Sada Cavi Saves Time, Reduces Wastage

Indyon designed the system with 134 kHz passive tags, complying with the ISO 11784 and 11785 standards, because they are small and well-adapted to the outdoors, where tags may be covered by snow, ice, water or rain. Indyon declines to name the tags' manufacturer, but indicates it to have been a well-known company in the United States. Each tag is contained in a plastic housing and is about the size of the narrow end of a golf tee—3 centimeters (1.2 inches) in length and 3 millimeters (0.1 inch) in diameter.

Sada Cavi uses electric forklifts from Still, which Snapper says generate a large amount of electronic smog (electromagnetic radiation). That's why Indyon customized the RFID interrogator's antenna by adding a protective layer to the inside of the case to keep out RF and magnetic interference. Antennas are mounted underneath the vehicles.

Once it switched to RFID, Sada Cavi cut the time it spent searching for spools by a factor of six.

"The antenna has to be very robust and protected against temperatures as well," Sapper says, adding that Indyon designed the antennas specifically for use on forklift trucks so they would be operational despite the electronic smog. The interrogator, supplied by Texas Instruments, is connected to the control unit, also designed by Indyon. Both the RFID reader and the control unit are located in the forklift cockpit, away from moisture, dust and humidity.

While implementing the system, Snapper says, Sada Cavi trained workers on its use. "Drivers have to understand the business process," he explains. "They can't just place spools where they want." He says Indyon had no problem implementing the RFID component of the solution, but spent time adapting the system to the enterprise resource planning (ERP) system used by Sada Cavi.

After the six-month rollout, Sada Cavi hired WeFlex to add three additional RFID-enabled forklifts, and to expand the number of identification points in its yard by drilling a small hole in the pavement, inserting an RFID transponder into that hole and programming its unique ID number into the computer system. Sapper says the system has a 100 percent read rate, and that it has decreased many times over the time required for Sada Cavi to locate and transfer spools.