A case of implementing RFID-based real-time shop-floor material management for household electrical appliance manufacturers (original) (raw)

Abstract

Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) technologies provide automatic and accurate object data capturing capability and enable real-time object visibility and traceability. Potential benefits have been widely reported for improving manufacturing shop-floor management. However, reports on how such potentials come true in real-life shop-floor daily operations are very limited. As a result, skeptics overwhelm enthusiasm. This paper contributes to the re-vitalization of RFID efforts in manufacturing industries by presenting a real-life case study of applying RFID for managing material distribution in a complex assembly shop-floor at a large air conditioner manufacturer. The case study discusses how technical, social and organizational issues have been addressed throughout the project within the company. It is hoped that insights and lessons gained be generalized for future efforts across household electrical appliance manufacturers that share similar shop-floor.

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Acknowledgments

The authors are grateful to the collaborating company for providing technical supports. We would also like to thank HK ITF (GHP/042/07LP), RGC GRF HKU 712508E, HKU Small Project Funding (200907176106), China National Science Foundation 50805116 and 60973132, Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities-SCUT (2009ZZ0053), and Guangdong Science and Technology Department-International Collaboration Project (2010B050400005) for providing partial financial supports.

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This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Noncommercial License which permits any noncommercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author(s) and source are credited.

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Authors and Affiliations

1. Department of Industrial and Manufacturing Systems Engineering, University of Hong Kong, Pokfulam Road, Hong Kong, People’s Republic of China
   T. Qu, George Q. Huang, Y. F. Zhang, H. Luo & W. Qin
2. College of Automation Science and Engineering, South China University of Technology, Guangzhou, People’s Republic of China
   H. D. Yang
3. Key Laboratory of Contemporary Design and Integrated Manufacturing Technology, Ministry of Education, Northwestern Polytechnical University, Xi’an, People’s Republic of China
   Y. F. Zhang

Authors

1. T. Qu
2. H. D. Yang
3. George Q. Huang
4. Y. F. Zhang
5. H. Luo
6. W. Qin

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Correspondence toH. D. Yang.

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Open Access This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Noncommercial License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/2.0), which permits any noncommercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author(s) and source are credited.

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Qu, T., Yang, H.D., Huang, G.Q. et al. A case of implementing RFID-based real-time shop-floor material management for household electrical appliance manufacturers.J Intell Manuf 23, 2343–2356 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10845-010-0476-2

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• Received: 28 August 2010
• Accepted: 19 October 2010
• Published: 04 November 2010
• Issue date: December 2012
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10845-010-0476-2

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