 | Wednesday, December 3, 2008
Issue 945 | | Will Smith, Editor |  |
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Editor's Note: Today's top story is a work-in-process RFID deployment by Custom Cupboards, believed to be the first cabinet maker to use an RFID system to route materials through production and automatically direct assembly, inspection and packaging processes.
The Global RFID Interoperability Forum for Standards, or GRIFS, has released a report assessing the state of RFID standards around the world. A key conclusion of the report is the need for better communication and collaboration between key standards organizations. The report is available for free download here. GRIFS is a group funded by the European Commission whose role is to "develop liaisons between standards organisations and initiate a long-term forum of exchange and collaboration for global RFID stakeholders."
Lastly, RTLS solution provider AeroScout made a few announcements recently: the first that its technology has been deployed at the Jan Yperman hospital in Brussels, including over 1,000 tags to track assets and personnel; the second that its Unified Asset Visibility solution deployed over a Cisco network has been installed to track assets at the St. Trudo hospital that serves the Limburg and Vlaams-Brabant regions in Belgium; and the third that the company has formed a partnership with asset-tracking solution provider InnerWireless for that company to become a reseller of AeroScout's solutions. |
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Cabinet Maker's Efficiency Gains Hinge On RFID
By John Burnell
Careful carpenters follow the maxim "Measure twice, cut once." That phrase may give way to "Tag and read before you cut" at Custom Cupboards, a $33 million cabinet maker headquartered in Wichita, Kansas. Custom Cupboards became the first firm to use an RFID-driven production management system that was developed by Stiles Machinery, which provides production equipment and process solutions for wood products manufacturers.
Custom Cupboards uses the RFID system from Stiles to track work in process and to automatically guide production equipment. Materials needed for an order are kitted and a Gen2 RFID tag is permanently applied to one of the pieces at the start of the production process. When materials arrive at a production station the RFID tag is read to automatically identify the job order in Custom Cupboards's automated production control system, which Stiles provided. The production equipment then automatically makes the cuts or performs other activity required for the specific job, without requiring operator intervention to set up the machine. Some operations are performed by robotic assembly.
"The system guides operators through what you want them to do, so they don't have to worry about it or look up anything," David Kuramazusampson, Stiles' software development supervisor, told RFID Update. "Before, everything was done with paperwork."
A total of five RFID readers (three fixed-position readers from Alien Technology and two Motorola handhelds) are used. RFID-enabled automated operations include production, quality inspection and box making for the finished product. Custom Cupboards plans to extend its use of RFID to shipping operations, Kuramazusampson said.
Custom Cupboards credits the RFID system for improving manufacturing throughput by approximately 10 percent, including a 50 percent improvement in the final inspection process. The workflow data also helps pinpoint process and quality problems and reduce waste.
Other wood products manufacturers could attain similar results, Kuramazusampson said. Tight production control is especially important for Custom Cupboards and other woodworkers because many products are custom ordered and not mass produced.
"I think benefits could be fairly standard," he said, and noted other plants are testing the system. "The ROI is something our industry still has a hard time understanding, because companies have difficulty pinpointing what they are really spending to manufacture and how much errors cost."
Finnish firm Honkarakenne uses a similar system on a larger scale -- the pre-fabricated housing manufacturer uses RFID tags on logs to communicate milling instructions to produce the lumber required for each house kit (see Log House Maker Using RFID to Track Material).
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