Managing Automation - June 2008 - (Page 43)

[ INTEGRATION ] Transformation TechWatch Integration wide — the interlopers of the factory world — active or WiFi-based RFID often does the trick. WiFi-based RFID appeals to some manufacturers, particularly those that have installed WiFi for enterprise-level communications. For them, the prospect of extending that technology to the plant is more appealing than installing a duplicate, traditional RFID infrastructure of readers and antennae. Viracon, a glass fabricator that will be outfitting New York’s Freedom Tower, and the largest division of $750 million parent company Apogee Enterprises, Inc., has the unenviable task of keeping Industries RFID is not a glittery add-on, but a way for companies to solve core operational challenges by gaining visibility into some of their blind spots. tabs on thousands of sheets of glass as they move through a highly customized manufacturing process that is less assembly line and more “a free flow of product going from one process to the next,” says Matt Miesner, a management trainee at Apogee and a Six Sigma blackbelt. After a couple of Six Sigma project reviews showed the need for better traceability of work in process and of the assets used to shepherd that work through the fabrication process — in this case, metal carriers — Viracon decided to integrate WiFi into its plant and use it as an RFID infrastructure. Prior to the RFID rollout, Viracon workers conducted manual scans on the carriers that transported the glass. That location was fed into an inventory tracking system. If a worker missed a scan, however, the system lost track of the carrier. And that led to wasted time and money required to track down those assets. “With the active RFID, that step can be completely eliminated from the process,” says Todd Schelling, special projects manager at Viracon. Instead, the AeroScout active RFID tags on each of the facility’s 6,000 carriers send out a radio signal at regular intervals, allowing the WiFi access points to triangulate their positions based on the signal’s strength. AeroScout’s Mobile View software translates that location onto a computerized map for a forklift driver, for instance, or another worker trying to locate the proper carrier for his or her next job. That one process change has created a windfall of benefits for the company. Under the old system, its data showed, workers found a carrier 60% of the time. With the RFID system in place, the success rate has improved to 100%. “That 40% of the time turned into extra time wasted by our people, plus extra scrap reordered through the system because we simply weren’t able to find the glass, [which] just snowballs into other problems,” including stunted throughput and a more congested work area, Miesner explains. “It’s pretty incredible to just be able to type in the carrier that you want and walk right up to it.” Although they won’t reveal numbers, Viracon representatives admit that the WiFi-based RFID project was a costly investment. Miesner and Schelling, the project leads, say a pilot rollout of the system earlier this year — and some exhaustive due diligence on the resulting data — gave them all the ammunition they needed to get the RFID funding. “It wasn’t really that difficult once we did a full cost benefit analysis on how much it may cost us to not have this solution.” With a full rollout of the project completed in April 2008, the company is confident that it will see a return on that output within 12 months. A TOOL TO BUILD ON In assessing the RFID project at Viracon, Miesner hit on an elemental truth: “It really was a foundational problem that we needed to address,” he says. In its most basic plant application, RFID is not a glittery add-on, but a way for companies to solve core operational challenges by gaining visibility into some of their blind spots. As for how to get started, Jaguar/Land Rover’s O’Reilly offers some advice. First, he says, find a trusted technology partner with a track record of successful RFID implementations. “Then go and have a look at where it’s been put in at other sites and make sure managingautomation.com you fully understand how they went about installing it,” he says. RELATED ARTICLES: Once a manufacturer has gained Cashing In on the Promise of RFID www.managingautomation.com/rfid10 confidence with the technology, it may be wise to shop around a Tag, You’re It! www.managingautomation.com/techwatch20 bit, he says. When it’s done right and inteMarching Toward the RFID Business Case grated into existing systems to a www.managingautomation.com/sr5 company’s advantage, an RFID Managing Assets with RFID project can give plant management www.managingautomation.com/rfid2 valuable insight and ease the burden on workers. COMPANIES MENTIONED: “I’ve been with the company a AeroScout significant amount of time, and www.managingautomation.com/aeroscout I’ve never seen a group of indiWhereNet viduals more excited about a prowww.managingautomation.com/wherenet gram,” says Viracon’s Schelling. WinWare “All we hear is ‘How soon can we www.managingautomation.com/winware get this up and going?’ ” ■ maonline June 2008 43 http://managingautomation.com http://www.managingautomation.com/rfid10 http://www.managingautomation.com/techwatch20 http://www.managingautomation.com/sr5 http://www.managingautomation.com/rfid2 http://www.managingautomation.com/aeroscout http://www.managingautomation.com/wherenet http://www.managingautomation.com/winware

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Managing Automation - June 2008

Managing Automation - June 2008 Contents Take 1 SAP Cites Functionality, Cost Structure in Modified On-Demand Product Rollout Dassault Exec Predicts More PLM Consolidation The Blackberry Goes Native with SAP CRM QAD Brings MDM In-House with FullTilt Buy Power Experts Look to End Voltage Sags The Progressive Manufacturers Notes Cover Story: Playing the Globalization Game to Win Special Report Integration Transformation Industries Product Scan Advertiser Index Next

Managing Automation - June 2008

For optimal viewing of this digital publication, please enable JavaScript and then refresh the page. If you would like to try to load the digital publication without using Flash Player detection, please click here.