Japanese shipbuilding uses RFID to realize visual management of in-process products

Mitsui Engineering & Shipbuilding (MES), a global engineering company focused on the marine, energy systems and infrastructure sectors, is deploying rfid flexible anti-metal tags at its Oita factory for work-in-progress (WIP) management.

       MES's Oita plant produces material handling equipment, including container cranes, gantry cranes, bridge cranes, jib cranes, ship cranes and other machines. These cranes contain thousands of parts, many of which are manufactured in the factories of their suppliers.

       As ports around the world invest in and expand facilities, the demand for material handling equipment has increased significantly. The surge in orders for MES cranes has brought greater challenges to companies to improve production efficiency. In the past, MES Oita Factory had to manage the large number of metal parts delivered to the factory by these suppliers every day, which has been a problem. These parts previously had to be sorted by job number through manual verification of orders, engineering drawings and other documents.

       Mr. Sotome, Manufacturing Department Manager at MES Oita Plant, said: "Large cranes typically include up to 55,000 parts, ranging from small to large. We encountered difficulties in managing a large number of metal parts from different suppliers and manually sorting and tracking these parts throughout the production process. There were a lot of difficulties.”

      MES chose RFID tags due to their high performance and durability in outdoor parts tracking, allowing the Oita factory to use RFID Readers for end-to-end tracking. The tags are pre-associated with order data, printed using an RFID printer, and then provided to the supplier when the order is placed.

Suppliers now attach RFID tags to each part and component before delivering them to the Oita plant. Each supplier receives a new order and corresponding RFID tag when delivering the complete assembly to the factory.

       RFID solutions save production time and improve inventory management accuracy. Before the RFID system was deployed, workers at each production site had to walk to the stockyard to determine whether the required components had been delivered, and only confirm receipt if conditions permitted. This greatly wastes valuable time in production.

       With RFID, the time required to receive these components from suppliers is reduced, so personnel working in the receiving area can deliver components to each production site in a more timely manner by checking production progress.

       Mr. Sotome of MES mentioned: “MES is always looking for ways to improve productivity and streamline processes. Just-in-time delivery services to the production site need to be integrated with real-time production data. This RFID system started as a way to simply improve the efficiency of component acceptance. , now shows us how the Oita factory can effectively use the Internet of Things to improve production efficiency and achieve real-time visual management.”