By deploying radio frequency identification technology at its facility, Idealcombi, a custom window and door manufacturer based in Denmark, has successfully automated aspects of its production process, reports Arne Burlund, the company’s IT director. As a result, he says, Idealcombi has doubled the capacity of its plant without requiring additional employees.
With EPC Gen 2 passive ultrahigh-frequency (UHF) tags attached to products, the system automatically adjusts the setting of assembly machines, based on specifications required by a particular order. Previously, the entire process was performed manually. The RFID technology, provided by Prosign RFID, also enables the firm to create a record of its production processes. In the event of a defect or problem involving a specific product, the manufacturing process can be easily retraced.
At its 88,000-square-meter (947,200-square-foot) factory in Denmark, Idealcombi operates a series of machines for carrying out such tasks such as painting, drilling and installing brackets, and competes with manufacturers that produce similar products in nations where labor costs are lower. Therefore, the firm had sought a solution that would help reduce labor costs, while allowing it to continue its operations in Denmark.
The company first met with Prosign approximately four years ago, says Michael Jensen, Prosign’s RFID director and CEO, with the goal of doubling its capacity without increasing its number of employees. At that time, its staff adjusted the machines manually in order to meet the specifications of each order, which required the company to print instructions on a piece of paper that followed each window or door as it moved from one machine to the next. The staff could then read the instructions and set the machines accordingly.
To eliminate this time-consuming process, Idealcombi invested in a new automated production-management solution that could direct the machines to set their adjustments automatically, according to each order. To do so, however, the company required an RFID system to identify every window or door as it arrived at each machine. In 2010, Prosign RFID installed about 20 Alien Technology ALR-8800 and ALR-9900 readers near machines, or at entry and exit points to buffer zones in which unfinished products are stored.
Now, when Idealcombi receives an order from a customer for a particular item, a worker attaches an Alien ALN-9640 Squiggle passive EPC Gen 2 passive RFID tag to a frame—typically on the inner side of a panel of wood in the structure. In the Prosign RFID software, residing on Idealcombi’s database, the tag’s unique ID number is linked to the order number and the setting requirements for all machines through which the ordered item will pass. As the production staff delivers the item from one machine to the next, a reader installed at each machine reads the tag’s ID number. Based on that ID, the appropriate setting instructions are then sent to the machine, via a wired connection between a PC or programmable logic controller and the machine itself.
For stations at which special manual work must be performed on a specific item, staff members utilize FEIG Electronic ID ESC.PRHD 102 handheld readers. In that case, the handhelds have a Bluetooth connection to a PC that captures data regarding which item was processed, as well as what was done with it.
The RFID system, Burland says, “gives us the ability to streamline production, reduce handling and automatically load machine settings.”
RFID not only eliminates the need to manually adjust machinery, but also tracks products as they move through production, enabling management to better control where products are located, and to determine a specific order’s status, in the case of delays. For example, an order including multiple windows might become delayed if materials for one of those windows were unavailable. In that event, some, or all, of the items in that order would be moved into a buffer area until the delayed material became available for that window. With RFID readers stationed at the buffer area’s entrance and exit, employees can know which orders and items are being put on hold. The system also reduces the chance of mistakes, Jensen notes, since adjustments to machinery can now be made automatically, rather than manually (which can often lead to human error). In the event of a problem involving a finished product, the company can simply access the database and review how that product was built, and thus determine what corrections need to be made.
Ultimately, Burlund says, the solution has enabled the company to complete one product (window or door) every minute, which is much faster than the manual method that required workers to individually set the settings on each machine, according to a particular paper order. The increased speed, he adds, has doubled the facility’s output rate.
Implementing the RFID system was challenging, according to Jensen, due to the large quantity of aluminum used in the frames. The solution, he says, “was adjusting and adjusting,” finding the proper reader antennas and then installing them at the correct angle and distance in order to ensure a 100 percent read rate.
The company uses approximately 400,000 tags annually, and reads tags during production about 3,500 times per day.
Having used the technology for two years, the company is now considering expanding how the RFID tags are used. Because tags remain on the frames after leaving the facility for delivery to a customer, they can be read by a driver once goods arrive at that customer’s site. In addition, the company foresees equipping its staff with handheld readers when they visit customers’ facilities. If problems occur with a window or door frame, an Idealcombi employee could simply read its tag ID and access all details regarding its production in real time, and then input any servicing provided, to be recorded in the firm’s back-end system.