young, 2000). Hence, if
the decision-making process solely relies on human beings, the
quality and the reliability of the results are in question. To speed
up the decision-making process and to improve the decision qual-
ity properly, the assistance of technology or a new system is
needed.
2.3. Current application of expert system in food management
With the increasing operational complexities, the decision-
making process has become more complicated. Hence, an increase
in decision-making time frame is another critical problem faced by
DC. Chow, Choy, and Lee (2007) and Liao, Enke, and Wiebe (2004)
suggested that the use of the expert system can help facilitate the
decision-making process of a company. According to Bakhrankova
(2010), a decision support system can enhance cost efficiency and
aid in the achievement of greater flexibility in industrial manage-
ment. In general, many publications have illustrated the develop-
ment of an expert system in the food industry. However, most of
them have specifically focused on chemical and biological analyses
of food composition (Cotterill, Chaudhry, Matthews, & Wakkins,
2008; Darder et al., 2009; Lababidi & Baker, 2003; Peris, 2002;
Suh, Jhee, Ko, & Lee, 1998) or on food production mechanism
(Perrot et al., 2004). Researchers have rarely focused on the moni-
toring of safety and quality controls in the food-handling process.
Therefore, expert system tools should be adopted to facilitate the
implementation of a safety plan. CBR is one of the most popular
expert systems equipped with a self-learning capability that pro-
cures the knowledge of human beings (Chou, 2009; Chow, Choy,
Lee, & Lau, 2006). CBR applies prior knowledge by establishing
association between a problem description and conclusion, leading
to a relationship generalization (Han, Lee, & Jo, 2005; Shin & Han,
2001). CBR can improve problem-solving capability by allowing
the problem solver to deal with problems based on previous expe-
rience (Choy, Lee, & Lo, 2003; Wang, Luxhoj, & Fohansen, 2004).
CBR focuses on important solution aspects from previous problems
and avoids repeating wrong directions (Chi, Chen, & Kiang, 1993).
Simply stated, CBR can increase the time to process decisions, as
well as improve the quality and reliability of decisions. Hence,
the knowledge and information stored in the case become the most
valuable elements in the enhancement of the competitiveness of
companies. CBR can assist in the decision-making process. How-
ever, if data is inputted manually, a long time frame is required
and human errors may appear. Since food supply chains require
a fast response that is free of defective handling, investigating
the possibility of introducing a real-time information gathering
feature in the application is valuable.
2.4. RFID application
With the support of an expert system, the decision-making
process is automatically made. The add-on assistance of RFID
establishes the feature of automated data capturing (Poon et al.,
2009). RFID refers to a technology that uses radio wave to transmit
and identify an object in a wireless network. RFID is used to recog-
nize the arrival of inventory in a real-time basis and it is currently
adopted to improve the information accuracy and data transmis-
sion timeframe (Lyu, Chang, & Chen, 2009). The data transmitted
by the tag is transformed into digital information and passed to
the company information system. The automatic retrieval mecha-
nism of input data reduces the occurrence of human errors (Piram-
2535
uthu, 2007). In addition, during data capturing, no direct physical
contact is required. This significantly reduces the actual operation
time for product identification and tracking. Basically, the software
and hardware of the RFID technology include a middleware, RFID
tags, and readers (Kwok & Wu, 2009). RFID highly increases the
convenience in inventory management and inventory-information
gathering; hence, it is currently widely adopted in handling inven-
tories, particularly, inventories of food items (Bottani & Rizzi, 2008;
Jedermann, Behrens, Westphal, & Lang, 2006; Ngai, Suk, & Lo,
2008; Tan & Chang, in press).
With the above studies, proposing a real-time based system
that incorporates the CBR engine to aid food DC in launching a
safety plan during the receiving operation is important.
3. System architecture of Radio Frequency Identification-based
Food Operations Assignment System (RFID-FOAS)
In this section, an RFID-based Food Operations Assignment Sys-
tem (RFID-FOAS) is introduced to demonstrate the system design
and operation. This system integrates real-time information retrie-
val technology with CBR decision-making techniques to help im-
prove the efficiency and service level of safety control operation
assignments in the receiving process. The resulting safety plan pro-
vides useful assistance in monitoring critical control points for the
fulfillment of the safety plan requirements in DC.
The architecture and data flow of RFID-FOAS are shown in Figs.
3 and 4, respectively.
RFID-FOAS is composed of three tiers:
Tier 1: Data collection – real-time data captured by the RFID
system.
Tier 2: Data sorting – controlled by an Inventory Information
Management Module.
Tier 3: Data management – control decision generation by a
CBR engine.
Hence, a wireless support user interface is included in the com-
munication between operators and the system.
3.1. Tier 1 – data collection
This tier of RFID-FOAS is responsible for collecting real-time
inventory information to visualize the warehouse status and sup-
port the latest application of the system. Different RFID devices
are adopted for data collection in warehouses using radio fre-
quency signal transmission. In Fig. 3, a tag is attached on each piece
of inventory to classify their identity and time of arrival. In addi-
tion, readers are attached on the facility entrance and dock door
for electronic signal receipt. The data captured are mainly static
data, including inventory identity, locations and quantities of
stored goods, upcoming SKUs, characteristics of SKUs, physical
dimension of SKUs, etc.
The received data are transmitted to the next tier for decoding.
The collected warehouse resource data are systematically stored in
the centralized database through wireless networks. The generic
process of real-time data collection of RFID-FOAS is illustrated in
Fig. 5.
3.2. Tier 2 – data sorting
Tier 2 of RFID-FOAS is composed of an Inventory Information
Management Module (IMM) and a database that manages the data
collected by Tier 1. The IMM aids in the extraction of relevant
information from the database for further processing. An RFID mid-
dleware, such as IMM, exists to manage data collected from RFID
2536 S.I. Lao et al. / Expert Systems with Applications 39 (2012) 2532–2548

Fig. 3. System architecture of RFID-based Food Operations Assignment System (RFID-FOAS).

devices. The process of data storing in the database is shown in
Fig. 6. When a list of tag IDs is captured by RFID readers installed
in the workplace, IMM decodes the electronic signals and trans-
forms the signals into human-readable information, such as order
number, item number, receiving location, and receiving time.
Hence, data is stored into the centralized database for retrieval at
a later time. The database contains fixed information of customer
requirements on food handling and value-added activities perfor-
mance, the nature of operation, and food characteristics. Statistical
data transmitted by electronic signals, such as inventory arrival
information, are stored at the same time. Only a certain proportion
of the inventory information is stored in the RFID tag; hence, when
the IMM receives the electronic signal, the database is searched to
retrieve the required corresponding information. The collected
information is sent to the CBR engine for further processing.
3.3. Tier 3 – data management
With the inventory and facility information in the DC and data-
base captured, a decision tree for the retrieval of historical cases is
constructed based on the nature of the food and the warehouse
operation, as illustrated in Fig. 7.
Similar past cases are retrieved to manage newly arrived case.
With the help of the CBR engine, the safety plan operation, i.e., food
acceptance, value-added activities, and food storage assignment,
can be settled in a systematic way that guarantees food property
is taken care of and that facilitates the safety control arrangement.
Before the actual adoption of the system, operation specifications
are required to be determined based on the current manual deci-
sion-making mechanism, food nature, and characteristics. Past
practices are organized in terms of cases for retrieval. Detailed
S.I. Lao et al. / Expert Systems with Applications 39 (2012) 2532–2548 2537

Fig. 4. Data flow of RFID-FOAS.

Fig. 5. Generic process of real-time data collection of RFID-FOAS.

2538 S.I. Lao et al. / Expert Systems with Applications 39 (2012) 2532–2548

Fig. 6. Operation mechanism of inventory information management module.

Fig. 7. Correlation between food nature and warehouse operation.

operations of the CBR engine consist of four activities: (i) case re- mainly related to the: (a) physical nature of food items, (b) chem-
trieval, (ii) case reusal, (iii) case revision, and (iv) case retention. ical nature of food items, and (c) customer requirements, as shown
in Fig. 8.
After the generation of key attribute list, CBR engines begin to
3.3.1. Case retrieval
browse the case library to retrieve the potential cases. As shown
The case retrieval mechanism of the CBR engine is illustrated in
in Fig. 9, numerous historical cases are stored in a tree-like struc-
Fig. 8. When a case arrives with an order number from the IMM,
tural hierarchy, which applies a method known as the inductive
the system begins to browse the database to request relevant
indexing approach. The inductive indexing approach is an ap-
information. In this process, information on a list of key attributes
proach for clustering cases with different degrees of similarity.
is generated. These key attributes consist of information used to
Only cases in the selected cluster are considered for case reusal
decide the required receiving operations. These attributes are

Fig. 8. Data attributes retrieved for CBR engine.

 S.I. Lao et al. / Expert Systems with Applications 39 (2012) 2532–2548 2539

Fig. 9. Case retrieval mechanism of the CBR engine importance and relationship among attributes.

in later processes. As the number of potential cases is significantly According to Equation (1), the total similarity value is calculated
minimized, the processes of selecting relevant cases are acceler- with support of the pre-defined weightings, and the degree of sim-
ated. In the tree structure, the most important attribute is pre- ilarity among cases can be found automatically. The weightings of
sented in Level 1, and the importance decreases as the level different attributes are defined with reference to the manual selec-
increases. Storage type is considered as the most important attri- tion mechanism of human beings. Hence, based on the weightings,
bute of the operation assignment. In Level 2, cases are grouped the importance and similarities of the attributes, as well as the list
according to the special request assigned by the customer because of ranked retrieved cases, are generated. The case ranked with the
the involved operation or safety control is highly influenced by the highest similarity value is regarded as the most significant base for
requested service. Thus, the value-added activity performance the final solution generation. Other cases with comparatively low-
influences the control points and measurement of the safety plan. er similarity value act as references.
With different food properties and nature, cases are grouped into Pn
different clusters. i¼1 wi simðfiI ; fiR Þ
Pn ð1Þ
When the system browses the case library to retrieve historical i¼1 wi
cases by following the tree structure path, the CBR engine can rec-
where
tify the new case with data from the stored historical cases. Hence,
a group of potential cases in the resulting cluster are chosen and
wi = weight of attribute I;
presented in a list format for case reusal.
 
min jfiI j; fiR 
simðfiI ; fiR Þ ¼ ;
3.3.2. Case reusal maxðjfiI j; jfiR jÞ
With the formulation of the potential case list, the nearest
neighbor retrieval algorithm is adopted to further resolve the most
appropriate case. Food operation handling regulations and rules fiI ; fiR = the value of fi in the input.
are studied; the knowledge gained is then converted into different
pre-defined weightings (wi) to illustrate the importance and rela- 3.3.3. Case revision
tionship among attributes, as shown in the entity relationship dia- When the case with the highest similarity value is suggested by
gram in Fig. 10. the CBR engine, comparison with the suggested case leads to its
Weighting is added to (fi), which represent the corresponding revision and a newly inputted case is preformed. Modification,
attributes of the case. In addition, similarity values of different op- such as editing and combinations are made based on the value of
tions among attributes is defined and inputted into the system. the cases to ensure that the solution fits_the actual needs.
2540 S.I. Lao et al. / Expert Systems with Applications 39 (2012) 2532–2548

Fig. 10. Entity relationship diagram that illustrates the importance and relationship among attributes.

3.3.4. Case retention

After the case revision, the revised report and the new case
information are stored in the case library for future references.
Each case set is composed of four parts: a unique case number, a
case index, a set of safety plan, and a set of customer feedback.
The knowledge in solving the new problem scenario is a useful
and valuable capital, and it acts as the most significant asset when
running the CBR engine.

3.4. System output

A Web-based user display is installed in the system so that

users may access the inventory status during the arrival of the
food. On the other hand, the monitors would display the resulted
safety plan.

3.4.1. Inventory status

During the arrival of the food delivery, the user interface dis-
plays the inventory status when IMM receives the electronic sig-
nals from the front end module. Inventory information, such as
order number, item number, and quantity are transferred from
the IMM to the user interface.
3.4.2. Output display – operating procedure
Output display shows the system result for food handling. Infor-
mation is transferred through the CBR engine to the user interface,
as illustrated in Fig. 11.
4. Case study
4.1. Company background
A pilot test was undertaken in a Hong Kong-based logistics com-
pany to validate the usage of RFID-FOAS. This logistics company pro-
vides warehousing, value-added activities, distribution, logistics
consultation, and international forwarding service to various types
of customers all over the world. To follow the competitive market
trends in the logistics industry, its warehouse not only provides stor-
Fig. 11. Resulting safety plan.
age, but also acts as a DC that executes value-added activities and
quality checking services. Hence, the company has advanced equip-
ment in their DC, which includes temperature-controlled and refrig-
erated facilities mainly for handling food-related inventories.
With the growing concern on food quality and safety, the com-
pany has implemented a food safety plan in the receiving opera-
tions. Hence, to cope with the changing business environment
and to reinforce its leading position in the logistics industry, the
company keeps introducing different value-added services. With
the introduction of new types of operations and services, the com-
pany experiences difficulties monitoring the food quality. There-
fore, when arranging safety plans in the receiving process, DC
managers face the following problems:
(i) Different quality control operations and services are needed
when handling different customer orders. However, there is
a lack of effective safety plans in monitoring and facilitating
control points.
 S.I. Lao et al. / Expert Systems with Applications 39 (2012) 2532–2548
(ii) The time allotted in deciding safety control actions is pro-
longed. Hence, the lead time for handling orders is
lengthened.
4.2. Case illustration – generating a safety plan for the receiving
process of raw materials and ingredients for sushi
Raw materials and ingredient for sushi is one of the frequently
handled inventories of the company. Inventories are imported
worldwide and distributed to different local stores in Hong Kong.
Generally, inventories can be categorized into two types: the direct
distribution type, in which no value-added service is needed, and
the value-added type, in which value-added production is involved
before storage and distribution. With such features, the company
suffers from the problem of insufficient guidelines on safety con-
trol when handling different value-added services. As entirely dif-
ferent control points are required in different food inventories, the
required decision-making time required is inappropriately long.
Hence, the unsystematic decision-making process leads to opera-
tion errors. Raw materials and ingredients for sushi are sensitive
to time and environmental conditions; thus, cautious control in
all stages of the operation is required to prevent spoilage and con-
tamination. Any delay in operation or inappropriate handling af-
fects the product safety and the suitability of latter delivery.
Therefore, RFID-FOAS is adopted, using salmon to demonstrate
the generation of a specific and customized operating procedure
for a period of 2 months starting in March 2010. The system em-
braced the support of RFID real-time data capturing technology
and knowledge supported CBR engine using Case Advisor. Fig. 12
shows the seven implementation steps of RFID-FOAS.
4.2.1. Step 1: physical set up of RFID device
To gather real-time inventory information and to support the
application of the system, different RFID devices must be set up
in the DC and in work stations. First, RFID readers are required to
Fig. 12. Implementation procedure of RFID-FOAS.
2541
be mounted on the dock door when receiving arriving RFID singles
as shown in Fig. 13. Once the readers are mounted, inventories
with RFID tags pass the gateway, and the readers record the event,
then pass the signal to the system. Afterwards, RFID tags are at-
tached to the inventories and pallets of goods. Hence, numerous
Web-based monitors are set up at work stations to display infor-
mation, as shown in Fig. 14.
4.2.2. Step 2: system construction of CBR engine
Preparation is necessary before constructing the CBR engine in
the Data Management Tier using the Case Advisor. Case Advisor
is software developed by Sententia Software at Simon Frazier Uni-
versity, Canada (Wastson, 1997). In Fig. 15, three main components
are present: (i) CaseAdvisor Authoring Module, (ii) CaseAdvisor
Problem Resolution Module, and (iii) CaseAdvisor Webserver
Module.
4.2.2.1. CaseAdvisor Authoring Module. In the Authoring Module, the
historical safety plan of the operating case and the critical point
assignment decision tree of the CBR engine are constructed in a
portal-like environment. Details of the case and DC operation are
inputted to the case library. New case information is created in
Case Advisor by entering the case name, case description, and
the safety plan solution. Attributes that identify questions are con-
stituted and matched with the corresponding cases. Different oper-
ating attributes, such as storage type, required value-added
service, food type, and SKU Dimension, are set by the developer
to identify the relationship between the case information and the
required control action. Weightings of the operating attribute that
indicate the importance are adjusted. Hence, a decision tree is con-
structed to group similar cases in a systematic way.
4.2.2.2. CaseAdvisor Problem Resolution Module. Identification and
case review of problems are carried out in the Problem Resolution
Module. The Problem Resolution Module is a case retrieval model
that is used to search and extract potential historical cases. In this
module, operating attributes and their values are inputted. Subse-
quently, the corresponding case questions are displayed. These
questions are used to help users filter historical safety plan records.
Potential case solutions are retracted by the system in accordance
with the operation and critical point assignment decision tree built
in the Authoring Module. Netscape is used to display the resulting
solution.
4.2.2.3. CaseAdvisor Webserver Module. Webserver Module is a Java
interface used to integrate the company Open Database Connectiv-
ity (ODBC) with the case base domains. Webserver Module is used
to create, delete, copy, moving, and rename operations in the do-
main list. With the Webserver Module, linkage among the com-
pany database, Authoring Module, and Problem Resolution
Module is built; consequently, changes in the company database
lead to updates in the case-bases domain in real time.
4.2.3. Step 3: retrieve relevant operation and requirement
specifications
After the preparation duties of the device set up and system
development have been completed, a trial run of RFID-FOAS is
undertaken to demonstrate the safety plan generation mechanism.
First of all, relevant operation and requirement specifications are
retrieved. Currently, data on customer orders and customer
requirements are stored in data tables as parameters. The rela-
tional table indicates the relationship and linkage of data, as shown
in Fig. 16. When the salmon arrives in the receiving zone, the RFID
readers mounted on the DC gateway automatically notifies the
IMM and sends it an electronic signal. This is the initial data retrie-
val process in the database, as illustrated in Fig. 17. Only partial
2542 S.I. Lao et al. / Expert Systems with Applications 39 (2012) 2532–2548

Fig. 13. RFID readers on the dock door.

Fig. 14. Monitors on the work stations.

Fig. 15. Components of CBR engine (CaseAdvisor).

 S.I. Lao et al. / Expert Systems with Applications 39 (2012) 2532–2548 2543

Fig. 16. Relationship among data tables.

Fig. 17. Process flow of data retrieval for customer order.

information is stored in RFID tags; hence, the data retrieval process
aims to search for other relevant attributes from the database. Re-
cords which are retrieved include customer name, list of items, and
positions of items. These details are received and displayed on the
web-based platform.
4.2.4. Step 4: retrieve similar cases for reuse
Historical cases are stored in the case library with the corre-
sponding attributes. Based on the information on the attributes,
similar historical cases are retrieved from the case library through
the inductive indexing approach. A decision tree is constructed to
demonstrate the selection mechanism and to illustrate the case
relationship, as shown in Fig. 18. The company designs the food
safety plan based on four types of order nature. Therefore, there
are four levels in the decision tree: Level 1 – Storage Type; Level
2 – Customer Requirement; Level 3 – Operation Specification;
and Level4 – Inventory Specification. Potential cases are arranged
into different groups according to the values of attributes, as
shown in Fig. 18. Then, the system matches the specification of
the product nature with cases stored in the case library.
To help arrange cases into appropriate groups, different ques-
tions related to the case structure and the decision attributes are
presented in Fig. 19. By addressing the questions and following
the searching path, a particular cluster of potential historical cases
is identified and retrieved.
4.2.5. Step 5: rank similar cases for case selection
In this demonstration of the process of receiving salmon, six po-
tential historical cases are found in the resulted cluster. The case
information is then retrieved and passed for case ranking. Cases
are ranked by calculating the similarity value through the CBR en-
gine with reference to Equation (1), which is shown in the System
Architecture section. There are different attributes for calculating
the similarity value such as, storage type, customer requirement,
SKU measuring unit, food type, supplier location, and SKU dimen-
sion. Different pre-defined weighting (wi) is defined in Fig. 10, in
the System Architecture section.
As illustrated in Fig. 20, the potential cases carry different scores
that represent the difference in similarity value among cases. With
reference to the Total Similarity Value (TSV), cases with the highest
similarity values are selected as the most preferable cases to be
adopted. In this scenario, a case named ‘‘Salmon 0325’’ with a score
of 95 is selected. Consideration is formulated for this case in
arranging the operating procedure of the safety plan.
In the facilitation of the analysis of the system mechanism,
demonstration of the similarity value calculation between the
new case and ‘‘Salmon 0325’’ is shown. In Table 1, ‘‘Salon 0325
consists of six attributes.’’ Reference on the entity relationship dia-
gram (Fig. 10) is made; the predefined weighting and similarity va-
lue of different attributes are found.
Therefore, by using Equation (1)
2544 S.I. Lao et al. / Expert Systems with Applications 39 (2012) 2532–2548

Fig. 18. The decision tree for case retrieval engine.

Fig. 19. Storage structure of historical cases with linked questions.

 S.I. Lao et al. / Expert Systems with Applications 39 (2012) 2532–2548 2545

Fig. 20. A list of potential cases with different scores.

Table 1
Comparison of ‘‘Salmon 0325’’ and a new case.

Attributes Rank Weighting ‘‘Salmon 0325’’ New case Similarity value

Storage type Most important 50 Frozen food Frozen food 1
Customer requirement Important 30 Fillet Fillet 1
Supplier location Important 30 Norway Norway 1
Food type Less important 10 Raw material Raw material 1
SKU dimension Less important 10 Less than 100 cm2 100–500 cm2 0.5
Storage measuring unit Relevant 5 Piece Carton 0.6

Pn
 simðfiI ; fiR Þ 50  1 þ 30  1 þ 30  1 þ 10  1 þ 10  0:5 þ 5  0:6
i¼1 wi in Fig. 21. Hence, when the salmon is delivered to the customers,
Pn ¼
i¼1 wi
50 þ 30 þ 30 þ 10 þ 10 þ 5 their feedback on the service and product quality are collected
¼ 0:95 and recorded. The customer feedback is used to evaluate the oper-
ation performance, especially in controlling the outcome of the
The total similarity value between the new case and ‘‘Salmon 0325’’ safety plans. If complaint on the salmon quality is received, a more
is obtained. The value is 0.95, which is the same as the system dis- sincere consideration in future case reusal may be required. Thus,
play. Similarly, the total similarity values among other cases and the this reflects the customer satisfaction level. As the number of case
new case are obtained through the same way. reusal cycles increase, the quality of case information improves.

4.2.6. Step 6: case revision and safety plan generation
The case ranked with the highest similarity value is considered
as the most significant base for generating solutions. With refer-
ence to the case information of the selected case, modification
may further improve the suitability of the adoption. Modification
can be made by adding the missed operation steps or by removing
any redundant operations to fit the customer needs. Required facil-
ities and work stations are adjusted automatically along with the
changes. Furthermore, the operator can refer to the ‘‘Customer
Feedback’’ section of the historical case to evaluate whether mod-
ification of operations should be made to improve the customer
satisfaction level.
4.2.7. Step 7: store new case and customer feedback
After the revision and case modification, a new case solution to
receive operations is generated. Each case is assigned with a unique
case number. Accordingly, case details with updated information
are sent to the case library. At the same time, case details are sent
to the Web-based platform through the LAN network, as illustrated
5. Results and discussion
To study and verify the significance and contribution of RFID-
FOAS in the context of managing the inventory quality in DC to de-
velop safety plans, a trial run was undertaken in one of the Hong
Kong-based logistics companies. Preliminary work focused on the
safety plan operation procedure generation during the receiving
operation in DC. The performance and contributions are presented
and described in this section to demonstrate the significance of the
system. The assistance provided by RFID-FOAS included real time
inventory arrival data capturing and knowledge base advices for
decision making. Hence, a number of benefits are identified by
the DC manager during the interview after the trial run. The bene-
fits are as follows:
 The system provides DC operators with solid and detailed
guidelines on inventory handling with regard to the required
operation, critical control points, and corrective actions for cus-
tomized safety control.
2546 S.I. Lao et al. / Expert Systems with Applications 39 (2012) 2532–2548
Fig. 21. Resulting safety plan operating procedure.
 The system reduces the labor force involved in decisions regard-
ing the operation flows and control actions required. The deci-
sion maker is no longer a human being but an automated
computer system.
 The system provides consistent control actions in quality assur-
ance for the same category of food inventory with the same nat-
ure and property. Previously, handling is decided based on the
experience and tacit knowledge of expert workers and thus,
any labor turnover or absence would affect quality of the
results.
 The system assists the reduction in the receiving operation
timeframe because the system automates the data capturing
and decision-making process.
 The system provides clear handling of history and records of the
operations and control actions, which are stored in the company
database in terms of historical cases. It provides traceable
inventory handling records, which are required for the compli-
ance of quality assurance scheme like ISO and TQM. The system
helps the company establish the initial building blocks for qual-
ity assurance system.
Aside from the interview with the company, different compari-
sons are made to measure and visualize the system performance
before and after the implementation. Based on the quantitative
measurement, three areas of major improvement are identified.
5.1. Improvement in operation management
Before the implementation of RFID-FOAS, manual checking of
the inventory document such as inbound order, receiving list,
and customer invoice, is required to locate which customer has or-
dered the goods and what kinds of quality control operations are
required. Since the same group of food inventories may be deliv-
ered to different retailers after the storage period and different
retailers may have different requirements on quality checking
and value-added activities, the operations that need to be com-
menced before the transfer to the rack are unclear. With the help
of RFID-FOAS, the data retrieving and decision-making operations
are automated by the IMM and CBR engines. A systematic safety
plan is suggested. Therefore, human errors involved are signifi-
cantly reduced. Hence, with the resulting safety plan displayed
on the Web-based user interface, clear guidelines on the operation
and control action can be illustrated to the operators easily. In
Table 2, order fulfillment has been improved by 33.85%.
5.2. Improvement in timeframe for resource assignment
With the real time data capturing ability of RFID-FOAS, food ar-
rival is notified in real time. The relevant inventory information is
retrieved by the IMM and sent to the CBR engine automatically. No
manual data input or filter is required, which significantly reduces
the required timeframe for inventory notification. In Table 3, the
time required to notify the inventory arrival and data entry is re-
duced by over 96% and the significance increases with order size.
In addition, a noteworthy time saving in the decision making is
achieved. As different operations are required to perform on differ-
ent inventories, a lengthy manual decision time is required for hu-
man beings. RFID-FOAS replaces the human decision process with
an expert knowledge system, and the suggested safety plan is gen-
erated automatically in a short timeframe. In Table 3, the decision-
making process for receiving operation is improved by 85.17%.
5.3. Improvement in customer satisfaction and quality
Before the launch of RFID-FOAS, safety control is decided based
on the experience and tacit knowledge of the workers. Any work-
force turnover or absence would affect the decision quality. There-
fore, the inconsistent decision results in the occurrence of
substandard goods. Hence, faults in operations lead to returning
of goods or service charge deduction. On the other hand, the long
 S.I. Lao et al. / Expert Systems with Applications 39 (2012) 2532–2548 2547

Table 2 sion-making process. Hence, the real time data capturing nature of
Improvement in operation management. RFID technology further improves the efficiency and timeframe re-
Before After (with Percentage of quested for the actions.
RFID-FOAS) improvement A comprehensive safety control is required in the food supply
(%) chain to satisfy the demands of customers. DC, where food inven-
Operation management tory spends a large proportion of time and performs value-added
Order fulfillment (free of error and 0.65 0.87 33.85 activities, requires urgent development of a safety plan. However,
fault handling/total handling)
the rise in customization of services has made the development a
complicated task. We proposed a real-time food management sys-
tem that integrates RFID technology and CBR technique for DC ser-
Table 3 vice providers in launching a food safety plan, which aims to
Time reduction in receiving operation handling. manage the receiving operation and improve the operation
Before After (with RFID- Percentage of efficiency and customer satisfaction.
(manual) FOAS) improvement (%)
Time
Inventory notification (data entry) Acknowledgment
Single order 1 min 2s 96.67
Ten orders 12 min 3s 99.58
The authors wish to thank the Research Office of The Hong Kong
Twenty orders 27 min 4s 99.75
Decision process for receiving operation Polytechnic University for supporting the project (Project Code:
Operation 5 min RPBK).
involved
Critical control 6 min
point
Corrective 3 min
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