A Cost Allocation Study on Construction Supply Chain Investment in RFID based on Arena Simulation.

The experiment shows that RFID technology can ensure high management efficiency of prefabricated buildings, but it requires large investments and the way of cost allocation for supply chain members is unclear. This paper presents a supply chain model for offsite factory production and onsite construction. Based on the supply chain of prefabricated concrete exterior wall panels in Nanjing, the total time and errors with and without RFID technology in the supply chain are simulated by Arena software. Thus, the benefits of investing in RFID technology can be compared and analyzed. Through the simulation, the cost-sharing ratio for the plant and site to invest the RFID technology is calculated. The results show that the investment in RFID technology is obviously beneficial. The ratio of both sides in the investments of the RFID technology is less affected when the probability of locating the component is more than 50%. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]