Auto-ID Lab Remakes Manufacturing

While creating a gift box of small items may seem relatively simple in such an application, the lab maintains that the system it has been able to develop so far within the facility could be the precursor to a new way of building and managing a manufacturing system. Such a system could mean massive changes in the manufacturing process within five years.

Materials and components used in a manufacturing process would be organized around whole new criteria based on the ability of the manufacturing system to detect and select materials from wherever they are stored.

“The lab is also working on physical optimization of supply chain operations using EPC. This might mean, for example, a completely different approach optimized for delivery in an automated warehouse that can reduce the amount of warehouse space required," says McFarlane. "Or it might be a fundamental review of the layout and operations of a retail outlet. Such optimization is no longer just a pipe dream.”

After the boxes have been packed, there is a quality control station. Readers identify the packaging and the items in it and make sure that the items that should have been packed have, in fact, been packed.

To do this, the software controlling each step in the process uses a Savant, a distributed piece of software that acts as the nervous system for the EPC Network. When a reader picks up an EPC-coded item, a Savant looks for the EPC on the Object Name Service, a directory service that is similar to the Domain Name Service that points computers to Web sites. ONS points to a file that is store in a database that is part of something called the EPC Information Service. This is basically a repository for information about products with EPCs. The EPC Information Service sends that information back to the robot.

All of these elements need be connected over the Internet. But deploying such infrastructure is not necessarily easy. The Cambridge Auto-ID Lab also is working to better understand the best way to link such a system to other internal company systems, as well as to other manufacturing partners.

“We have work to do on the integration of EPC data with manufacturing processes in the most effective ways and how best to improve those processes," says McFarlane. "You can’t just plug in EPC to existing systems and expect to immediately achieve meaningful results that impact on business performance. You have to know where to plug it in and how to plug in.”

The mock-up RFID-controlled manufacturing system underpins much of the lab’s work. The entire mock-up uses EPC tags to operate, and the lab maintains that part of its ongoing work is to determine exactly where readers are required and where complementary technologies can work with the system. “One issue we are interested in is using EPC and the logic behind it to help determine the location of RFID tagged items—particularly in relation to key manufacturing system decision points—as well as developing methodologies for EPC deployment,” says McFarlane.