Five examples of mobile resource management

By Bob Trebilcock, Editor at Large -- Modern Materials Handling, 11/1/2005

1) At the U.S. Department of Energy's 586-square-mile waste disposal site in Hanford, Washington, Bechtel Hanford is using an active RFID solution to track low-level and hazardous waste from multiple cleanup sites (Axcess, 800-588-6080). Prior to this, drivers had to exit their trucks and manually key in driver and truck identification information when entering weight scales. Now, active tags on truck cabs and waste containers enable Bechtel to automatically identify and track the waste at the scales without drivers exiting the trucks.

2) Tracking tools at a construction site can be like hunting for the needle in the hay-stack. Tools checked out in the morning may be left at a work station, end up in repair, get transferred to another site or simply disappear at the end of a shift. Using rugged passive RFID tags, Bosch Power Tools can write and lock the serial and model number to the tags, which can then be tracked and managed using RFID scanning equipment (Intermec, 800-934-3163) and tool tracking software (Toolwatch, 303-799-0272).

3) In Mishawaka, Ind., where General Motors manufacturers the Hummer, GM relies on a wireless parts and tracking system to keep the assembly line humming (Wherenet, 800-490-2261). Parts containers have been outfitted with an active RFID tag and call button. When parts reach the replenishment level, the line worker pushes the call button, which sends a signal to a lift truck driver to bring more parts to the line.

4) Hundreds of steps are involved when Seagate manufactures a hard drive. If one of those processes is out of specification, it may not get caught for several hours, poten-tially impacting hundreds of thousands of dollars' worth of inventory that has to be re-worked. Using RFID tags (Escort Memory Systems, 831-438-7000), Seagate can identify every part - and only those parts - that were processed out of spec. Further, the tags allow Seagate to identify parts in the field that have a problem, limiting liability.

5) At pH Europe, a third party supplier of intermediate bulk containers (IBC) to busi-nesses that transport and store bulk liquids or dry goods, a hybrid data collection solu-tion uses long-range active RFID technology at the container level. It also includes GPS at the truck level (RFCode, 877-969-2828) to track and manage con-tainers in the supply chain. As trucks are loaded with IBCs, pH Europe receives real-time verification of each load. That information is updated as trucks pass through an auto-mated check-out gate. Containers are associated with a unique truck for tracking pur-poses, and trucks are tracked using GPS data. The system ensures that containers do not sit idly because they were delivered to the wrong location at the wrong time.