Zebra Technologies’ recent white paper, The Factory of the Future: A Practical Guide to Harnessing New Value in Manufacturing, is, as its title suggests, a practical guide, and focuses on deploying automatic identification and data capture (AIDC) systems to eliminate waste in manufacturing supply chains.
The paper introduces its topic by citing IDC Manufacturing Insight’s oft-quoted estimate that waste in global manufacturing supply chains currently totals $900 billion – proof of ample room for improvement in manufacturing efficiency. Key to greater manufacturing efficiency is asset visibility, providing all “physical assets a digital profile that enables [manufacturers] to know the real-time location and condition of those assets, and timing and accuracy of the events occurring throughout the value chain.”
The paper lists 5 trends that drive greater data visibility:
- Strategic Big Data: Providing “deeper, more actionable insight into operations and processes” and enabling enterprises to “do more with less.”
- The Internet of Things: As automated devices associated with manufacturing increase in number, machine-to-machine, cloud-enabled communication becomes critical.
- Actionable Analytics: As enterprises transition from knowing what happened in past production cycles to knowing what is happening in the present production cycle – in real time – they use that “data to optimize processes, reduce shrinkage, and provide better security and safety throughout the workplace.”
- Integrated Ecosystems: Where enterprises once operated largely as disparate divisions that communicated inefficiently via vertical hierarchies, increased “connectivity and consistent visibility across operations, supply chains, and business partners streamlines processes and operations.”
- The Virtual Plant Floor: Real-time supply chain visibility facilitates integration of scattered sites and systems into a consolidated, cohesive virtual integrated plant.
Comprehensive AIDC solutions available through Zebra include:
- Barcodes: For improved data accuracy and speed of acquisition
- Radio Frequency Identification (RFID): RFID tags compliment barcodes by requiring no line-of-sight between the reader and tagged asset
- Global Positioning Systems (GPS)
- Environment Sensors
- Real-Time Locating Systems (RTLS): To deliver optimum visibility to critical assets
The white paper concludes with a discussion of deployment of these AIDC technologies to improve process efficiencies in warehousing, inbound/outbound logistics, asset management, work-in-progress and breakdown/put-away. Whatever your share of the $900 billion in manufacturing supply chain waste, the extreme levels of asset visibility deliverable by Zebra’s AIDC solutions are key to taming it.