Nordam Casts a New Mold With RFID
The aircraft parts manufacturer uses RFID to track and monitor its precision molds.
By John Edwards
Aug. 6, 2007—When it comes to useful, cutting-edge technologies such as radio frequency identification, the Nordam Group, located in Tulsa, Okla., isn't afraid of breaking the mold—even as it uses real-life production molds to manufacture critical aircraft components.
Nordam's Interiors and Structures Division supplies complete aircraft interiors, as well as interior components, to the general aviation, business aviation, commercial and military markets. Some of the firm's customers supply their own drawings and specifications for fabrication, but many rely on Nordam to provide the design, engineering and technical expertise required to build interiors for a wide range of aircraft. Nordam's clients include commercial aircraft OEMs, general aviation OEMs, general aviation completion centers and airlines. The company's specialties include composite flat-panel production, plastic fabrication, cabinet fabrication and integrated interior solutions.
At Nordam, no technology is more useful these days than RFID. The company has attached passive UHF tags, based on the ISO 18000-6B standard, to more than 400 individual molds used to produce interior aircraft components. RFID helps improve the visibility and capacity of the molding process by tracking each mold's location and recording how many times every mold is utilized. "It's a way of bringing efficiency to what was a very inefficient system," says Mike Metcalf, the division's program manager. "The system basically operated in the same way it had for the last 20 years, and it was time for a change."
Aug. 6, 2007—When it comes to useful, cutting-edge technologies such as radio frequency identification, the Nordam Group, located in Tulsa, Okla., isn't afraid of breaking the mold—even as it uses real-life production molds to manufacture critical aircraft components.
Nordam's Interiors and Structures Division supplies complete aircraft interiors, as well as interior components, to the general aviation, business aviation, commercial and military markets. Some of the firm's customers supply their own drawings and specifications for fabrication, but many rely on Nordam to provide the design, engineering and technical expertise required to build interiors for a wide range of aircraft. Nordam's clients include commercial aircraft OEMs, general aviation OEMs, general aviation completion centers and airlines. The company's specialties include composite flat-panel production, plastic fabrication, cabinet fabrication and integrated interior solutions.
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| Nordham is using an RFID-enabled warehouse-management system to track and monitor its precision molds. |
At Nordam, no technology is more useful these days than RFID. The company has attached passive UHF tags, based on the ISO 18000-6B standard, to more than 400 individual molds used to produce interior aircraft components. RFID helps improve the visibility and capacity of the molding process by tracking each mold's location and recording how many times every mold is utilized. "It's a way of bringing efficiency to what was a very inefficient system," says Mike Metcalf, the division's program manager. "The system basically operated in the same way it had for the last 20 years, and it was time for a change."
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