Common Goal: Cross Enterprise Process Transparency In The Automotive Industry – Successful Cooperation Between Partners from Industry and R&D for Deploying a passive RTLS Technology
by Tarun Sharma
The BIBA - Bremer Institute for Production and Logistic GmbH, Daimler AG and IBM Germany, GmbH are cooperating within the framework of RAN – RFID based Automotive Network. Funded by German Ministry of Economical Affairs with the Los Angeles, CA. based RFID/RTLS manufacturer MOJIX Inc, to improve efficiencies in the offline-rework area of vehicle production plants.
Daimler’s requirements with respect to RTLS solutions was to not use active RFID tags. The high costs associated with active tags would require closed-loop environments in order to allow recycling of tags. RFID vendor MOJIX meets this specific requirement, as MOJIX provides a Real Time Location System based on passive UHF (Ultra-High-Frequency) EPC Gen2 tags.
The objectives of this cooperation are to achieve more efficient resource-management between the partners in the automotive supply-chain by making available real-time data. By enabling the tracking of vehicles in the re-work area, the dwell times and corresponding costs for searching any specific vehicle can be significantly reduced. In addition, the information generated by the MOJIX passive RTLS solution result in higher transparency in this environment and can be used to optimize processes.
The process is part of the use case “Fertigfahrzeuge/Nacharbeit“ (finished goods/rework) of the RAN project and is being managed by the consortium-partners BLG LOGISTICS GROUP and Daimler, whereas BIBA is responsible for the scientific approach.
Metallic environments, as seen in the automotive production plants, pose significant challenges to RFID systems based on UHF. In trials, the MOJIX-solution was tested specifically for performance and reliability in these environments. The Mojix solution was also tested with various transponders/tags and a methodology for applying these tag on assets. After BIBA and IBM determined the most appropriate combinations of tags and applying them on assets, the MOJIX solution proved that vehicles could be located successfully to their respective parking positions.
In Spring 2011, the MOJIX solution will be deployed in a full production environment at Daimler by IBM to further refine the process of finished goods and rework.
More detailed information regarding the RAN project is available at the Website.
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