Crown Saves Manufacturing Costs via RFID

The tools themselves are packed in plastic bags, each containing a card listing the tool and its description. A Gen 2 RFID tag is attached to the back of every bag. "Everything is individually packaged with its own RFID tag," Hughes says. "If you need two pairs of gloves, you have to take two packages." As an employee leaves the crib, the reader captures that person's badge number and the RFID number for that tool bag.

This data is directed through a LAN connection to the Crown ERP system, using WinWare's CribMaster software. There, the RFID number of the bag and the employee can be linked with the tool, enabling Crown management to track which personnel have used which specific tools during their shift, as well as determine whether they may, for example, be using too many tools.

An employee leaving the crib removes the tool from the bag and places the bag, with the RFID tag still attached, into a box for reuse at a later date. This saves Crown the cost of replacing RFID tags with every tool. "They cost about 50 cents each," Hughes says of the passive RFID tags.

Stocking personnel later retrieve the bag, refilling it with similar tools. When restocking the crib, an employee can carry as many as 30 tagged items into the crib at a time, with all ID numbers captured simultaneously.

According to Crown, the system has proven to reduce tool usage, as personnel are more conscious of what tools they remove and, consequently, don't take more than they need for a job. CribMaster also increases security by making it impossible for individuals to steal tools, says WinWare's marketing services coordinator, Kelly Mahan—and rather than having to load tools onto carts, or record tools as they come out of the crib manually, she says, "They can take their tool and get right back to work."