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Digital Manufacturing and RFID-Based Automation 49.3 Digital Manufacturing by RFID-Based Automation 865

tions of RFID technology in manufacturing automation

economically feasible.

For manufacturers, it is becoming increasing im-

portant to design and integrate RFID information into

various enterprise application software packages and

to solve connectivity issues relating to plant ﬂoor

and warehousing. Real-time manufacturing process au-

tomation is dependent on the principle of closed-loop

automation that senses, decides, and responds from

automation toplant andenterprise operations;for exam-

ple, a pharmaceuticals manufacturer [49.23] makes use

of RFIDto trace the route or history taken by an individ-

ual product at multiple locations along the production

line. This allows the pharmaceuticals manufacturer eas-

ily to trace all ﬁnal products that might have been

affected by any production miscarriage. An aerospace

company named Nordam Group uses RFID to track its

high-cost molds. Through the use of RFID tags, they

save the cost of real-time tool tracking. With growing

emphasis on real-time responsiveness, manufacturers

are seeking to control more effectively the production

processes in real time in order to eliminate waste and

boost throughput. The desire to extend supply-chain ex-

ecution dispatching within a plant makes closed-loop

automation an imperative. The inability to achieve true

closed-loop manufacturing process automation presents

one of the greatest barriers to successful real-time

operation strategies. Critical elements that support man-

ufacturing process automation include:

•

Dynamic information technology (IT) systems to

support high-mix, variable environments

•

Dynamic modeling, monitoring, and management

of manufacturing resources

•

Real-time synchronization between activities in the

ofﬁces, manufacturing plant, and supply chain

•

Visibility of the real-time status of production re-

sources

Although some previous studies [49.24–26]have

shownthat RFIDtechnology has thepotential to address

these problems and has great potential for supporting

manufacturing automation, critical deﬁciencies in the

current systems in keeping track of processes under

changing conditions include:

•

Lack of integration of manufacturing with the sup-

ply chain

•

Lack of real-time shop-ﬂoor data for predictive

analysis and for decision support

•

Lack of a common data model for all operational

applications

•

Inability to sense and analyze inputs ranging from

the factory ﬂoor to the supply chain

•

Ineffective integration links between manufacturing

process automation and enterprise IT applications

•

Inability to provide intelligent recommendations

and directives to targeted decision points for quick

action.

In light of these, this chapter presents a review

of the RFID-based manufacturing process automation

system (MPAS), which embraces heterogeneous tech-

nologies that can be applied in the manufacturing

process environment with the objective of enhancing

digital manufacturing at the level of automation across

the enterprise and throughout the value chain. The pro-

posed RFID-based manufacturing process automation

system aims to address these deﬁciencies.

49.3.1 Key RFID Technologies

RFID is an advanced automatic identiﬁcation technol-

ogy, which uses radiofrequency signals to capture data

remotely from tags within reading range [49.27, 28].

The basic principle of RFID, i. e., the reﬂection of

power as the method of communication, was ﬁrst de-

scribed in 1948. One of the ﬁrst applications of RFID

technology was identify friend or foe (IFF) detection

deployed by the British Royal Air Force during World

War II. The IFF system allowed radar operators and pi-

lots to distinguish automatically between friendly and

enemy aircraft using radiofrequency (RF) signals. The

main objective was to prevent friendly ﬁre andtoaid

the effective interception of enemy aircraft. The ra-

diofrequency used is the critical factor for the type of

application for whichan RFIDsystem isbest suited. Ba-

sically, the radiofrequencies can be classiﬁed as shown

in Table 49.1.

A typical RFID system contains several compo-

nents, including an RFID tag, which is the identiﬁcation

device attached to the item to be tracked, and an RFID

reader and antenna, which are devices that can recog-

nize the presence of RFID tags and read the information

stored on them. After receiving the information, in or-

der to process the transmission of information between

the reader and other applications, RFID middleware

is needed, which is software that facilitates the com-

munication between the system and the RFID devices.

Figure 49.5 shows a typical RFID system to illustrate

how the pieces ﬁt together.

As shown in Fig. 49.5, radio frequency (RF) tags are

devicesthat contain identiﬁcationand other information

Part F 49.3

866 Part F Industrial Automation

Table 49.1 Comparison of RFID frequency bands and their respective applications

Frequency Approximate Data speed Cost of tags Applications

read range

Low frequency (LF) < 5cm (passive) Low High Animal identiﬁcation

(125kHz)

Access control

High frequency (HF) 10cm−1m (passive) Lowtomoderate Medium to low Smart cards

(13.56MHz)

Payment

Ultrahigh frequency (UHF) 3–7m (passive) Moderate to high Low Logistics and supply chain

(433, 868–928 MHz)

Pallet and case tracking

Baggage tracking

Microwave 10–15m (passive) High High Electronic toll collection (ETC)

(2.45 and 5.8GHz)

20–40m (active) Container tracking

Client computer RFID reader RFID antenna RFID tag

Enterprise application

and RFID middleware

Fig. 49.5 Infrastructure for an RFID system

that can be communicated to a reader from a distance.

The tag comprises a simple silicon microchip attached

to a small ﬂat aerial which is mounted on a substrate.

RFID tags (Fig.49.6) can be divided into three main

types with respect to the source of energy used to power

them:

1. Active tags: use a battery to power the tag trans-

mitter and receiver to broadcast their own signals

to readers within the life of batteries. This al-

lows them to communicate over distances of several

meters.

123

1. Badge

2. Button

3. Cloth tag

4. Card

5. Glass bead

6. Key fob

7. Label

8. Wristband

Fig. 49.6 Samples of different types of tags

2. Semipassive tags: have built-in batteries to power

the chip’s circuitry, resist interference, and circum-

vent a lack of power from the reader signal due to

long distance. They are different from active tags in

that they only transmit data at the time a response is

received.

3. Passive tags: derive their power from the ﬁeld

generated by the reader without having an active

transmitter to transfer the information stored.

The reader is called an interrogator, and it sends

and receives RF data to and from the tag via antennas.

Fig. 49.7 Example RFID reader

Part F 49.3

Digital Manufacturing and RFID-Based Automation 49.4 Case Studies of Digital Manufacturing and RFID-Based Automation 867

AsshowninFig.49.7, the reader contains a transmit-

ter, a receiver, and a microprocessor. The reader unit

also contains an antenna as part of the entire system.

The antennas broadcast the RF signals generated by the

reader and receive responses from tags within range.

The data acquired by the readers is then passed to a host

computer, which may run specialist RFID software or

middleware to ﬁlter the data and route the data to the

correct application to be processed into useful informa-

tion. Middleware refers to software that lies between

two interfaces; RFID middleware is software that lies

between the readers and the data collection systems. It

is used to collect and ﬁlter data from readers. It can

transfer those useful data, which are ﬁltered, to the data

collection system.

49.3.2 Applications

of RFID-Based Automation

in Digital Manufacturing

Manufacturing process automation relies heavily on ef-

ﬁcient and effective automatic tracking of assets during

manufacturing. The tracked assets include physical as-

sets such as equipment,raw materials, work-in-progress

(WIP), ﬁnished goods, etc. Efﬁcient automatic tracking

of assets is beneﬁcial for manufacturers. One of the ma-

jor challenges for manufacturers today is management

of their movable assets. Managing assets includes activ-

ities suchas locating assets, tracking status, and keeping

a history of ﬂow information. If the location of an as-

set is not effectively located, workers are required to

spend much time searching for it, which results in in-

creased process costs. As a result, manufacturers are

turning to RFID to investigate whether they can use

it to bring the beneﬁts of managing assets individu-

ally, real-time location tracking of assets, and better

information accuracy and automationinto theirbusiness

operations.

Examples can be found in the garment indus-

try [49.23]. The manufacturer ties the RFID tags to the

bundles and sends them to the sewing workstation. At

each process station, the data stored in the RFID tag is

captured. The real-time status of the WIP can be auto-

matically captured during the manufacturing process. It

is also interesting to note that Boeing and Airbus are

moving forward and have created an RFID strategy for

airplane manufacturing [49.20, 28], as a component to

meet USDepartment of Defense mandates. The RFID

tags are attached to removable parts of the airplane to

aid the control of maintenance programs. In the present

study, four major areas of RFID in manufacturing pro-

cess automation are introduced.

49.4 Case Studies of Digital Manufacturing and RFID-Based Automation

49.4.1 Design of Assembly Line

and Processes for Motor Assembly

Kaz (Far East) Limited, formerly Honeywell Consumer

Product (HK) Ltd., is a multinational manufacturing

Fig. 49.8 Home comfort products from Kaz

company with about 45 employees in Hong Kong and

around 2650 in China. Its corporate headquarters, de-

sign, sales ofﬁces, and production plants are widely

dispersed in Europe, North America, and Asia, as are

its key suppliers and customers. As shown in Fig. 49.8,

Fig. 49.9 Virtual assembly station for assembling a motor

Part F 49.4

868 Part F Industrial Automation

the company has been involved in the seasonal products

business which includes home comfort products such

as portable air cleaners, humidiﬁers, heaters, fans, etc.

It delivers a portfolio of innovative products and trusted

brands to serve customers worldwide, though most of

VMISTraining

Performance

evaluation and

monitoring

Virtual world

Real world

Converting the product design specifications into engineering optics specifications

Design the optical system using computer-aided optics design software

Trial run injection molding for the prototype lenses

Form and surface roughness measurement for the prototype lenses

Optical quality evaluation like MTF testing and focal length inspection

Output

Actual production

Yes

Final design, part programming and master scheduling for production

Pass the optical quality test ?

Machining prototype plastic

lenses for the lens system

Machining test mold inserts and test

mold bases for the lenses

Identification of product design specifications

Actual production

Output

Fig. 49.10a,b A comparison between (a) the conventional ap-

proach and

(b) the virtual manufacturing approach for the design

and manufacture of precision optics (MTF – modular transfer func-

tion)

their products are sold to customers in North America

and Europe.

The company possesses a number of assembly lines

and clusters for assembling the motors for the home

comfort products. For new assembly line planning,

there are many factors which affect the efﬁciency and

throughput rate. These include the design of the work-

place, the investigation of the assembly process, the

allocation of the resources (e.g., number of workers),

and the scheduling of the assembly lines. Convention-

ally, the production team was essentially empowered to

use their own judgment in deciding what, when, and

how to setup the assembly lines, based on their own ex-

perience. The optimal efﬁciency, throughput rate, and

quality for new assembly lines can only be obtained

through iterative trial operations and process reﬁne-

ment. This is not only time consuming but also costly.

With the use of the VM approach, Kaz can investi-

gate the assembly processes and optimum utilization of

resources through modeling and simulation. The feasi-

bility of the assembly process plan (Fig. 49.9) can be

evaluated prior to the actual production. As a result, the

time and cost of setting up new assembly operations can

be signiﬁcantly reduced.

49.4.2 A VM System for the Design

and the Manufacture

of Precision Optical Products

The conventional approach to the design and the man-

ufacture of precision optical products is based on

a trial-and-error method. As shown in Fig.49.10a, the

optical product is designed using computer-aided optics

design software (Fig.49.11b). Then a lens prototype is

made by either direct machining or injection-molding

from a test mold insert machined by ultraprecision

machining (Fig.49.12). Quality tests will then be

conducted on the prototype lenses or mold inserts

(Fig.49.13). It should be noted that the design, pro-

totyping, and evaluation processes are iterative until

a satisfactory mock-up is found. This is expensive and

time consuming; italso creates abottleneck forthe over-

all process ﬂow.

Using the VM approach, as shown in Fig.49.10b,

the iterative design, prototyping, and testing processes

are accomplished by a virtual machining and inspection

system (VMIS) [49.29–33]. As shown in Fig.49.14,

the VMIS has been developed with the aim of creating

a virtual manufacturing environment. This is done by

electronically representing the activities of optic design,

Part F 49.4

Digital Manufacturing and RFID-Based Automation 49.4 Case Studies of Digital Manufacturing and RFID-Based Automation 869

Fig. 49.11 (a) Precision optical products and (b) their

computer-aided optics design

prototyping ultraprecision machining and inspection of

the design, and manufacture of precision optical prod-

ucts. Interaction between the virtual and real worlds is

accomplished by continuous training and by monitor-

ing the performance of the VMIS system by comparing

the simulation results and the real cutting test results

(Fig.49.15).

The feasibility of a product design and the optimal

resources needed to turn a design into a real product can

be determined prior to any manufacturing resources be-

ing committed and before any costly scrap is generated.

The VMIS allows the precision optics manufacturers

to evaluate the feasibility of an optical product design

and a manufacturing process plan prior to actual pro-

duction. This avoids the need for conducting expensive

production trials and physical prototyping.

49.4.3 Physical Asset Management (PAM)

A physical asset management (PAM) program involves

the tracking of physical assets such as expensive ma-

Fig. 49.12a,b Comparison between (a) actual and (b) vir-

tual machining process

chinery and equipment, as well as returnable items such

as containers and pallets. Across industries and regions,

PAM is a major concern in the manufacturing indus-

try. PAM includes engineering activities, as well as the

adoption of a variety of approaches to maintenance

such asreliability-centered maintenance,multiskills, to-

tal productive maintenance, and hazard and operability

studies [49.34]. Manufacturing enterprises that have

better PAM systems usually excel when compared with

their counterparts in terms of utilization of assets in

manufacturing. However, manyorganizationstoday still

face signiﬁcant challenges in relation to tracking the

location, quantity, condition, and maintenance and de-

preciation status of their ﬁxed assets.

Traditionally, a popular approach is to track ﬁxed

assets by utilizing serially numbered asset tags, such as

barcodes, for easy and accurate reading. This process

is often performed by scanning a barcode on a physical

asset identiﬁcation (ID) tag that has been afﬁxed to the

asset. However, PAM may also involve a physical as-

set ID tag with a human-readable number only, which

Part F 49.4

870 Part F Industrial Automation

a) b)

Fig. 49.13a,b Comparison between (a) actual and (b) virtual inspection of precision optics

is documented manually. The barcode approach has its

limitations though, e.g., lack of automation and inability

to provide real-time tracking.

To increase the utilization rate of movable equip-

ment, manufacturing enterprises usually adopt a ﬂuid

approach to the composition of production lines.

Movable equipment is shared across lines for some

nonbottleneck procedures. Previously, applications for

transfer of physical assets required tedious manual

operations. Since most manufacturing processes were

related to the requested equipment, late arrival of equip-

NC programs generated

with the TPG software

Optimal

design

parameters

programs

Driving

codes

Information

for actual

machining

Virtual

product

Optical design

specifications

Optics design with the

ZEMAX software

The actual optical

mould insert is

manufactured by the SPDT

The virtual optical

mould insert is tested

by the VIM

The machining

processes are simu-

lated by the VMM

NC programs

treated with the

tool path translator

Customer's

demand

Fig. 49.14 Graphical illustration of the process ﬂow for the design and manufacture of precision optics (SPDT – single-

point diamond turning, VMM – virtual machining module, VIM – virtual inspection module)

ment lowered the overall efﬁciency of the company,

which in turn impacted on the company’s proﬁt mar-

gin. Also, as the transfer records were entered into

a database after a long veriﬁcation process, the time-

liness of the information was questionable. Worse,

due to inevitable human errors, the database records

were incomplete and inaccurate. Common discrepan-

cies included asset locations, utilization, and history of

maintenance and repair. As a result, equipment could

not be repaired in a timely fashion and some was even

lost.

Part F 49.4

Digital Manufacturing and RFID-Based Automation 49.4 Case Studies of Digital Manufacturing and RFID-Based Automation 871

a) b)

Fig. 49.15 (a) Virtual and (b) actual mold inserts produced based on the VMIS

To improve the overall efﬁciency and increase the

visibility of physical assets, an RFID-enabled solution

is used to track the movement of physical assets easily

when they pass through antenna detection points with-

out interfering with normal operations. It was therefore

proposed that RFID antennas should be set up near the

door of each production site so that the moving in and

out of physical assets would be automatically recorded,

as illustrated in Figs. 49.16 and 49.17.

RF signals are affected by metal because of in-

terference and reﬂection from it, which affects the

readability of RFID tags. Since most equipment is made

of metal, this is one of the main challenges of im-

plementing an RFID-enabled solution in the plant. To

address this problem, a feasibility study was carried

RFID gateway

Moveable asset

with RFID tag

Warehouse/

production cell

Warehouse/

production cell

Fig. 49.16 Tracking the movement of equipment by RFID

technology

out to investigate the necessary settings for satisfactory

RFID-enabled tracking performance. Several experi-

ments were performed and the results are shown in

Fig.49.18. Special attention was given to the height and

angle of the antennas in order to provide optimal results

for autotracking.

To evaluate the feasibility of the proposed RFID-

enabled PAM system, a case study was carried out in

a selected company named SAE Magnetics (HK) Ltd.,

which is one of the world’s largest independent man-

ufacturers of magnetic recording heads for hard-disk

drives used in computers and, increasingly, in consumer

electronics such as digital video recorders, MP3 play-

ers, and even mobile phones. While the bulk of SAE’s

operations are based in two modern facilities located in

mainland China, the company needs to manage large-

scale warehouses for its sophisticated logistics. Differ-

202 cm

173 cm

Metal

cart

Door

Machine 1

Machine 2

200 cm

AntennaAntenna

117 cm

45°45°

Fig. 49.17 Deployment setup of RFID gateway

Part F 49.4

872 Part F Industrial Automation

• Trace and track equipment status

• Equipment transfer

• Transfer record tracking

• Asset utilization analysis

Fig. 49.18 Snapshots of the RFID-enabled equipment

tracking system in SAE

ent kinds of equipment are stored in these warehouses,

e.g., semiproducts, subassemblies, and equipment parts

(collectively known as physical assets). It is normal for

movable physical assets to be transferred from one site

to another to maximize their use, e.g., production equip-

ment and assets that are costly and advanced. In the

past, SAE’s warehouses adopted a pen-and-paper ap-

proach to record the transfer of physical assets. In time,

this became a complicated process that generated piles

of forms and involved many approval processes, which

ultimately limited the company’s operational efﬁciency.

This new method has enabled equipment or re-

quired parts and subassemblies to arrive promptly and

has increased the utilization of important and valuable

physical assets for the company. This system automat-

ically tracks the transfer of physical assets and greatly

reduces the processing time of equipment transfer. With

the data transfer between the system and RFID devices

being in real time, information about physical assets

can be captured. These data are then presented in the

RFID-enabled equipment tracking system in a system-

atic way, as shown in Fig.49.18. The system provides

the ability to track and trace the status of equipment,

issue equipment transfer orders, and provides reports

for asset utilization analysis. As a result, location and

utilization of equipment can be easily identiﬁed using

visual diagrams that help in maintenance planning and

repair scheduling.

The introduction of an RFID-enabled equipment

tracking system at SAE enabled the operational in-

efﬁciencies associated with the PAM approach to be

targeted and allowed the equipment transfer operation

and production planning at SAE to be streamlined. The

system has generated great beneﬁts for the company,

and has ultimately achieved cost savings while enhanc-

ing the effectiveness of asset management.

49.4.4 Warehouse Management

Warehouse management in manufacturing enterprises

usually requires much more complex and accurate sys-

tems than are required for warehouse management in

other industries. Since a single company takes care of

a tremendous amount of stock for multiple vendors at

one time, the loading for handling the warehouse in-

formation is especially heavy. It is also common for

a single warehouse to be used to store stock from

different vendors so as to enhance utilization rates.

Such an approach also increases the complexity of

warehouse storage structures. Without an accurate, au-

tomated, and comprehensive stock transfer recording

procedure, warehouse management becomes a tremen-

dous challenge.

It is interesting to note that many warehouses in

manufacturing enterprises still rely on sophisticated

manual processes for validating and checking to en-

sure service quality, and these have been responsible

for limiting the efﬁciency of the operation; for example,

updating inventory lists in the warehouse, checking of

Part F 49.4

Digital Manufacturing and RFID-Based Automation 49.4 Case Studies of Digital Manufacturing and RFID-Based Automation 873

replenishment requirements, and entering updated data

into the Kerry warehouse managementsystem (KWMS)

are all manual processes. Not surprisingly, these paper-

based processes are excessively time consuming and

susceptible to manual errors.

Low warehouse visibility is another main area of

concern. Warehouse visibility can be evaluated by mea-

suring the discrepancy between the actual status and

the system warehouse inventory status. Since the sys-

tem is such that warehouse inventory status is only

updated after ofﬁce staff have entered all the latest in-

formation intothe KWMS,there might be a discrepancy

between the actual status and the system warehouse in-

ventory status. As a result, staff might not know the

real-time warehouse inventory status from the KWMS.

Such information gaps could result in wrong decisions

in inbound, relocation, and outbound processes. This

is especially important for dialysis solutions since they

have a limited period of validity. Extensive warehouse

storage time causes product expiry and ultimately ﬁnan-

cial loss to the company.

To address these problems, RFID is used to in-

crease the visibility of the warehouse and to streamline

warehouse operations. Through the implementation of

RFID-enabled solutions in warehouse management, in-

stant and accurate inventory records with automatic

real-time record update and physical stocktaking can be

achieved. However, most of the existing RFID-enabled

solutions for warehouse management are lacking in

automation. In thepresent study, an RFID-enabledintel-

ligent forklift is proposed to achieve a higher degree of

automation for the warehouse management via RFID.

Two RFID antennas were placed at the front of the fork-

lift, as shown in Fig.49.19, one for location scanning

and the other for pallet scanning. A tailor-made appli-

cation was installed in the mobile computer placed in

the forklift, which is used to show the information cap-

tured by the antennas and the information stored in the

database system. Forklift drivers can view the informa-

tion on the vehicle-mounted computer screen.

A tag containing product storage information, in-

cluding particular stock keeping unit (SKU)andlot

numbers, is pasted to each pallet. At the same time,

RFID tags that store unique location information are

placed on the racks. When a driver has loaded a pallet

onto the forklift, the pallet information is scanned auto-

matically and that product information and its planned

location are shown on the screen attached to the forklift

(Fig.49.20). After the pallet has been placed in the stor-

age position, the forklift scans the location tag on the

rack, and completes the stock-in process (Fig.49.21).

RFID-enabled pallet

or container

RFID antenna and

cabling

RFID antenna

for pallet scanning

RFID antenna for

location scanning

Vehicle-mounted

computer

Fig. 49.19 The RFID-enabled intelligent forklift

With such modiﬁcations in warehouse operation,

numerous beneﬁts can be achieved. Since most paper

processes are eliminated by RFID-enabled automation,

both the speed and accuracy of the stock transaction

process are greatly enhanced; for example, warehouse

staff are no longer required to ﬁll in put-away lists and

relocation lists, neither do they need to input data man-

ually.

To realize the capability of the RFID-enabled intel-

ligent forklift, a case study was carried out in a selected

company named Kerry Logistics (Hong Kong) Limited.

Kerry Logistics (Hong Kong) Limited is part of the di-

versiﬁed international conglomerate, the Kuok Group,

and is a subsidiary of the Hong-Kong-listed KerryProp-

erties Limited. Kerry’s Asian logistics business has been

built on more than two decades of warehousing and lo-

gistics operations in Hong Kong. Itsthird-party logistics

(3PL) business has dramatically accelerated since 1998.

Kerry Logistics now encompasses contract logistics,

Fig. 49.20 Location RFID scanning

Part F 49.4

874 Part F Industrial Automation

Fig. 49.21 Pallet RFID scanning

distribution centers, international air and sea freight for-

warding, transportation, distribution, and value-added

services.

Like most third-party logistics (3PL) service

providers around the world, Kerry Logistics has re-

cently recognized some inefﬁciency in the warehouse

management of one of its major logistics centers lo-

cated in Kwai Chung. Because of the complexity of

taking care of multiple companies and products at the

same time, 3PL service providers require considerable

documentation to record the mass of information gen-

erated in the course of their work. One warehouse

inside the logistics center stores healthcare products,

especially dialysis solutions, for renal patients. To re-

duce human error and streamline the operation ﬂow, an

RFID-enabled intelligent forklift was developed.

With such modiﬁcations in warehouse operation,

numerous beneﬁts can be achieved. Since most paper

processes are eliminated by RFID-enabled automation,

both the speed and accuracy of the stock transaction

process are greatly enhanced. For example, warehouse

staffs are no longer required to ﬁll in put-away lists

and relocation lists, neither do they need to input lo-

cation information manually into the KWMS,asthis

kind of activity is done automatically by the RFID

system. Without tedious paper-based location mapping,

the overall speed of the inbound process has improved

by almost 15%, not to mention the cost saving fac-

tors of increased accuracy and reduced manpower. In

addition, the RFID-enabled intelligent forklift allows

for unstructured storage, which completely eliminates

the relocation process. Forklift drivers can freely lo-

cate pallets of stock on the racks, and subsequently

map their respective location information with only

a few clicks. The ﬂexibility of stock positioning is

thus improved, resulting in better utilization of ware-

house space and further shortened inbound processing

time.

49.4.5 Information Interchange

in Global Production Networks

The trend towards the establishment of a global produc-

tion network in the manufacturing industry poses some

new challenges to information interchange; for exam-

ple, some components of a product may be produced

in one country, some part of the product may be out-

sourced and made in a second country, and the ﬁnal

assembly of the ﬁnished product may be done a third

country, before being ultimately sold somewhere else.

However, apart from the obvious need for collaboration,

the problems of data integration and information shar-

ing within the supply chain are challenging. Therefore,

an RFID-based intra-supply-chain information system

(ISCIS) is much needed in order to streamline the

supply-chain activities and form an intra-supply-chain

network.

Figure 49.22 shows the architecture of a proposed

RFID-based ISCIS which is basically divided into plat-

form tiers. The system consists of the application of

RFID tags to generate the data within the supply-chain

network. Data from the RFID tags is scanned by readers

and synchronizedwith the internal information systems.

The RFID-based ISCIS enables the different partners in

the supply chain to share real-time information.

1. Data acquisition tier: The data from the operational

level on the textile supply chain are captured by

RFID technology. RFID readers are installed in the

warehouses of the textile and apparel manufacturers

and at the retailers. Tags are placed either at the pal-

let level or the item level, depending on the stage

in the supply chain. At the level of the individual

item of merchandise it is difﬁcult to achieve 100%

reading accuracy with RFID tags.However,itisal-

ready technically feasible to track RFID tags at the

pallet or carton level. As the raw materials progress

through the stages of WIP to the ﬁnished goods, the

tagging level changes from the pallet level to the

carton level and ﬁnally to the item level.

2. Information systems tier: This integrates the RFID-

based information systems with the internal in-

formation systems of the different supply-chain

partners, such as enterprise resources planning

(ERP) systems. The most successful new busi-

ness models are probably those that can integrate

information technology into all activities of the

enterprise-wide value chain.

Part F 49.4