Reduce material waste with RFID asset tracking system

When expensive materials are used in the production process, waste can be huge as usual. The problem is exacerbated by the physical distance between the planning and execution stages of the production process. In 2007, the American technology company Plataine launched the TPO software suite in an attempt to solve this problem.

The TPO suite includes a planning component and a production component. The planning component uses the three optimization programs WoodOptimizer, FabricOptimizer and FoamOptimizer to integrate production orders and existing inventory information to determine the optimal action. RFID-based Material Asset Tracking (MAT) provides real-time tracking of any item such as materials, Tools, etc. At the same time, MAT will feed data back to the optimization software and update the production plan. Plataine product manager Michal Diga said that due to various reasons, actual production is often inconsistent with plans. The MAT system can update the optimization software in real time according to the actual production situation to achieve optimal production.

Since the system was launched in 2007, the TPO system has been deployed in the furniture, clothing, aviation and defense industries. Five of the seven largest furniture manufacturers in the United States have deployed this solution. The RFID-based MAT system has currently only been deployed in aerospace and defense companies. Diga said that any manufacturing company can use the TPO system and benefit from it. In the future, Plataine will also integrate sensors and data recording into the software decision-making process.

When using the material asset tracking system, customers need to attach RFID tags to the assets that need to be tracked. This solution provides monitoring of item location. The software is designed to reduce manual intervention and provide automated production records to improve traceability and supply chain efficiency.

Diga cited TPO/MAT, which produces Boeing 787 parts, as an example. This customer's production process involves temperature-sensitive composite materials. These materials need to be thawed before cutting, and they lose their effectiveness after being out of the freezer for a while. Previously, the company used paper to manually record the thawing time of the material, which resulted in a loss of US$500,000 in material fees every year. The TPO suite can determine the best production pattern for the day based on existing inventory levels. Diga says the system improves material utilization by 5% and also enables full automation of material selection and cutting planning.

TPO/MAT is using Elpas' Eiris middleware to integrate Impinj's Speedway readers and passive UHF RFID tags. Plataine recommends the use of active tags. The software also supports both passive and active tags.

The TPO suite also provides a SaaS rental model. Diga said this model reduces upfront costs and has a payback period of only three months. The software integrates data from multiple sources, such as data collected by temperature sensors. This also allows users to track the location, temperature and time of materials during production. The TPO suite uses this data to optimize the manufacturing process in real time. Users can also set up reminders so that the system will receive notifications when materials are out of place, production bottlenecks, etc.

TPO software shortens the distance between enterprise resource planning, material requirements planning and manufacturing execution systems. Diga said the package takes into account customer orders, delivery dates, material inventory and parts inventory.

Diga said that production efficiency is the magic weapon of excellent enterprises. The purpose of Plataine products is to reduce costs, improve quality control capabilities and enhance corporate competitiveness.