At first glance, industrial automation hardware and software giant Rockwell Automation doesn't seem an obvious candidate to spend a lot of time and money on an RFID project. It doesn't make RFID hardware or software. It doesn't sell to Wal-Mart. Yet over the last two years, the company has been on the RFID trail.
Now Rockwell has released Phase 1 results of an RFID pilot that began in fall 2003 at its manufacturing plant in Twinsburg, Ohio, and its distribution center in Champaign, Ill. The catalyst for the project was the need to meet international shipping requirements, including country-of-origin tracking.
Rockwell learned it could eliminate scanning serial numbers with a bar-code reader, increase the quality control audit from 25 percent to 100 percent of orders, and discontinue piece counting in the cycle-count process. An added bonus was the potential to track requirements to meet RoHS (Restriction of Hazardous Substances) and WEEE (Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment) compliance.
But these are not the only lessons. First, starting with a small pilot is a good way to identify the real impact of an RFID implementation on operations.
"We also learned to ask whether RFID is always the right solution to the problem," says Joe Owen, director of strategic marketing for Rockwell. "It's only one tool, and you have to use the right tool in the right place."
Another lesson is that pilots are great teaching devices—those involved get practical RFID implementation knowledge that can be leveraged later on larger implementations, and for developing best practices. In Rockwell's case, it led to the development of a proprietary four-step RFID implementation methodology.
Rockwell is exploring RFID applications beyond the distribution center, such as tracking product, plant-floor assets, and work-in-process. Sujeet Chand, Rockwell's VP of advanced technology, says to get real value from RFID, it must be recognized that the technology is simply a means to access to information kept elsewhere in the organization.
"What you are gaining with an RFID tag is access to a database where all the information about a particular product can be stored," says Chand, adding, "Leveraging that information across operations—from the machine level out to the supply chain—is where the real ROI in RFID is to be found."