Pilot RFID Kanban System at Bosch Diesel Direct Injection Manufacturing Plant Sees Results
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Bosch, the world’s largest automotive technology manufacturer, uses RFID kanban cards to replenish production needs in two diesel direct injection system manufacturing plants in Bamberg and Bad Homburg, Little Venice, Germany. Among them, the kanban cards of the Bamberg manufacturing plant in Little Venice use passive HF RFID tags, while Bad Homburg uses passive UHF RFID tags.
The production lines of the diesel direct injection systems at the two Bosch plants are mainly controlled by computers. Workers supervise the operation of the machines and add necessary components such as screws and springs from time to time. Before the implementation of the RFID system, the replenishment of parts often took two hours to complete the order. The parts are stored in the turnover box. When a turnover box is full of parts, the worker places a kanban (printed with a barcode and number indicating the type of the part) on the box. When the parts in the turnover box are used up, the worker sends the turnover box to a workstation. There, workers manually scan barcodes and place orders for replenishment, but since individual cards are easily overlooked, this workflow is prone to errors.
In order to speed up the parts replenishment process, Bosch decided to introduce Kanban RFID tags and test two different types of RFID technology. Bosch chose to test Brooks Automation’s high-frequency technology at its factory in Bamberg, Little Venice, and at its factory in Bad Homburg, considering the possibility of reading labeled kanban cards in batches or remotely , The company adopted an ultra-high frequency RFID system.
Martin Doble, chief technology officer of RFID integrator noFilis, said that Bosch and SAP started to conceive the project in early 2008 and selected the hardware in April of the same year. The pilot was conducted in Bad Homburg in May and July. Pilot in Bamberg, Little Venice. SAP Deutschland is the software integrator for this project, and noFilis is the equipment integrator and provides local hardware installation services for the project. Bosch did not choose the general contractor for the overall operation.
BrooksAutomation provided 13.56Mhz high-frequency readers and tags that comply with the ISO 15693 standard for the Bamberg factory in Little Venice. Each high-frequency tag is encoded with a non-EPC Gen2 ID code, but it complies with the same format and is generated by the SAP system that supports RFID applications. The operating frequency of the UHF tag is 868Mhz, which complies with the EPC Gen2 standard. When these tags are coded, they correspond to the specified types of parts in the database. Kanban cards of the same part can be reused.
In Bad Homburg, Bosch uses FeigElectronic’s UHF reader and UPMRaflatac tags that can be read in the near or far field. The RFID application process in the two places is basically the same. In total, Bosch used 2,000-3,000 RFID tags laminated on Kanban cards.
The company uses SAP’s Auto-ID Infrastructure (AII) software module to integrate data collected by RFID and noFilis CrossTalk ControlCenter software, which is responsible for managing the RFID reader of this application. Currently, Bosch has adopted a total of 80 readers; when the small Venice Bamberg and Bad Homburg (Bamberg) and Bad Homburg (Bad Homburg) complete plant implementation, the company expects to use 200 readers.
According to Dobler, both UHF and HF systems are operating normally without any problems. Due to the impact of the world financial crisis, global auto suppliers are facing tremendous pressure to reduce costs. Although Bosch has slowed the pace of project development, it will still advance the implementation process of the project.
Although the two factories deployed RFID systems, this did not increase the complexity of the operating procedures. After the employees send all the parts in the box to the production line, they remove the RFID Kanban card and place the card in a specially designed box with an RFID reader and antenna embedded. This is the first reading point of the card. When the employee puts the card into the box, a green light turns on, indicating that the RFID tag was successfully read. The system then places an order to order the required parts. CrossTalk software manages the communication between the reader and the server running the SAP system.
Within a working day, another employee collects all the cards in the mailbox for a certain period of time, and then takes the cards to the parts receiving area. In another location, employees visually compare the numbers of the kanban card and the parts box or read the barcodes of the two to match the number of the kanban card and the part type of the new turnover box.
The advantage of the high-frequency system is that the high-frequency reader is cheaper than the UHF, although the high-frequency tag will be more expensive; the advantage of the UHF system is that the card can be read in batches, and the reading distance can reach 16 feet. The reading distance is only a few inches.
Now, Bosch saves two hours of daily replenishment time, which will quickly bring the company a return on investment. Based on this benefit, the company plans to also promote this application in 8 other factories around the world.Taking into account the cost and reading distance factors, Bosch will be more likely to choose high-frequency RFID systems
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