Title: Implementation of real-time shop floor manufacturing using RFID technologies

Authors: Yingfeng Zhang, George Q. Huang, T. Qu, Pingyu Jiang

Addresses: Faculty of Mechanical Engineering, The State Key Laboratory for Manufacturing Systems Engineering, Xi'an Jiaotong University, Xi'an, Shaanxi, China. ' Department of Industrial and Manufacturing Systems Engineering, The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, China. ' Department of Industrial and Manufacturing Systems Engineering, The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, China. ' Faculty of Mechanical Engineering, The State Key Laboratory for Manufacturing Systems Engineering, Xi'an Jiaotong University, Xi'an, Shaanxi, China

Abstract: This paper presents an easy-to-deploy and simple-to-use gateway framework with which advanced applications can be developed to achieve real-time shop floor manufacturing using RFID technologies. Some key enabling technologies including shop floor gateway, workstation gateway, RFID-enabled smart objects and agent-based workflow management are integrated into the framework to implement real-time manufacturing data collection, visibility and traceability. The methodologies and technologies proposed in this paper will enable manufacturing enterprises to improve shop floor productivity and quality, reduce the wastes of manufacturing resources, cut the costs in manufacturing logistics, reduce the risk and improve the efficiency in cross-border customs logistics as well as in online supervision. [Received 2 January 2009; Revised 14 July 2009; Accepted 20 July 2009]

Keywords: RFID; autoID; smart objects; agent-based systems; real-time manufacturing; radio frequency identification; automatic identification; workflow management; data collection; visibility; traceability.

DOI: 10.1504/IJMR.2010.029664

International Journal of Manufacturing Research, 2010 Vol.5 No.1, pp.74 - 86

Published online: 30 Nov 2009 *

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