Apparel Maker Seeks Seamless Tracking

When rolls of the fabric used to make the CPOs arrive from NCED's supplier, workers at the El Paso facility apply an RFID smart label to each one. Encoded to the tag is a lot ID, saved in a database along with any order information, such as invoice number, relating to that roll. Also encoded to the tag is the warehouse location (isle/shelf) to which the roll is assigned for storage. This location data is be stored in the warehouse management program used to track the rolls in inventory.

Hodges says the NCED is hoping its fabric suppliers will soon begin tagging the rolls of fabric prior to shipping them. That way, the NCED staff would not need to apply the tags themselves, and they could use the tags to receive the goods into inventory.



Once the second phase begins, each time a new roll is needed in the manufacturing facility, the WMS will direct workers to pull it from its assigned location and bring it to the cutting room. Here, the fabric will be spread onto a very large industrial cutter, where portions needed to form the chemically resistant suit components—sleeves, pant legs, etc.—will be cut. Workers will then attach tags to large bundles of cut fabric. Encoded to the tag will be an ID associated with the lot ID from the roll.

Before pulling components from the bundles, workers at sewing stations will use handheld interrogators to read each bundle's tag. This data will be sent to the NCED's back-end software to track the manufacturing process. Once each suit is complete, it will be packaged in a plastic bag that could also be tagged, once the DLA begins tracking goods at the item level.

At each step in this process, the RFID tag IDs will be commissioned and, as the tags are read, collected by Radio Frequency Asset System (RFAS), a software platform developed by SAIC for RFID device management and data aggregation. SAIC has developed interfaces between RFAS and the software platforms NCED utilizes. This includes the warehouse management system used to manage its raw materials receiving and inventory system, as well the Apparel Management Accounting System (AMAS) and The Production Manager (TPM) software, used to track the work-in-process manufacturing steps, provided by New Generation Computing.

Throughout this integration, the NCED hopes the unique IDs encoded to the roll and bundle tags, as well as to the tags attached to the cases and pallets of finished goods bound for DLA warehouses, will provide the company more visibility into in-process manufacturing and order fulfillment systems. "In the near future, we'll have passive RFID tags for all of our many DOD and commercial products, as well as, very possibly, [unique identification] tags in some select uniforms," says Lopez.