Manufacturing is usually divided into discrete manufacturing and process manufacturing, for discrete manufacturing, relies on optimized operation, while high productivity and low cost are the key points, new technology, and management tools are applied as long as they can improve it. for process manufacturing, it relies on stable equipment running, restricted equipment management is required to reduce downtime; what’s more, track and traceability are important for manufacturers to improve quality and aftersales service; RFID is a proven useful technology to be used in the manufacturing industry among assets management, MRO management, automation, work in process management, logistics&supply chain management, RTI management, tool management, and molding/fixture management, to improve efficiency, reduce cost and optimize other operation. The manufacturing industry demands rugged and reliable products to withstand high temperature, vibration, impact, chemical, or other harsh environments.
Crepak offers rugged product portfolio in manufacturing industry, including RFID tags, readers, antennas and smart equipment, we are experienced to solve the problems you are facing, including:
Assets & Equipment management
There is a huge volume of assets used in daily manufacturing, including office assets, production assets, and supporting assets, all these assets are located in different places while part of them are movable in the facilities, knowing what, where, which, and how of these assets are important for operation and finance, By using RFID, manufacturers can get visible and timely assets situation, using history with high efficiency, which can be used to optimize the operation and meet financial audit compliance.
Logistics & Supply chain management
Many components and variable ingredients are used for production while finished goods are supplied to many different destinations, delivering, stocking, and using raw material and finished goods are very important for smooth operation, improve efficiency, reducing error, and saving cost are the target of supply chain management, while RFID can significantly assist on this, normally RFID tags are mounted on material or carriers, while RFID readers are deployed in the warehouse or on the forklifts.
Work in process management
Visible semi-finished products and finished goods are valuable for operation and planning managers to optimize its production and planning, which would help to reduce lead time, improve capacity, the data collected during the process can be used to improve quality and optimize process design and enables track and traceability, which can optimize offer, the situation is it requires manufacturers to provide track and for their products including automotive and components, thus, manufacturers need to deploy RFID products in the production line to collect data including people, machine, parameters and time stamp at each station, normally RFID tags are mounted on car or components carriers and reader/antennas are deployed at each site.
MRO management
In manufacturing industry, most of the production equipment and supporting equipment operates continuously so that timely maintenance and inspection is critical to reduce downtime. RFID can make the process digitalized with high efficiency and lower cost, the MRO history can be referred for future work and the system can alert to take action. Robust RFID tags are mounted or embedded in the equipment while robust tablet or handheld readers are assigned to staffs for inspection.
RTI management
In the manufacturing industry, plenty of returnable transit items are used to carry ingredients, semi-finished goods, and components, these RTIs include pallets, trays, trolleys, trailers, tanks, they are moved internally and externally frequently, how to manage them effectively is a big challenge for operation managers, RFID is a good tool to visually manage it with clear records of its transiting history, knowing where which and how is the situation of the RTIs. normally RFID tags are mounted to RTIs via adhesive, epoxy, screw, or rivet, while RFID readers and smart equipment are deployed at the gate of the facility.
Tool management
In the manufacturing industry, various tools are used in production and equipment MRO management, tools always missed in using, which is a big loss to manufacturers, furthermore, some of the tools are left in product or equipment while it is a risk for running. And for some of the tools, regular calibration is necessary to work to ensure their function. Benefit from RFID, the receiving and returning of tool can be managed effectively, tool missing can be discovered timely while further actions can be done accordingly, also it can remind the user to handle calibration in advance. Due to the different size and form factors of tools, any type of RFID tags are needed, they can be mounted on the tool via epoxy, heat-shrinkable tube, or adhesive; normally fixed readers and smart equipment are used to automatically check-in and check out tools while handheld readers are used to finding the missed tools.
Mold & fixture management
Molds and fixtures are common assets in manufacturing, especially in discrete manufacturing. And how to manage a large number of mold and fixture assets, is a challenge for the operation managers, because most of the mold and fixtures look similar, it is difficult to achieve efficient and accurate identification via the only sealed number. By deploying an RFID system, molds and fixtures can be identified in seconds, so does their specifications and use history, what’s more, volume assets can be scanned efficiently for assets inventory management. due to high temperature, vibration, impact, and other harsh environments of mold and fixture application, robust RFID tags and readers are applied. Normally RFID tags are permanently mounted to assets via screw, rivet, welding, or embedding, while handheld or tablet readers are used for operation.
