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RFID in Manufacturing
Information systems for manufacturing often follow a three-layer architecture based on an enterprise resource planning (ERP) layer (for order planning), a manufacturing execution system (MES) layer (for factory control), and a shop floor layer (for machine control). Future requirements on flexibility and adaptability require a much closer integration of ERP systems with the manufacturing floor. To achieve this integration, an MES often pushes customer orders to the manufacturing floor in a flexible manner. Moreover, a large amount of shop floor data needs to be filtered and fed into business planning applications such as production planning or supply chain management. Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) chips can play an important role in the collection and management of such data.
Manufacturing Execution Systems - MES
The production plants of today develop into modern service centers. Economic efficiency of modern added value is not a property of products alone but of the process. Decisive potential in business now is a question of process capability, rather than production capability. Process capability in business requires real-time systems for optimization. Business-IT needs to be developed from telecommunications and ERP to real time services, which are not offered by the prevailing ERP systems. Today, only modern Manufacturing Execution Systems (MES) offer real-time applications. They generate current as well as historic mappings of production facilities and thus they can be used as basis for optimizations. It is important to map the supply chain in real time. Increasing complexity in production requires an integrated view of the production and service facilities: detailed scheduling, status collection, quality, performance analysis, tracing of material and so on have to be recorded and displayed in an integrated way.
