Autepra, a system integrator based in Vilnius (Lithuania) and CAEN RFID, leading provider of electronic instrumentation for radio frequency identification, announce the use of a new RFID system for pallets tracking in manufacturing company's logistic chain.
UAB Artilux NMF is a joint Lithuanian-Swedish venture, producing home lighting products. Artilux was established and started its activities in autumn of 2002. Every year company produces over 6 million of luminaries, annually it ships about 25000 pallets.
In the 2006 Artilux got a reward for most innovative solutions and new technologies implementation in production and resource management. Besides, the company was awarded by the Lithuanian Chamber of Commerce, Industry and Crafts with the "Lithuanian export prize" in the year 2006 and 2007 for the progress in development of export.
The main objective of the enterprise is to become a flexible and competitive electrical appliances & decorations supplier to selected segments of the market. Competitive growth is not possible without speeding-up and improving turnover. The main approach to achieve the necessary indicators is the work process with material flow optimization.
"For a long time we had difficulties with the mistakes in the warehouse operations. We invested into measures for business process optimization and ERP system implementation in 2006. To yet more improve and automate warehouse operations we have decided to implement the system of automatic identification and tracking, based on RFID technology. We are satisfied with the first RFID project, realized in beginning of 2009, results and now we decided to extend our RFID system" - says Mr. Aidas Setikas, managing director of UAB "Artilux NMF".
RFID system starts operation from production quality control point. Prewritten RFID tag is applied to each pallet with QC passed production. These pallets are tracked and traced by management system in all the rest in-house logistic process.
In first phase an RFID control point was installed on the gate between production and storage. Pallet passing the gate gets time stamp "produced" and is automatically transferred from production to storage area in Navision ERP system. In case of mistake the system informs the operator by audio signal and information on the LED display.
For manual pallet's identification at quality control point and in further warehouse operations t+t Netcom hand held computers with CAEN RFID OEM module embedded and laser scanner are used.
The new system simplifies operators operations and increases management efficiency. It allows arranging and optimizing technological processes of warehouse and minimizes the mistakes concerned with load allocation. Thanks to this RFID system turnover will speed and increase.
"This project was our first project in RFID field. The project results are very successful and they show that CAEN equipment is very reliable and working perfectly" - says Tomas Girdzevicius, director of company Autepra - "After successful first project phase we have signed contract for the next phase - to install RFID control point on the loading ramp. This control point will assure 99,99% accuracy in truck loading process".
CAEN RFID regional sales manager, David Pallassini says "Even if at their first RFID project, Autepra has been able to quickly adopt this technology and use its potentialities in a real automatic identification and tracking project" and added, "the technical ability of Autepra staff allowed the fast and efficient usage of our readers in Artilux's material flow optimization process".
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