Some manufacturers aren’t clear how RFID can contribute to the manufacturing process. Sometimes, RFID can be a simple add-on to an existing production line to reduce line failures or to save costs on the manual activities needed surrounding automated production lines.
One of our latest installations in the manufacturing sector has been in automotive component manufacturing: Hitachi Automotive Systems. Hitachi had a problem common to many manufacturers using automated production lines where the item being assembled is carried on a platform or platen. Faulty platens are rejected by the assembly machines but the platens causing this had to be identified, to ensure they were taken out of use. Recording faulty platens needed time consuming and error-prone manual processes.
Identifying platens with an RFID tag has made it possible to immediately identify faulty platens. They can be taken out of service or repaired. Details of faulty platens can be collected automatically.
In this case, CoreRFID worked with Hitachi Automotive to identify tags that would work when attached to the metallic platen and to select an RFID reader that would deliver the required tag reading performance.
CoreRFID works with Production Engineers to identify how RFID technology can be used to improve manufacturing. The costs of implementing RFID in these applications can easily be justified by the reduction in manufacturing step failures and in a reduced risk that a faulty platen could damage the production machines and effort saved in manual recording processes.
