Hansgrohe, a German manufacturer of fittings for kitchens and bathrooms, has deployed an RFID-enabled system to track the flow of shipping containers between two manufacturing facilities. The system uses inlays provided by UPM Raflatac and a back end software system developed by noFilis to collect and compile data for the company’s resource planning system.
The new system links Hansgorhe’s Schiltach factory, where fittings are manufactured, with an assembly facility in Offenburg. At the factory, an RFID-enabled kanban card is attached to each shipping container filled with parts. The kanban card is encoded with data for each component in the container. When the containers are unpacked at the Offenburg plant, the cards are collected and scanned, creating a set of data for the noFilis system. Based on the information gathered, Hansgrohe can efficiently plan future factory-to-assembly shipments.
The company is currently using between 200 and 500 kanban cards with UPM Raflatac’s UHF EPC Gen2 Web inlays each day. The system uses a durable inlay, and no damaged RFID components have been recorded yet, despite the relatively rugged conditions.
Based on the success of this system, Hansgrohe is reviewing other applications of RFID technology to further increase the automation and transparency of their logistic processes. ![[end]](/resources/bullet/archive-4.gif)
