Industrial Wireless ID RTLS Solutions

AiRISTA provides a range of multi-radio tags to support use cases across the production cycle. Combinations of Wi-Fi, BLE and even passive RFID can be used in a single tag. With a single tag attached at the start of production, a product can travel the entire production process providing wireless identification through final QA and finished goods.

Most production workflows grew up using pieces of paper to identify products, components, inventory, etc. Although the processes evolved over time, paper-based tracking remained inherent to the process. But paper-based tracking is prone to errors; paper falls off, paper is attached to the wrong item, manual recording on paper might be sloppy. Replacing or augmenting paper-based systems with wireless identification can increase efficiency, accuracy and automate the integration with production systems.

The MIT Auto ID Laboratory was created 30 years ago to help drive standards and continues to research disruptive RFID technologies like the Internet of Things, a term they coined. Solutions range from low cost passive systems where the tag can be printed on paper, to a variety of active systems in which the battery powered tag emits a radio signal with unique information embedded. Given the variety of solutions that can be used across the plant, RTLS software platforms must be able to consume wireless ID details regardless of the technology. AiRISTA’s RTLS software platform, sofia, is a sensor agnostic platform.

Ensuring FIFO Compliance of Pre-Preg Material

Pre-preg material must be refrigerated to prevent curing. The material is expensive and must be used before its expiration date. To avoid waste, manufacturers use a FIFO policy to pull material from the stock before it is cut, shaped, and cured. To reduce scrap, a manufacturer of aircraft skins inserted an active tag in the traveler sleeve of each roll of pre-preg. As each roll is removed, the attached tag passes a reader on the refrigerator door. The date is compared to the dates of other rolls in inventory. If an older roll is available, the location is relayed to the operator. The process also catches rolls beyond their expiration date, preventing a scrap of finished goods.

Information. Over time, all paper travelers were eliminated. Not only could the inventory of bumpers be managed in real-time, but the location of each rack helped deliver the right racks to the assembly line.

Replacing Handheld Scanners

Final assembly along an automobile production line is a quarter mile long stretch of 92 work cells. At each cell, an associate grabs the scanner hanging from above and scans the bonnet sheet to retrieve build instructions specific to that vehicle. When squeezing out efficiency, 5 seconds per scan multiplied by 92 results in meaningful savings. Placing BLE tags on the vehicle carrier eliminated the handheld scan and the need for the bonnet sheet. Instead, the tag’s ID is associated with the vehicle VIN. When the tag is read, the VIN is automatically provided to the production system which returns the build instructions for that vehicle.