A cost-effective decision making algorithm for an RFID-enabled passport tracking system: A fuzzy multi-objective approach

The implementation of RFID technology has been becoming an ever-increasing popularity in the traceability of products as one of the most cutting edge technologies. Notwithstanding, the RFID communication performance is highly affected by the potential interferences between the RFID devices. Also, it is also subject to additional costs in investment that should be taken into account. Thus, seeking a cost-effective design with a desired communication performance for the RFID-enabled systems becomes a key factor for competing among today's competitive markets. This paper develops a fuzzy multi-objective model for a RFID-enabled passport tracking system under an uncertain input data. The study aims at presenting a cost-effective design for the proposed system in numbers of related facilities that should be established. It also aims at maximizing the implementation and operational costs and minimizing the RFID reader interference. To optimize the model, two solution methods were used. Subsequently, a new decision-making algorithm was used to select the best solution method. A case study was applied to examine the applicability of the developed model and the performance of the proposed solution methods. Research findings indicate that the developed model is capable of presenting an optimal design for the RFID-enabled passport tracking system and trade-offs among the two objectives.