Hansgrohe Optimizes Business Process With RFID

Installing the System
According to Held, it took about 20 days to install the RFID-enabled kanban system. Not only has the system saved the company labor time, it also provided Hansgrohe experience with a simple RFID application that it could scale quickly when it decides the time is right.

The manufacturer is currently employing readers and tags from Finnish firm Confidex, as well as SAP's Auto-ID Infrastructure (AII) middleware, which helps make data collected via RFID relevant to business processes and compatible with the company's other SAP applications. The device management system CrossTalk, from NoFilis, controls the readers and initially collects data, then prepares it for transfer into the SAP system. IT services firm Freudenberg IT integrated the application.

Confidex, Held says, had to custom-design the interrogators due to the difficulty of getting high read rates with a large stack of jumbled cards. The reader in Schiltach is shaped like an oven, he notes. A worker puts the bin of cards inside the "oven," and the reader identifies all tags within five seconds.

To date, the company has not been confronted with damaged RFID tags on kanban cards. Freudenberg's Andreas Adler, the consultant responsible for the system integration, says the system provides an advantage for Hansgrohe, since the manner in which it was configured means the firm did not have to change its processes to use RFID. In addition, it can be easily adapted to new processes and larger numbers of RFID tags in the future if the company decides to tag every product it sells.

Hansgrohe considers the RFID kanban project a success, Held says. As such, the company is implementing RFID in a factory hall it recently opened. He declines to provide further details regarding the forthcoming RFID application, though the company has said it may employ RFID to increase automation and optimize transparency in logistics processes.