Title: Potentials and limitations of RFID applications in packaging industry: a case study

Authors: Thomas Seidel, Reik Donner

Addresses: Institute of Transport and Economics, Faculty of Traffic Sciences 'Friedrich List', Dresden University of Technology, Andreas-Schubert-Str. 23, 01062 Dresden, Germany. ' Institute of Transport and Economics, Faculty of Traffic Sciences 'Friedrich List', Dresden University of Technology, Andreas-Schubert-Str. 23, 01062 Dresden, Germany

Abstract: The application of radio frequency identification (RFID) technology has been intensively discussed as an innovative technique for improving performance and, hence, assessing economic potentials in manufacturing systems. However, a systematic application in different industries has not yet been achieved. In this paper, we present a case study revealing the potentials and limits of the use of RFID in packaging plants. It is demonstrated that in such factories, there are two important fields of application of RFID and related technologies: inventory control of finished and temporally stored products and transfer control of individual goods within the transport and buffer system linking the different machines. We present a general framework of how RFID technology can be implemented for these two purposes, supporting the existing infrastructure. Our findings may be generalised to a variety of other manufacturing industries.

Keywords: material flow control; automated identification; AutoID technology; radio frequency identification; RFID; packaging industry; inventory control; buffer systems; manufacturing industry.

DOI: 10.1504/IJMTM.2010.035433

International Journal of Manufacturing Technology and Management, 2010 Vol.21 No.3/4, pp.225 - 238

Published online: 30 Sep 2010 *

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