Internship Responsibilities: The Future of the Internet Economy - Essay Example

Internship Responsibilities: The Future of the Internet Economy 1.0 The Sears Departmental Store Sears Company is a chain of departmental stores mostly found within the American States. The company was officially started as a Sears, Roebuck and Company. Hence, the entity was established by Richard Warren Sears and his affiliate partner Alvin Curtis Roebuck during the periods of 1886 (Sullivan). The company was previously based on the Sears Tower in Chicago. However, its current headquarters is in Hoffman Estates, Illinois. Thus, the entity is known to be the 5th largest American department store after the likes of Walmart, Target as well as Best buy and the Home Depot (Sullivan). The company operates its divisions within Canada as well as Mexico amongst the other several subsidiaries within its brand (Sullivan). The Sears also functions as a subsidiary of the parent company, the Sears Holding Corporation. The corporation is prominent for its success as a leading integrated retailer that mostly focus on the seeming connections of the digital as well as physical shopping experiences to their consumers. Thus, the corporation offers a social shopping platform that rewards the members, as well as their retailing partners as a significant practice to them (Sullivan). As an intern, most tasks under execution was mostly in relation to the Information Technology section of the departmental store within the Atlanta region. The departmental store have been recently been engaged with the concerns pertaining the enterprise applications within their supply chains departments (Sullivan). Therefore, as an intern the main tasks was to work in conjunction with the departmental store Information Technology section to oversee that the entity meets its stated objectives pertaining their supply chain management (Weis). 2.0 The Sears Organizational Structure Figure 1: Sears Organisational Structure Source: Cornell, 2014 3.0 Learning objectives As the technology relentlessly moves towards its innovative techniques to manage the inventory within the supply chains, the barcodes are thus becoming the technology of yesterday (Weis). In addition, Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) has managed to secure its spots within the supply chain management, inventory controls, as well as within the manufacturing industries. Hence, similar to any developing technology, the high start-up costs prevent the wide applicable employment of the technology. Thus, the lower production costs of the resources used to create the equipment housed within the RFID system tend to make RFID a realistic substitute to several supply chain dilemmas. Thus, this report develops the educational materials for adoption within any undergraduate Industrial Distribution classes as well as highlights the introductions to RFID. Subsequently, recorded lectures, as well as laboratory experiments employed, tend to reinforce the elementary concepts of RFID (Nikitin and Rao). Nonetheless, new technological advances tend to make automatic identification (auto-ID) a valuable tool within the supply chains’ industry. Hence, with the historical advancements of the time when inventories were taken with pen and paper show an initial drastic alteration. Therefore, technological advances have given way to barcodes (Nikitin and Rao). However, barcodes tend to necessitate lines of sight as well as still incorporating the substantial amounts of manpower required to scan the inventory barcodes. Thus, technology has managed to develop ways to account for the inventories throughout the supply chains, from the manufacturers to the warehouses, to the distribution centres, and even to the end-user consumers (Sullivan). Thus, this given technology is known as the Radio Frequency Identification (RFID). Therefore, it is possible to maintain every man-made piece labelled with unique tags associated with digital entities. Hence, this digital data can provide detailed information, for instance, the manufacturing dates as well as the time and the personnel that are responsible for assembling the entities. Thus, these promises and more tend to be all possible with RFID (Spitler). Subsequently, the Industrial Technology departments have an account of properly preparing the students of the industrial labour force through educational curriculums as well as technical lab experiments. Thus, this is because the Supply Chain Management Technology Laboratories possess radio frequency identification software as well as technologies. Hence, this gives Industrial Technology departments the opportunities to prepare more students with realistic technical exposures. Most individuals tend to graduate from the Industrial Technology as well as Industrial Distribution educational programs without any necessary knowledge, as well as the skills-set. Thus, this provides the need to ensure that individuals can edge with the RFID software, as well as technologies located in the Supply Chain Management Technologies Laboratory. Hence, it is noteworthy to report that Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) has managed to grow its popularity within the industrial uses. Hence, this is supported by the explanations within the RFID Journal articles such as, “The growth opportunities for the RFID market are projected to be $9.7 billion today, and expected to surpass $14.8 billion by 2014” (Jaselskis and El-Misalami). The purpose of this report is to advance the educational materials to boost the working knowledge of the Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) in the Industrial Technology departments through the online lectures in the Adobe Connect, to demonstrate the mastery with varied quizzes, as well as finalizing laboratory experiments to be executed following the recorded lectures. Thus, this categorization of events ensures that most students have the knowledge of RFID technology. 3.1 The Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) Radio frequency identification (RFID) tends to work similarly in the bar coding technology. Nikitin and Rao exhibit the perception about RFID as, “technology that internalize information from objects without physical contacts, as well as possible wears and linked damages to bother readers and receivers, ." Thus. The definition is precise, by loosely giving the meaning, as well as tends not to capture the full core of what RFID is, neither its capabilities. Spitler described the technology as, “A division of automated identification technology where radio frequencies are employed to internalize as well as transmit information. Subsequently, radio frequency identification technologies also involve the use of transponders that collects information as well as manage it in portable as well as changeable database within the tags. Thus, they communicate the routing instructions as well as control requirements to the equipment as well as those that can withstand punitive environments.” Hence, this definition holds to be true towards technology. However, various explanations explored within the literature talks pertaining the involuntary documentation of the technology, very slight meanings portray superiority to the back-end of the technology, as well as the information technology systems/database management systems. Thus, this technology has been in existence in order to trail high priced assets. Hence, the radio frequency identification has tended to be around for extended periods of time. However, its recent unpredicted popularity within the supply chains can be ascribed to its multi-faceted purposes. The use of the RFID technology has portrayed high potentials to modernize the way tracking, preservation, and material management works in engineering as well as design (Nikitin and Rao). Thus, an RFID structure can be broken down in simplistic manners of three parts: the tag, a reader, and the data processing systems. The tag/transponder is a minor device that carries electronic data. Hence, the tag is often attached to the items in which proof of identity is being sought. Subsequently, the reader/scanner works by communicating with tags by employing radio frequency signals. Conversely, the data processing systems contain information about the identified objects, as well as distributing the information tenuously to the other data processing systems. Thus, there are three structures that are used within public frequencies alongside two more prevalent systems, the passive as well as the active Passive structures (Spitler). 3.1.1 The Passive RFID System The passive RFID systems portray the tags as excited only when it badges through the energy fields of the interrogators (Sullivan). Thus, it is a much-unsophisticated way of discerning sophisticated technologies, however, it initiates the mindset of the technology. Thus, passive backscattered RFID systems tend to operate in a particular way. Hence, a base station transmits modulated signals within periods of unmodulated carriers that are received by the tag’s antenna. Thus, the RF voltages that develop on the antenna terminals during the un-modulated periods tend to be converted to DC. Hence, this voltage power up the chips that sends back data by altering their front end sophisticated RF input impedance. Thus, the impendence stereotypically toggles between two dissimilar states, between the conjugate matches as well as other impedance, impact modulating the backscatter signals (Weis). Hence, the reader tends to transmit modulated radio frequency signals to the tags that comprise of an antenna as well as integrated circuit chips. The chips will then receive power from the antenna as well as respond by changing its internal input impedance, which shows how the backscatter signals are modulated. I got the chance to work with amplitude shift keys (ASK) that are used within the RFID. Thus, this means the chip portrays an impedance that lands between two states: Thus, one is coordinated to the antenna while the other state is a drastic mismatch. Hence, once the chips are excited by the magnetic fields, it tends to modulate the surfs that they tag and send back to the reader as well as the reader changes the new surfs into digital data. Thus, backscatter technologies are used within passive RFID systems by using load modulations for the communication. Hence, as described, the signal tends to come from the RFID reader. Thus, the return signals from the tags to the reader is often altered. This exhibits the processing circuits on the tag’s alterations within the radio frequencies impendence of the tag antennas as well as controlling the extents in the distributed fields that are sent back to the readers. Nonetheless, within the RFID technology, the tags tend to be acknowledged when the backscattered files are received as well as decoded by the reader units. Thus, a determining cause towards the adoption of this expertise is the bottom-line costs. Hence, the costs of the passive systems come at the expenditure of the transmitting power. The passive systems also portray small data storage competencies that are between 128 - 256 bytes. Thus, the tags have infinite lifetimes because they possess no external battery sources. 3.1.2 The Active RFID System Subsequently, I got familiar with the active RFID systems. Thus, within the active RFID systems, the transponders have their power sources; hence, the tags are battery operated. Therefore, with embedded batteries, the ready ranges of the active tags expressively diverge from the read range of the passive systems (Nikitin and Rao). Hence, the system characteristically has supplementary memory capabilities. Therefore, in comparison to the passive tags, the active tags holds 32 - 128 kilobytes of memory. The tenacities of the additional expensive tags tend to be more multifaceted operations that are carried out. Thus, they are often considered for use when logging temperature and other environmental parameters. Therefore, as with any emerging technologies there are weaknesses and disadvantages. Hence, in addition to the costs, there exists a variety of other precincts that come into concern when considering to implement a full scale of the RFID systems; thus, it lacks standardization. Therefore, there are no restrictions on the tags’ relationship. Thus, one manufacturer’s tag can’t read another manufacturer’s reader that could affect the partial implementations of the technology; hence, the power of the technology is immense. Thus, the power of the technology comes with the fear of how invasive it becomes in the future. Subsequently, the safety, security, as well as the privacy issues are being implemented in this technology. Therefore, the push for RFID systems to be employed within retail settings currently does not endanger the public-private data, such as the purchasing practices and the credit card data since there are no industry standards by which the data needs to be cast off. Therefore, the failure rates within the field have been fully explored with an offset within the encumbrances of the expertise lies in the aptitude to have enormous impacts throughout all industries (Nikitin and Rao). 4.0 Internship Relation to IS Curriculum By analysing the intern, it is dynamic that the intern was fully unstated prior to the intern’s acquaintance with the practical materials. Hence, this included the educational experience, prior to the contact with the material being used, as well as demographic. Hence, the analysis of the intern occurred prior to the introduction of technology in the practice to be valuable. Thus, prior to the knowledge pertaining the learning features of the intern served as an analysis. Hence, it was observable that the intern learned best through an active experimentation alongside the concrete experiences. The intern’s requirements were greatly met when the queries of “what if” and “how” were explored reflecting Spitler’s concrete experience, as well as active experimentation learning cycles. The stated goals for the RFID education module were evidently defined, as well as reflecting curriculum objectives. Thus, after the intern’s exposure to the education unit, they are capable of paraphrasing the fundamental mechanisms of the RFID system as well as demonstrating mastery of the simple RFID calculations, for instance, wavelengths, frequencies, and near field communications. Subsequently, an individual is capable of explaining how both an active as well as passive RFID systems work and identifying both RFID components that portray obtainable objectives were significant because they determine the directions of the course and what the intern was expected to learn. Subsequently, the objectives could be identified by both terminal behaviours as well as established conditions. Hence, terminal behaviours tend to define what the predictable outcomes of the education modules were. Subsequently, conditions were reputable based on the practical expertise acquired by the education module. Thus, by using the Bloom’s Taxonomy of intellectual objectives, it was determinable that the aim would amount their acquaintance, understanding, as well as analysing the subject matter. Conversely, knowledge was convened by having the intern list parts of the RFID systems, while identifying the alterations between passive and the active tags. Thus, an understanding was indomitable by having the intern describe as well as forecasting the performance of the various tags during their interactions with the RFID system antennas. Furthermore, the intern demonstrated the ability to analyse the materials by being able to associate, differentiate, as well as categorizing RFID's strengths, as well as weaknesses in comparison to other technologies. During the selection of media and materials, the following were considered: the media should be readily accessible for the future use and must possess the ability to be accessed remotely. Subsequently, the media was to be flexible for alterations in the future in cases where the Adobe Connect was adopted because of the ability of being accessed remotely. Conversely, the capability to be presented in PowerPoint presentations as well as the capacity to be evoked for the future adoption, and the capacity to possess voice recordings were considerable. Thus, this relates well to the intern's performance of a series of trials that demonstrated the comprehension, as well as the examination of the subject matter. The topics covered during the lab sessions were helpful due to their applicability in industry. Thus, the capacity for the intern to read, comprehend, as well as calculate the vital aspects of the expertise were included. Utilizing the technology exhibited the helpful Microsoft PowerPoint instructions that were used to demonstrate the lecture materials. Thus, Adobe was adopted to deliver the technology’s relevance through seminar meeting rooms with the capacity to hear the opinion recorded during the lecture. The lecture also supplemented with assistance from note taking activities that allow the intern to demonstrate the knowledge as well as serving as reference points to the material concealed. Thus, due to the flexibility of access, Adobe, the units provided the capability to review the technology on multiple occasions. The intern’s participations in the laboratory activities supplemented the classroom’s instructions. The practice of the unit intended for the numerous applications within the Industrial Technology courses. Thus, this module required the participants to exhibit independent work as well as collaboratively to portray successfully that learning did occur. The evaluations/reviews completed by the intern student who performed the responsibilities within the instructor’s guide incorporated the laboratory experiments, as well as modifications in the instructor’s direction for conducting the lab procedures. The unit based reinforcement exercises consisting of multiple choices, as well as true/false questions supplemented the documents that were sorted in ways that the interns have to show their work independently to demonstrate their learning processes. The learning units, thus intended to assist as a supplement for classroom instructions from basic notions to the theories of the backscatter. 5.0 Conclusion Globalization’s relentless need for extra with smaller amounts has put strains on the progression of manufacturing bringing several large US manufacturers to exploit methods that will upsurge the traceability of their products while continuously cutting cost. Thus, this persistent push for cutting on the edge of technology has created RFID’s perception to a reality within their supply chains. However, its historical origins date back to the World War II, forming a new drive for the expertise giving the equipment a second breath. This report’s goal was met. Hence, with the conclusion of this report the education constituents to augment the functioning knowledge of the Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) in the Industrial Technology departments is created. Thus, future educational resources can be shaped to complement the report, such as flow charts to aid individuals in presenting the critical factors in creating decisions when the RFID is appropriate. Hence, Industry collaborations with businesses that tend to utilize RFID will also have an impact on the intern’s learning about RFID. Internship Journal WEEK: 1 Total number of hours worked: 30 Name: Internship site: Sears Daily entries Day one: 9AMA -1PM (4 hours) This day being my first internship date at Sears, the Human Resource Department asked one employee to orientate me around the organization. , I got to know about the history of the company and its organizational structure, and for that matter, the persona I would report to in case I had an issue to air. In addition, I was introduced to the general performance and line of operations of the company. In broader terms, I learnt that Sears operates three divisions. The largest among them is the Sears Domestic, which operates several store formats including Sears full-line stores, Sears Essentials, Sears Auto Center, Sears Home Appliance Showroom, Sears Hardware and Land's End. The other division is the Sears Canada and the smallest division. Its retail channels include Sears Home stores, Sears Full-line stores, Hometown dealer stores, Outlet stores, Sears Floor Covering Stores, Cantrex, Appliance and Mattress stores, and Sears Home Services. The third division is the KMART and is the second largest and its channels include consumer electronics, outdoor merchandise, seasonal items, sporting goods, toys, apparel, lawn and garden, and groceries. I was also taken around other sections of the station and was shown where staff help themselves. Before I left, we talked about installing Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) as our goals for tomorrow. Day two: 9AM-4PM (7 hours) Together with my supervisor and a team of experts, we initiated the process of installing the Radio Frequency Identification (RFID). This followed the preliminary preparations that had been laid down. We started by installing the hardware components. Among them were the tags. On this day, I learnt that there were two types of tags, namely the passive and active tags (Vlachos). The passive tags lack internal power source and do not send outbound signals unless they receive energy from a reader. Instead, they rely on an incoming radio frequency signal (Jones, Wyld and Totten). On the other hand, active tags use a battery to broadcast a locating signal and have their energy source. Day three: 9AM-4PM (7 hours) On this day, we continued to install the hardware, and, in particular, we installed the readers. These are interrogators and are complementary to tags. They send a pulse of energy to the tags and listen for the tags' response. I enjoyed this as I came to learn that the tag detects this energy and resend it back as a response containing the tag's serial number. In addition, I learnt that the electromagnetic law was used to transfer the information between tags and readers (Al-Kassab and Thiesse). Day four: 9AM-4PM (7 hours) On this day, we fixed the tags' and readers' antenna to ensure that they were of the right sizes. I learnt that the nature of these antennae greatly influenced the power level of tags and readers. The design and orientation of the antenna also affect the sensitivity of the reader and tag. Day Five: 9AM-2PM (5 hours) During this day, we worked to ensure that all other parameters necessary to make the hardware components of Radio Frequency Identification would work properly. We ensured that the power level at which signals are transmitted by readers and tags were at the required levels. Another component we worked on was the frequency range at which the Radio Frequency Identification system operates efficiently (Huber and Michael; Al-Kassab and Thiesse). WEEK: 2 Total number of hours worked: 28 Name: Internship site: Sears Daily entries Day one: 9AM-4PM (7 hours) On this day, I and other experts worked on the software system of the Radio Frequency Identification. In this regard, we ensured that the closed-loop systems, open-loop systems as well as the standalone systems were all well functioning for synergistic purposes. In addition, the Sears' IT infrastructure was checked to see that it had the capacity to convey the flows of the Radio Frequency Identification information in an efficient manner. Day two: 9AM-4PM (7 hours) On this day, we carried out the necessary measures to ensure that the security and privacy of the Radio Frequency Identification were assured as it was prone to attacks just like other information systems. I learnt that among the risks that cold face this system were the business process risks, privacy risks, business intelligence risks and external risks (OECD). The figure 1 below shows such risks that can affect tags and readers. The measures that were put in place were operational controls, technical controls, and the management controls. Figure 1: Risks related to tags and readers (Source; OECD 2008) Day three: 9AM-4PM (7 hours) On this day, I spent the day putting the Radio Frequency Identification tags in all Sears merchandise. These tags bear a computer chip, and I ensured that each tag had its individual identification code (Al-Kassab and Thiesse). Day four: 9AM-4PM (7 hours) On this day, I spent time scanning all merchandise. I learnt that, the use of the Radio Frequency Identification, will save Sears a lot of resources as it reduces errors and inaccuracies. Also in the store management, there is increased inventory accuracy, increased real-time tracking capabilities, reduced handling, and inventory costs (Huber and Michael). Works Cited Al-Kassab, Jasser and Frederic Thiesse. "RFID-enabled business process intelligence in retail stores: a case report." Journal of Theoretical and Applied Electronic Commerce Research 8(2) (2013): 112-137. Huber, N. and K. Michael. "Minimizing Product Shrinkage across the Supply Chain using Radio Frequency Identification: a Case Study on a Major Australian Retailer." Management of Mobile Business, 2007. ICMB 2007. International Conference. Toronto: IEEE Xplore, 2007. 45. Jaselskis, E. and T. El-Misalami. " Implementing radio frequency identification in the construction process. ." ASCE Journal of Construction Engineering Management (2003): 680–688. Jones, Michael A., David C. Wyld and Jeff W. Totten. "The Adoption of RFID Technology in the Retail Supply Chain." The Coastal Business Journal 4(1) (2010): 29-42. Nikitin, P. and S. Rao. Performance limitations of passive UHF RFID systems. IEEE, 2006. OECD. "RFID Radio Frequency Identification; OECD Policy Guidance." OECD Ministerial Meeting on the Future of the Internet Economy. Seoul, Korea: OECD, 2008. 1-118. Spitler, V. " Learning to use IT in the workplace: mechanisms and masters." Journal of Organizational and End User Computing (2005): 1-25. Sullivan, Laurie. Information Week: Connecting the Business Technology Community. 17 June 2005. 25 March 2015. Vlachos, Ilias P. "A hierarchical model of the impact of RFID practices on retail supply chain performance." Expert Systems with Applications: An International Journal (2014): 5-15. Weis, S. Finishing the revolution. Massachusetts Institute of Technology Dertouzos, 2003. Read More