Managing Automation - March 2009 - (Page 34)

[SPECIAL REPORT] can read when they receive the server in their data center. “Now you’ve got the promise of RFID where manufacturers are getting value in work in process, end users [customers] are getting value from labor savings and efficiency, and the whole value chain has really started to reap the benefits from a single tag,” Sweeney says. SENSING MORE THAN LOCATION Ekahau’s Rutanen shares with many experts the belief that sensor-based applications will pique the interest of manufacturers and distributors in the next few years. Since RFID tags are capable of relaying The RFID tags told a different story. It turned information to out the workers scanned the WIP only when business sysit came time to work on it, not when it arrived tems, it’s a logical step to use at the station. — ODIN’s Patrick Sweeney RFID to report on the status of assets, covering conditions should have. The RFID tags, which automatisuch as temperature, corrosion, and expocally relay information on their location without sure to vibration or gases. relying on the workers’ intervention, revealed Gary Latham, product line director for the that tools sometimes sat around for hours beenterprise solutions group at Zebra fore work in process resumed. Technologies, echoes that assess“It was latent data, something they hadn’t managingautomation.com ment. “The trend is to have more senanticipated that provided a lot of value,” sor telemetry-type data built into the Sweeney says. RELATED ARTICLES: tag itself,” he says. “We’re seeing that As to the question of whether RFID is out Cashing In on the Promise of RFID these tags are becoming really senof ideas, the answer appears to be “no.” www.managingautomation.com/rfid10 sor-driven, to be able to have not just And while applying the technology to asset Driving RFID the tracking capability, but to have intracking of various sorts may be RFID’s stock www.managingautomation.com/drivingrfid formation about the assets you’re in trade these days, it’s quite possible that Industry Update: RFID tracking on a real-time format.” more applications remain to be discovered. www.managingautomation.com/rfidupdate Examples, he says, include embedConsider, for instance, Ubisense’s remote Marching Toward the RFID Business ding motion detector and temperature camera control system, which uses RFID Case sensors in RFID tags. Latham predicts technology to remotely direct a video camera. www.managingautomation.com/sr5 that these kinds of tags — which alManufacturing companies looking to create COMPANIES MENTIONED: ready exist — will hit the market in training videos without the expense of hiring Ekahau heavy volume in 2009 and 2010. “It a video crew might find an RFID-enabled rewww.managingautomation.com/ekahau really hasn’t become pervasive in all mote control a handy accessory. FerroxCube the various tags that are out there,” he “We’re scratching the surface” of RFID’s www.managingautomation.com/ferroxcube says. Zebra’s development ef for ts capabilities, Ekahau’s Rutanen says. “We’re Identec have shown that the biggest areas of certainly not running out of use cases or apwww.managingautomation.com/identec interest for this type of technology plications.” Motorola rest with the active, ultrawide-band, “It’s like any other disruptive technology,” www.managingautomation.com/motorola and GPS tags. Sweeney says. “The more it improves and ODIN “Right now we’re in the tracking the more the infrastructure to leverage it www.managingautomation.com/odin phase,” says Chris Warner, senior gets put in place, the more applications will OmniID product marketing consultant for be built around it.” www.managingautomation.com/omniid RFID at Motorola. “But when we get While some may take issue with the charinto status monitoring, detection of acterization of RFID as “disruptive” — given Time Domain Corp. www.managingautomation.com/timedomain state, sensing and sending alerts and the implication of quick and broad adoption triggers based on the sensing, you — few would argue that the early pioneers in WhereNet www.managingautomation.com/wherenet have a manufacturing plant where asthe manufacturing world have seen results. sets are talking to other assets and They’re just waiting for the trickle down. Zebra Technologies that’s a pretty powerful thing.” And so, with undiminished optimism, the www.managingautomation.com/zebra In the end, RFID earns its stripes RFID community chugs ahead. ■ by exposing blind spots, experts say. ODIN’s Sweeney relates the story of an aircraft manufacturer that installed an RFID-based kanban system as part of a push to better track work in process. Under the previous barcode system, workers were charged with scanning workin-process items as they reached their work cell. Those scans told operations managers that one particular fabrication process was at maximum capacity. With the new system in place, the RFID tags told a different story. It turned out that the workers were scanning the WIP only when it came time to work on it, not when it arrived at the station, as they maonline ma March 34 2009 Photo courtesy: ODIN http://www.managingautomation.com http://www.managingautomation.com/rfid10 http://www.managingautomation.com/drivingrfid http://www.managingautomation.com/rfidupdate http://www.managingautomation.com/sr5 http://www.managingautomation.com/ekahau http://www.managingautomation.com/ferroxcube http://www.managingautomation.com/identec http://www.managingautomation.com/motorola http://www.managingautomation.com/odin http://www.managingautomation.com/omniid http://www.managingautomation.com/timedomain http://www.managingautomation.com/wherenet http://www.managingautomation.com/zebra

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Managing Automation - March 2009

Managing Automation - March 2009 Contents Take 1 Sober Outlook, Cost-Cutting Techniques Dominate at Automation Conference Sale Canceled, i2 Searches for Its Focus Accenture Unveils a Service for the Factory Floor Solar Is Bright Spot for MES Player Eyelit Other Industries Outspent Auto on Robots in 2008 Integrators to Play a Bigger Role at ILS Technology Notes Deep Dive Supply Chains Reader Poll Technology Directions Expert Q&A User Resources Special Report Transformation Product Scan Advertiser Index Next

Managing Automation - March 2009

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