RFIDJournal.com’s Best of 2023: Pakistani Biscuit Company Gains Efficiency and Accuracy with RFID

Dec 26, 2022Editor's note: As we get toward the end of 2023, RFIDJournal.com is looking back at some of the top stories that we published in the last year.

Pakistani snack and dessert company English Biscuit Manufacturers (EBM) reports that it has boosted its efficiency and the accuracy of its production processes, through the greater asset visibility it has achieved by deploying RFID technology. The company has been leveraging passive UHF RFID tags applied to thousands of metal and non-metal assets that are used in the production and transport of its products. The solution was provided by EmergTech Solutions, using tags from Confidex and leveraging Zebra Technologies handheld readers.

EBM reports that it not only can be more accurate and efficient in how the assets are being used, but it can also identify and address any inefficiencies, achieving more sustainable practices. The company will next explore ways in which it can expand its RFID technology use. The initial use case for the solution, leveraging RFID tags on assets, as well as handheld readers to interrogate those tags, has involved tracking the status and location of each asset it uses during the production, packaging and shipping of its products. These include metal equipment and trays in which the products are made and transported, as well as the machines that make those items.

EBM has a long history of baking desserts and snacks for consumers throughout the Middle East. The company, based in Karachi, Pakistan, was launched in 1966 as Peek Freans Pakistan Ltd., offering biscuits and pastries with a focus on quality, nutrition and flavor. EBM has more recently centered one of its key initiatives on sustainability as well. Since the RFID system was taken live in 2020, it has made asset audit counts faster and more accurate, the company notes, while creating and managing digital records about each asset and its use.

Managing 30,000 Assets During Production

Managing its production tools has posed a major challenge for English Biscuit Manufacturers. The firm required a consistent, automated way to identify approximately 30,000 metal assets used in the production of its snack products, as well as packaging and storage. Those assets must be regularly maintained, inspected or replaced as needed, EBM explains. Historically, the company had used a manual auditing process by which employees went through the facility once a year, physically checking every asset and manually documenting its location, inspection and maintenance status via pen and paper.

The lack of automated, digital data meant the company had a minimal view into its production, storage and shipping activities, says Zaid Umer Farooqui, EBM's IT head. That, he adds, led to inefficiencies and excess asset inventory. To make audits more efficient, and to reduce the amount of waste resulting from a lack of visibility into production and shipping, the company began looking into technology-based solutions. By digitizing the identity, status and location of its assets, Farooqui says, EBM could conduct audits more often, enabling the data to be more accurate.

EmergTech Solutions began working with EBM in 2020, according to Ejaz Tayab, EmergTech's CEO. EBM launched the RFID solution at its two facilities, one in Karachi and the other in Hattar. The company manages a total of 19 warehouses, in addition to its two factories, and it reports that RFID technology, in the long term, could be used to identify assets at all of these sites. To begin with, Tayab says, the company employed EmergTech's services for tag selection and deployment, as well as for its software and integration.

EmergTech provides its SmartAMS Software Application, integrated with EBM's SAP software, to create a full asset-management solution. The software provides several features, including asset allocation, asset part registration, asset transfer, data logging, asset disposal, asset repair status, missed asset identification and asset finder. In addition, EmergTech is providing a customized, Android-based application that runs on the handheld readers being used to capture asset tag reads during audits.

Creating a Process Flow with Asset-Management Data

To ensure data management and integration, EmergTech worked with EBM's SAP team, says Agha Mussawar, EmergTech's sales head. Together, Mussawar recalls, the group created a process flow to leverage EmergTech's asset-management data. EmergeTech also added a back-end server application and developed processes that were missing from the SAP management system.

Each asset has a passive UHF RFID tag attached to it, encoded with a unique ID number that is linked in the management software to details regarding that item. As the assets are used, stored or maintained, the company's operators utilize the RFID handheld readers to interrogate tag IDs and view details about the items on their device, and the system enables them to update that information with maintenance or servicing data.

To conduct asset audits, workers can simply carry the handheld reader through key areas where assets are located and view what is onsite, and at which location. If an item requires maintenance, operators can locate and identify it before it can be reused. If any are discovered to be missing, they can simply use the handheld reader to locate those assets.

One early challenge EBM faced during the technology deployment was finding the appropriate RFID tags for its assets. EmergTech now partners with Confidex, says Nadeem Ali, EBM's assistant manager for finance, who adds, "We had a variety of tags that could be selected from… by testing, we pinpointed the right RFID tags."

Deploying On-Metal and Standard RFID Tags

Metal assets leverage Confidex's Ironside Slim RFID tag, which is designed for metallic returnable transit items and industrial assets that face varying weather conditions and rough handling. For non-metal equipment and tools, the team deployed Confidex's Casey RFID tags, which are IP68-rated and can handle rough temperature conditions. "These industrial-graded tags are optimized for customized applications, which made them the perfect choice for EBM," says Edward Lu, Confidex's sales director. "For the Confidex Casey, the advantages are printable face, economical costs and best performance in its class."

Since the system was taken live, Ali says, the auditing process can now be accomplished within a fraction of the time previously required—an activity that previously took weeks to complete, he adds, now takes only a few hours. The second benefit has involved accuracy. With digitization of audit data and integration with EBM's enterprise resource planning system, he states, "Accuracy has increased many folds and timely data makes [asset use] reports meaningful."

In long run, Farooqui expects the solution to reduce the cost of operation, while increasing the company's credibility and visibility by meeting consumer expectations with greater speed and accuracy, "All of which leads to making the organization more efficient," he says, "and its operations more sustainable. All benefit and efficiency to EBM translates to better management and utilization of resources and assets," making the organization's decision making faster and better. "This will ultimately reflect on our product and brand… to our customers and consumers."

The company plans to extend the technology to other areas in which financial benefits are identified, Farooqui says. "To name a few," he says, "we are looking into fixed RFID readers to proactively know asset movements" as they pass through portals or key areas. EmergeTech will place fixed readers at entry or exit points to capture asset movements in real time, and it will forward alerts to the appropriate operators or managers. According to Farooqui, EBM intends to develop and integrate the solution's maintenance module for more automated capture of data as assets are serviced, among other such activities, "to further improve the operations and this project's return on investment."

Key Takeaways:

• By tracking its assets via RFID, English Biscuit Manufacturers has boosted its efficiency and accuracy, which the company says allows it to deliver more sustainable practices.
• In the long term, EBM plans to expand its use of the technology with fixed readers and software modules to track the details of maintenance and other asset activities.