Bringing Environmental Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) Tags to Market

创新研究员将分析英国和美国大规模消费零售业中环境友好型RFID标签和纳米条形码的开发和部署。RFID标签已经用于许多商业部门，以提供通过供应链识别物品的跟踪系统。预计2018年RFID市场总价值为110亿美元，预计到2022年将增加到134亿美元。这项技术的潜在就业影响还没有得到广泛的调查。RFID标签大大减少了库存盘点时间，从数百个小时减少到几个小时，对供应链不同部分的人员需求产生了影响。这项研究的创新贡献是审查从产品开发到实施的学习过程及其对劳动生产率和管理人员关于其劳动力需求的决策的影响。总部设在ESRC资助的工作数字未来研究中心(Digit)的创新研究员将与总部位于苏塞克斯的先进材料开发公司(AMD)(www.Advmat.co.uk)密切合作。AMD正在与苏塞克斯大学的材料物理学小组合作开发这些标签，该小组由艾伦·道尔顿教授领导，并得到彼得·克鲁格教授的量子系统和设备小组的支持。这些小组是苏塞克斯量子研究计划(SPQR)和物理与天文学系数据密集型科学中心的一部分。自2016年以来，材料物理组开发了一种基于石墨烯(及相关材料)墨水的平台技术，可作为功能材料用于各种应用。由量子系统和器件集团首创的一种新型量子磁显微镜提供了这些材料和基于它们的器件中的导电性和电流流动的关键特征。2017年，在苏塞克斯知识产权的基础上成立了一家名为先进材料开发(AMD)的新公司，将这些油墨商业化，并与最终用户进一步合作开发一系列应用。与消费、汽车和化工领域的关键战略合作伙伴(包括政府组织)的持续行业接触，正在导致这一新型环保技术的更广泛的认识和采用。研究问题：为创建零浪费企业和就业效应做出贡献特别令人感兴趣的是，该油墨已被开发为英国领先零售商(M&S)和美国RFID领先者(艾弗里·丹尼森)的RFID系统中替代金属的涂层-这一进展可能会产生深远的环境效益和非常大的市场。这是由于玛莎百货推出了A计划可持续发展计划的新路线图，其中包括将排放量减少80%的目标，并将公司转变为零浪费企业。开发的天线在性能和成本上都与现有技术具有竞争力；AMD目前正在就2020年初提供基于石墨烯的天线进行谈判。创新者正在研究的问题将是了解这些RFID标签如何有助于创建零浪费业务及其对工作组织的影响。这个问题将围绕三个核心问题进行研究：1.AMD公司如何将苏塞克斯材料物理组正在开发的创新环境友好型专利商业化？2.大型零售商在寻求采用和实施新的环境友好型技术时面临哪些障碍和机会？3.这些技术对零售业的就业组织有什么影响？将使用混合方法参与行动研究(PAR)方法来解决这些问题。PAR方法旨在实现行动学习，其前提是研究参与者应该积极参与研究过程。

The Innovation Fellow will analyse the development and deployment of environmentally friendly RFID tags and nanobarcodes in large-scale consumer retailing in the UK and the USA. RFID tags are already used in a number of business sectors to provide a tracking system identifying items through the supply chain. The total RFID market was estimated to be worth US$11.0 Billion in 2018, and is expected to increase to US$13.4 Billion by 2022. The potential employment effects of this technology have not been extensively investigated. RFID tags significantly reduce inventory count time from hundreds to a handful of hours with implications for staffing needs in different parts of the supply chain. The innovative contribution of the research is to examine the learning process from product development to implementation and its impact on labour productivity and decisions for managers about their labour requirements. The Innovation Fellow, based at the ESRC funded Digital Futures at Work Research Centre (Digit), will work in close collaboration with a Sussex based company, Advanced Material Development (AMD) (www.advmat.co.uk). AMD are developing these tags with the Material Physics Group at the University of Sussex led by Professor Alan Dalton and supported by Professor Peter Krüger's Quantum Systems and Devices group. These groups are part of the Sussex Programme in Quantum Research (SPQR) and the Data Intensive Science Centre in the Department of Physics and Astronomy. Since 2016, the Materials Physics Group have developed a platform technology based on graphene (and related material) inks which can be used for a variety of applications as functional materials. A novel quantum magnetic microscope pioneered by the Quantum Systems and Devices group provides crucial characterisation of conductivity and current flow in these materials and devices based on them. In 2017 a new company called Advanced Materials Development (AMD) was founded, based on Sussex IP, to commercialise these inks and develop a range of applications in further partnership with end users. Sustained industry engagement with key strategic partners in the consumer, automotive, and chemical sectors, including government organisations, is leading to a wider awareness and adoption of this novel environmentally friendly technology. Research questions: contributing to creating a zero-waste business and employment effectsOf particular interest, the inks have been developed as coatings for replacement of metals in RFID systems for a leading UK retailer (M&S) and US RFID leader (Avery Denison) - a development that could have far-reaching environmental benefits and very large markets. This has been driven by the launch of Marks & Spencer new roadmap for its Plan A sustainability programme, which includes targets to reduce emissions by 80% and turn the company into a zero-waste business. The developed antennas are competitive with the incumbent technology in both performance and cost; AMD are currently negotiating to supply graphene-based antenna for early 2020.The problem being examined by the Innovation Fellow will be to understand how these RFID tags can contribute to creating a zero-waste business and its implications for the organisation of work. This problem will be examined around three core questions: 1. How does the company AMD commercialise the innovative environmentally friendly patents being developed by the Material Physics Group at Sussex?2. What obstacles and opportunities do large-scale retailers face in seeking to adopt and implement new environmentally friendly technologies?3. What are the consequences of these technologies for the organisation of employment in retail?A mixed methods Participatory Action Research (PAR) approach will be used to address these questions. The PAR approach aims to enable action learning and is based on the premise that research participants should be actively involved in the research process.