Managing shop floor systems Using RFID in the Middle East

Abstract

The controllability of a factory is highly dependent on the capability of a given enterprise planning system to interact with the shop floor, and the capability of any authorized user to review the operation plans, as well as the status of any sales order on the shop floor. We have called the concept E-manufacturing, which is a concept to improve the controllability of a factory by connecting the Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system to the shop floor control (SFC) system through the Internet. Business systems and plant systems must be coupled to reduce decision cycle times and increase plant productivity, as well as eliminating human intervention to improve accuracy and data availability speed. This paper is the output of a project funded by the Egyptian Ministry of Scientific Research and Technology, through the Electronic Research Institute. The overall objective of the ministerial program is bridging the gap between R&D and manufacturing to fulfill the immediate technological needs of the Egyptian industry and economy, and building a national technology know-how expertise. This is achieved, in this project, by addressing the development of an E-Manufacturing system using available RFID state-of-the-art technology. The specific objective is developing an end product for Egyptian industry that manages real-time interaction with back end ERP systems to correct delays on the shop floor, improving real-time operation, reducing cost, and allow real-time visibility, through the intelligent usage of the RFID. The end product is a fully working system tested in the factory of the manufacturing partner MOBICA.