Aug 14, 2006Many companies have decided to continue using their established bar-code systems alongside RFID for the near-term, but that's not the case at Whatever It Takes Transmission Parts (WIT), located in Louisville, Ky. Rather, the transmission parts wholesaler is throwing out all the bar-code labels it currently uses during its pick-and-pack operations and switching entirely to reusable read-write RFID tags.
The manufacturer says it has had enough of replacing bar code-labels that have failed after getting torn, dirty or worn out. The bar-code labels attach to open-top totes holding parts gathered for customer orders. When new, the labels' bar-code read rate is about 1 failure per 100 totes, but after about six months, the failure rate typically increases to about 50 percent. Whatever It Takes Transmission then has to replace the bar-code labels, costing the company several thousand dollars. In addition, because the bar-code scanners are affixed to the sides of conveyors that move the totes through the pick-and-pack process, they sometimes get bumped out of alignment, rendering them inoperable.
To alleviate this problem, Frank Stamper, an employee in the firm's IT department, experimented with placing bar-code readers underneath the conveyor system. However, the scanners' lasers couldn't easily and accurately read the bar-code labels since the metal rollers on the conveyor sometimes got in the way.
SAVR Communications came up with an RFID solution that can accommodate the wholesaler's industrial environment of dirt, dust and grime. This new system is designed to perform well even though the conveyor system and many parts contained within the totes are metal.
"My application is really simple," says Stamper, " but you have to read the tags through metal rollers—and, of course, most of the material in the totes is metal and fiber. That is what is unique: the type of environment that we are in."
SAVR's system works with RFID tags compliant with the ISO 15693 standard. The tags are attached to the totes near their bottoms. The system provides an 8-inch read range through the rollers. According to Stamper, the reader yielded a read rate of 100 percent during a trial run. "I'm very pleased," he says.
Each tag is encoded with a unique ID number, which Stamper accomplishes by hooking up his laptop, via its 910 connector port, to the SAVR reader. As orders come in WIT's order entry system, each order is paired with an RFID-tagged tote and a pick-and-pack list is generated, including the ID number of the tote’s tag. The totes move down the conveyor, and in and out of what Stamper calls carousels (circular systems consisting of 16 baskets that move the totes in and out of the various conveyor lines). As the totes travel through the system, the RFID interrogator reads the RFID tags to track the totes' progress.
Whatever It Takes Transmission says it plans to install three more Under Conveyor RFID readers, and that it will affix RFID tags to a total of 600 totes. The new RFID system, which should be completed by the end of September, is designed to save time and money for the company. "We've eliminated maintenance and labor costs," Stamper says. "Let's say the bar code couldn't be read properly. Someone would have to get the tote and hand-carry it back to the beginning of the pick-and-pack process and start over. And we're saving time because we don't have to adjust [bar-code readers]. Since [the RFID interrogators] are underneath the conveyor, they don't get bumped—and moving them underneath is a space saver."
Stamper plans to install RFID tags on the carousel baskets so the company can more easily identify and find baskets, as well as direct a carousel to stop at specific baskets. RFID tags are a cheaper alternative to outfitting the carousels with a new controller system, which Stamper says would cost as much as $350,000. With RFID, he says, "I can do it for about $3,000."
