Leveraging on RFID-IoT technologies and simulation to design and develop of a Work-in-process prototype in a manufacturing plant

In this collaborative research project between a manufacturing company and university researchers, we are exploring the use of Radio Frequency Identification-Internet of things (RFID-IoT) technologies to improve the work-in-process (WIP) tracking of production. Like many manufacturing companies, the industrial partner faces several operational management challenges. During the production progress units are moved, and sometimes stored in inappropriate locations, or misplaced in one of the company's many zones. This complicates operations planning, increases delays and lost productivity. To respond to this problem and ensure real time visibility of these units, several technological designs are being tested. Given the harsh-metal operating environment, the envisioned solution needs to (a) be deployed in a multi-zone location (b) minimize maintenance management (c) minimize implementation complexity. The first objective is to design and develop a real-time location solution (RTLS) prototype to track WIP units (e.g. buckets of screw), using fixed readers and high ceiling passive RFID readers. The second objective is to compare and evaluate the impact of different designs on operational performance and select the most interesting one. For this purpose, we will use simulation modeling approach. The originality of this project lies in the combination of physical prototyping of RFID-IoT technologies and simulation, which uses real operations data to explore the impact of the solution on business and operational processes.