RFID Traceability and Production Control System

Saident, a company specializing in creating and integrating solutions based on radio frequency identification technology (RFID), has created a system of traceability and production control, applicable to any manufacturing environment, which automates and flexible manufacturing processes.

he solution based on RFID technology allows real-time know what the production status of a factory, monitor the performance of each process, identify bottlenecks and make decisions based on incidents reported, such as relocation of resources .
Saident has developed and successfully launched for the first time this solution in the Iberconsumática production center, a company which manufactures and recycles toner and printer cartridges. The RFID-based system covers the 13 stages of the production chain of the company by automating many processes that were hitherto manually and allowing a faster and more efficient production. This flexibility and efficiency will help in finalizing the upcoming opening of the company in other markets worldwide.
"Until now we worked on documentary level as established by ISO that we apply in our center, that is, the employees made handwritten notes on what they produced. This gave rise to errors that are avoided with today's chip containing all our toners, "says Francisco Miguel Garcia, manager of Iberconsumática. For its part, the director general of Saident, Dani Rodriguez, notes that "much more transparent RFID production processes, which facilitates faster decision-making: it helps to detect problems and that can act on them as soon as possible . As in other sectors, implementation of RFID in industrial processes helps companies to optimize their working procedures.
Each of the toners that makes Iberconsumática are labeled in the first stage of production with an RFID tag or chip, that identifies them individually and unambiguously. When toners are advancing by different manufacturing processes, readers located at each stage are identified and the system records their condition and how each process is in real time. This makes it possible to know where each toner and who has manipulated until it exits at issue. If any impact on production, which is useful to know what was the error and where it occurred, so you can fix it.
Moreover, since the RFID tag attached to the toner throughout its life, when the cartridges are returned for recycling, Iberconsumática can verify the authenticity of the product thanks to the chip that was placed where it was manufactured.
The control system of production that has developed Saident can be applied in any industrial manufacturing process. However, the implementation of the solution Iberconsumática several challenges raised by the specific characteristics of the product and its manufacturing process. Because the company works with the handling of paints and pigments, one of the main challenges to be overcome with RFID readers and tags that you work with is that they were resistant to this environment and would not see their benefits diminished by dirt. Furthermore, the size of the toners was necessary to use very small tags, they could adhere to the product without interfering with its functionality.
For these tags, the size makes the read range decreases, and this implies that readers have more difficulty to capture information on the chip. This has made for this particular project, is Saident see the need to develop a reading tunnel for the final stage of production. The tunnel is made of plastic and includes a conveyor belt and several antennas readers that check to arrive in good condition at the stage of issuing all manufactured toners. This device automatically provides total reliability of reading for all products, even within its packaging.