RFID: A “Must Investment” for Process Plants

Related Vendors

DÜPERTHAL Sicherheitstechnik GmbH & Co. KG

TURCK GmbH

Glatt Ingenieurtechnik GmbH

Zebra Technologies Europe Limited

Zebra Technologies Europe Limited Ndl.Deutschland

Businesses answered this question in an Aberdeen Group 2007 benchmark report for manufacturing, which discovered that companies employing RFID–supported processes for at least six months realised the following benefits:

• Average cycle-time reductions of 19 per cent.

• A 27 per cent reduction in safety stock.

• A 24 per cent improvement in change-over time.

Manufacturers can use RFID to automate most processes including identifying objects, controlling employee access, and recording their location or movements. The technology often creates value by automatically recording these activities, reducing labour costs, and providing more complete and accurate information than manual record keeping.

Search Time – Lost time

Unattended readers can ensure the recording of all asset movements, and can issue alerts if unauthorised material movement occurs. Utilising RFID to ensure accurate record keeping also helps keep assets available and eliminates the hidden costs associated with searching for lost or misplaced items. For example, if employees spend an average of only 10 minutes a day looking for tools, equipment, or materials, they spend the equivalent of one full week each year on non-value added searching, as the following calculation illustrates:

(10 minutes/day x 5 days/week x 50 weeks/year) = 2,500 minutes/year ÷ 60 minutes/hour = 41.67 hours

To find the labour cost impact to a business, multiply this time by the number of employees involved in searches, and then by their average per hour salary. The total impact is actually higher, because employees cannot utilise missing assets, which often then require premature replacement.

RFID Valueable Helper for Asset Management

There are other costs associated with asset management when manual labour is required to inventory and record assets, track asset movements, and enter the information into information systems. RFID can eliminate manual labour, plus the time delays between when workers move or use assets and when the activity is recorded.

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