Methods and apparatus, including computer program products, for providing
multiple enterprises real-time access to information about items in a supply chain.
Tags bound to items are read and information read from the tags and location information
about the tags is provided by at least two enterprises and used to maintain disposition
information about the items, which is made visible to enterprises in the supply
chain. The tags can be radio-frequency identification tags having each having an
ePC (electronic product code) as unique tag identifier. Visibility of the disposition
information can be controlled through authorization. Visible information can include
relationships between particular items and business documents such as order and
shipping documents. With shipping documents visible, information read from item
tags can be used to confirm the identify or completeness of a shipment.
