Case Study | Tracking high-tech equipment on the production line with RFID

A leading global high-tech company produces and ships millions of parts and finished goods to its customers around the world. The logistics behind the movement of goods is extremely important to support the various production lines worldwide. The Singapore site is a regional warehousing and distribution center and performs value-added processes using a large workforce to support warehouse and production operations. Speed, reliability and accuracy are vital to ensure a robust supply chain through the use of RFID to track each critical path.

Customized RFID solution

The Intellistride team, with the support of Kathrein Solutions, implemented an RFID and back-end system to make the supply chain of parts and finished goods transparent. RFID tags were attached to individual components and finished goods and readers were installed at strategic points in the factory. Specially designed RFID chambers are located in clean room areas and at strategic points to read thousands of parts quickly and accurately in just a few seconds. This RFID system allows each parts shipment to be instantly matched to the necessary requirements during warehouse operations.

Effective process optimization

The RFID system has helped the company to achieve the following results:

• Improve inventory accuracy by 100% by tracking at every stage of the process
• Automated assignment of containers / materials to higher-level containers
• Doubling the capacity of the warehouse
• Faster and more accurate shipments with 100% verified items
• Tracking of materials across multiple production sites / locations
• Reduction in the supply of incorrect parts
• Faster inventory and inspection process - from hours to seconds

Advantages of using RFID

The use of the RFID system has brought the following advantages:

• Greater speed, efficiency and productivity
• Lower costs
• Improved quality control
• Improved customer service

Further advantages of using RFID in high-tech manufacturing:

• Improved traceability: RFID can be used to track products throughout the entire manufacturing process, from raw materials to finished products. This helps to identify and prevent problems such as product counterfeiting or recalls.
• Increased security: RFID can be used to protect high-value equipment and materials from theft, damage and misplacement.
• Lower labor costs: By using RFID, many manual tasks involved in inventory management and production tracking can be automated. This allows employees to concentrate on more value-adding activities.
• Regulatory compliance: RFID can help manufacturers comply with regulations, such as tracking hazardous materials.

Next steps

The RFID system forms the basis for further automation of the processes. It is an important basis for automating all other operations with the same system, significantly improving the flow of parts and manufacturing processes. Overall, RFID is a powerful technology that can bring significant benefits to the high-tech industry and its ecosystem of service providers.

 

   

Illustrations: The materials are read and assigned in RFID chambers, among other things. The integrated software enables accurate monitoring of logistics processes.

 

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Case Study | Tracking high-tech equipment in production