Using RFID to Control Assembly

[mthouin]

Is anyone using RFID in their manufacturing process? Have have found a few that use it for inventory control and only one that uses it for production control (pokayokesolutions.com). Does anyone have experience with RFID and how reliable is it?

[geester]

One of our clients (an well known Diesel engine manufacturer) opted to control production with RFID, they introduced Intermec handhelds and they have never looked back.
The prototype was for 1 site in the UK and was rolled out to a further 2 in the UK and 5 in Europe, next year 20 sites in USA are to comence the same rollout.
They found that RFID was easier to operate by their staff, with little training needed.

[Rocks]

Yes, we have various RFIDs, we use in material verification/ recipe control and material tracking on our manufacturing lines.

It depends , what type of assemblies or controls systems you presently have. Also depends what kind of Machine interfaces you use on your assembly lines. What temperature environment you want to implement the RFIDs.

If you just curious, whether RFIDs work in assembly / continuous process environments, YES, we implemented them 3 years back in my company in USA. I wrote the interface too. We are still rolling out on some new processes. We also have RFID in high temperature environment (200 deg C or more).

[pmprosoft]

You need to think about solid wireless infrastructure, and appropriate tags. RFID doesn't work well for all kinds of applications. For instance, there are certain types of materials that block radio signal (active tags). I assume that you would like to implement some kind of tracking system? Good real-time tracking software is pretty expensive and needs to be configured properly. All in all, implementation may cost you a lot of money but I think it is worth in the long run.

[geester]

Re wireless solutions, there are many organisations that provide wireless solutions that can cover upto 40KM! One company I am aware of supplies the US government and it's used for secured communications in the battle field. www.wavesight.com

They are extremely professional and their solutions are almost bullet proof.