subject: Combine Rfid With Production Automation For Lower Inventory Cost [print this page] Most people have never heard of RFID which stands for Radio Frequency Identification, much less know how it works or what its capabilities are. Tying RFID with production automation can yield significant benefits for manufacturing. An RFID tag is a very small computer chip that can hold information that can be "read" by a scanner that is located some distance away from the chip. It is similar to, but a later generation of the bar code. It is more closely related to the magnetic security devices that are used in a lot of retail clothing stores to prevent thefts of products. For a long time now there have been bar code readers that are available almost everywhere. Most people have seen these in a grocery store where a clerk can save a great amount of time checking out groceries very accurately.. Each item purchased is entered into the computer system for the store as being purchased by scanning the bar code on each item purchased over the bar code reader. This methodology has boosted accuracy and speed for customers in the checkout line. The great ability of the RFID chip, which is mostly called a tag, is that the tag does not have to be in the line of sight for a reader to "read" the information from the tag. Bar codes have to be very near the bar code reader for the information to be "read".
With a company links RFID with production automation all kinds of information can be retained, much more than a bar code can. Such information includes the product name, the manufacturer, the size of the product, the manufacture date, the lot number, the purchase price, a serial number, and other things. The reader can not only "read" this information, it can also "write" information onto the tag, like the date the product was shipped or purchased or a location in the warehouse. Some people are under the impression that the information on the RFID tag is available to any reader that comes along. That the tag acts like a radio station beaming its data to any reader that is ready to "hear" it. This is not the case. A reader must be within a certain range to receive the information that is transmitted from the tag.
There are two basic types of tags, active and passive that help connect RFID with production automation. The active tag has a source of energy in it like a battery, which allows the tag to transmit to the reader when the reader asks for data. The passive tag can only transmit to a reader when it receives the energy that is sent to it by a reader. The amount of energy that is sent "wakes up" the tag and has enough power to send the information back to the reader.
Technology has help to drive the cost and availability of tags down in recent years. So much so that in the near future all products will probably leave the manufacturer with tags so that the joining of RFID with production automation can be accomplished. The great benefit that these tags bring to a manufacturing operation is the ability to not only always know what the inventory level is for any given raw material, but also have the knowledge of exactly where that raw material is located in the warehouse. As items arrive for suppliers, the readers "read" the information on the tags and put that information into the inventory system for future reference. When a raw material is required for production the reader will "find" the location of it and dispatch it to production, at the same time removing that raw material from the inventory by sending a message to the system.
It can readily be seen that manual inventory count each year is a thing of the past when you associate RFID with production automation. There will be no more shutting down of the manufacturing operation to take inventory to see what is in the warehouse. In days gone by the warehouse and production operations of the company I worked for were shut down for two weeks to take physical inventory. I would dispatch employees out into the warehouse to count raw materials that were there. When counts were finished, the numbers were compared with printouts of inventory that were produced by the computer department. When the physical count numbers were not very close to the printout numbers, I would send an employee out to the warehouse to re-count to very sure. The numbers in the computer inventory system were changed to agree with the physical count. What a mess! Now the readers and their associated tags keep running inventory totals of all finished products and the raw materials that produced them. If products or materials need to move from one warehouse location to another, the reader can help reassign a new warehouse location by "writing " to the tag. It is very evident how much of benefit has been created by mixing RFID with production automation. There is no longer a need for an extended amount of man hours to be expended to take inventory of raw materials, and it is much easier to deliver raw materials to the production line when their warehouse location is always know.
