Manufacturing

Data Collection Solutions for Manufacturing

Manufacturers are constantly looking for ways to increase facility throughput, reduce cost and improve on-time shipments. But how can you streamline your operations if you aren’t sure what’s happening on the shop floor in real-time?

Paper-based processes for work-in-process (WIP), receiving, inventory management, and picking components for manufacturing can be slow, inaccurate and result in re-work as you discover errors.

For example:

• Component defects not noticed when received can mean rush re-orders at manufacturing time and delays for your customers.
• Inaccurate picking means having to grab more in the middle of a product run, or returning excess materials back to stock, slowing the overall manufacturing process.
• Out-of-stock materials and components mean stopped production and late shipments.

LEARN MORE: Digital transformation for the shop floor begins with data collection »

Solving traceability in real-time

Process manufacturers, like food and beverage, chemical, pharmaceutical, and consumer packaged goods companies have additional challenges due to the bulk nature of ingredients, the sometimes limited shelf-life of materials and products, as well as industry and government regulations that demand traceability from ingredient origin to final product and end consumer.

More than ever, companies need automated shop floor data collection in order to:

• Achieve a real-time, accurate picture of inventory as it moves through the manufacturing process.
• Ensure consistency and quality throughout the product lifecycle.
• Meet demands for shorter lead times and accurate, on-time shipments.
• And, it’s the only way to achieve end-to-end traceability without sacrificing speed.

With RFgen’s shop floor data collection, you can:

• Provide full product traceability information to partners and customers with a swipe of a barcode.
• Improve component picking productivity and accuracy for faster processing and fewer adjustments mid-production.
• Implement paperless WIP, scrap, labor tracking, time tracking, and more to reduce administrative overhead and increase visibility.
• Enable quantity checks in between manufacturing steps to ensure quality, improve accuracy and decreased processing time.
• Speed up receiving and enforce quality inspections that flag questionable parts when compared to pictures and schematics.
• Avoid stock-outs and minimize carrying costs for excess supplies. Automatically transfer data from shop floor machinery like scales, conveyors and pick-to-light systems to your ERP or back-end system.

Features

Ensure accurate, up-to-date information in your ERP system

Managing your manufacturing plant with RFgen Shop Floor Data Collection includes a suite of enterprise mobility solutions that seamlessly integrate with your ERP to automate workflows and collect information about your materials, parts and finished products from anywhere in the factory or out in the yard.

Mobile solutions can be modified using the RFgen Mobile Development Studio or utilizing our expert consulting team to create customized mobile apps for your unique workflows.

RFgen Mobile Foundations include shop floor data collection applications for SAP, JD Edwards, Oracle Cloud, Oracle E-Business Suite, SAP Business One and Deltek Costpoint.

Integrate your ERP system with any machine or data collection device in the plant

RFgen supports a wide variety of data collection hardware that utilizes technologies including barcodes and RFID. RFgen can also integrate with shop floor machinery, such as carousels, scales, conveyors and programmable logic controllers, and send that data to your ERP. And if needed, you can print barcode labels on demand from anywhere in the manufacturing process.

Full traceability throughout the product lifecycle

Many manufacturers, especially in the food and beverage, life sciences, and aerospace and defense industries must prove compliance with industry and government regulations for product traceability, from the origin of each component to the end consumer.

In order to comply with regulations such as DFARS, FAA FAR, PDMA, GMC and the 2001 Bioterrorism Act, manufacturers need an automated way to track and trace in the event of an audit or recall.

RFgen supports tracking by information such as:

• Lot number
• Serial number
• Batch number
• Expiration date
• Ingredient, part or product origin

License plating to improve accuracy and speed-up delivery

License plating, also known as pallet labeling, is a method of grouping and managing inventory that can help manufacturers speed up warehouse and shop floor transactions, reduce errors and improve traceability.

You can create a license plate for any container of items at any point in the manufacturing process, including receiving, work-in-progress, handling finished goods, picking or shipping.

For example, you can link license plates with work orders to gather and pre-position inputs on the shop floor:

• Create a license plate of raw materials—the parts list you need to complete a work order.
• Pick items from storage and deliver the entire license plate of materials to the shop floor.
• Stage the materials around the workflow.

When it’s time to use the material, workers scan the license plate, measure how much material is being issued for the process, then subtract the amount consumed from inventory.

View inventory-on-hand balances by license plate, so you know when it’s time to stage more materials to avoid running out.