ICT, one of companies featured in the positive article ” RFID: A Concrete Position in Construction” http://www.constructech.com/news/articles/article.aspx?article_id=7858
Productivity is to business what gravity is to Newton’s law. If all employees did a perfect job day in and day out, if equipment ran without breakdowns, every inventory piece easily found, products were always delivered on time, then business would need not be concern with productivity to improve profitability.
Just like an arrow shot straight up in the air would continue to climb if not for gravity. But, the force of gravity changes its course and limits its climb, just as productivity can limit the climb of business to higher profits. To increase the distance an arrow travels you build bigger bows and sleeker arrows, to increase productivity in a business you bring in better people, faster machines, better production techniques and systems to management and measure these assets.
In the 1970’s, bar-coding increased productivity by indentifying and tracking individual products or assets. It is little debated that bar-coding, for those businesses able to implement it, has increased productivity thus profits. RFID, which is an enhanced bar code or what is called an auto-identification technology, will again revolutionize business practices. RFID technology will allow millions of products, unable to use traditional bar-coding, to be tracked and managed.
RFID for Concrete
The Precast Concrete industry is one of those industries for which barcodes are not an optimal solution. Bar-coding has been deployed, but with little success. Maintaining barcode readability and attachment to a concrete structure is difficult at best. RFID solves many of issues surrounding tracking individual precast concrete structures.
By implementing a well designed RFID based system in a Precast plant, management will now have new tools, which as one Precaster stated, “We only dreamt about”. RFID technology is an interrogation or data collection tool. Recording tasks and gathering data at predetermined points in the life cycle of a product will feed management a Real-Time High Definition View of their Precast business. With a Real-Time High Definition View of operations, the Precaster will be able to make major strides forward in fighting the dragging effects of counter productivity.
Precast Plant productivity will be improved in the follow areas using RFID:
Quality Control by letting this group scan the RFID tag early this not only reduces time consuming paperwork but provides instantaneous reporting on what state the structure is in, such as, fabrication, pre-pour, post-pour, repair or available. By QC associating the tag to the product, all other scans throughout the life cycle are easily accomplished and a true quality assurance program is maintained.
Batch number tracking can lead to recording real-time yield trends to better manage material usage. This also enhances the QA program by attaching a batch number to the structure in a real-time environment.
Production tracking is accomplished every time a scan of a process or task is performed on a structure by collecting time and user information. With this information, reports and other analytical tools can be used to better manage assets like forms, forklifts, delivery vehicles and people.
GPS yard locating dramatically reduces the time spend locating products in the yard, and can provide a physical view of the facility and the products and assets.
Cycle counting by non-management employees will reduce costs and supply more accurate inventories.
Work order tracking will give instant status of a product, increasing the productivity of customer service and improve customer satisfaction.
Pick and Ship Validation will reduce incorrect shipments, reducing costs associated with re-shipping or re-making as well as improved customer relations.
Proof of delivery will not only provide easier confirmation of deliveries for the Precaster, but provide location tracking for the customer.
Transfer of Electronic Data to the customer now becomes a value added product to those customers who require jobsite tracking at virtually no cost to the Precaster.
In any business, a well design and implemented barcode and RFID system creates a more efficient and profitable company. With advancements in RFID technology the Precaster now has the best answer to increased productivity within their plants.
For additional information contact:
International Coding Technologies, Inc.
6 Liberty Lane
Lynnfield, MA 01940 USA
Toll Free: 1.800.613.7674
Telephone: +1.978.212.7014
Email: sales@ictrfid.com
Email: support@ictrfid.com
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