Lean management and continuous process improvement are no new phenomena in the manufacturing industry. By streamlining the production process, significant improvements in terms of quality, efficiency and cost are feasible.
The Shop Floor is the place, where goods are produced and value is added. Shop Floor Management comprises the rules, methods, systems, processes, and behaviour to ensure a preferably efficient production. This includes involvement of related fields such as research & development, logistics, maintenance as well as the meaningful and effective sharing and utilization of information without creating an information overload.
RFID is suited to provide reliable data on aspects such as inventory, parts, throughput and retention times, maintenance cycles, and many more. Especially in manufacturing processes where frequent model changes are typical, the chain of processes needs efficient planning and execution and can be beneficially backed by RFID to reduce waiting times and help prevent extra work related to insufficient information.
Implementation of RFID in the shop floor can result in:
- Increased productivity
- Reduced inventory
- Improved delivery performance