Solution · Manufacturing
Factory Automation
Track work in progress through the line automatically, with traceability from raw material to finished goods.
- Live
- WIP position by stage
- Full
- Batch traceability, material to finished goods
- Per station
- Cycle time measured, not estimated
On a factory floor the question is always the same: where is that batch right now, and what happened to it. RFID answers it without anyone writing on a card. Tags on jigs, trolleys, pallets and work-in-progress are read at each station, so the line reports its own status — and when a customer asks about a batch two years later, the trail is there.
The problem today
What it looks like before
If two or three of these describe your operation, this solution is worth a conversation. If none of them do, it probably is not.
What we hear
Work-in-progress status is known only by asking the supervisor on the floor.
Traceability depends on paper job cards that get dirty, lost and filled in afterwards.
Bottlenecks are argued about because nobody has station-by-station timing.
Rejections cannot be traced back to a machine, an operator or a raw material batch.
How it works
Step by step, on site
Not an architecture diagram — the actual sequence of what happens to a physical thing.
- 1
Tag the carrier
The tag goes on the jig, pallet, trolley or fixture that carries the work, so it is reused rather than consumed. On-metal tags survive the environment.
- 2
Read at each station
Fixed readers at every station record arrival and departure automatically as the carrier moves. No scanning step for the operator.
- 3
Bind to the batch
The carrier is bound to a work order and a raw material batch at the start of the line, so everything read afterwards is attributed correctly.
- 4
Talk to the machines
Readers with Modbus, Profinet or EtherNet/IP feed the PLC directly, so the machine can refuse to run on the wrong part.
- 5
Report the line
Station cycle times, queue lengths, WIP by stage and OEE come out of the read data rather than out of a manual log.
Software used
What changes
Results and benefits
Figures come from real deployments. They depend on site conditions, which is why we commit to numbers for your site only after a trial.
- Live
- WIP position by stage
- Full
- Batch traceability, material to finished goods
- Per station
- Cycle time measured, not estimated
- Traceability that satisfies a customer audit or a recall investigation.
- Bottlenecks identified from data rather than from opinion.
- Fewer wrong-part errors because the machine can check before it runs.
- Reusable carrier tags keep the ongoing tag cost near zero.
Example deployment
What one site looked like
Client names are withheld until we have written permission to publish them.
Automotive component plant, 9 stations
On-metal tags on 400 fixtures, read at every station. Work-in-progress became visible on a screen on the floor for the first time. Station timing data identified a bottleneck at the third operation that had been blamed on the fifth for two years.
Implementation & support
How the project actually runs
Including the parts that take the longest and the parts you have to own rather than us.
- 1
Line study
Station layout, carrier types, cycle times, metal density and existing PLC and MES interfaces.
- 2
Carrier tagging
On-metal tags fitted to fixtures, jigs and trolleys in a position that reads reliably and survives handling.
- 3
Station readers
Fixed readers and antennas installed and tuned per station, with shielding so a station reads only its own work.
- 4
PLC and system integration
Reader outputs wired to the PLC where the machine has to act, and to the software for reporting.
- 5
Validation
A run of known batches through the whole line, proving the trace record end to end before go-live.
Factory Automation solution brief
WIP tracking on carriers, station timing, PLC gating and batch traceability.
This is the document that used to live at /pdf/factory.pdf on the old site. The content is now on this page; the PDF stays available.
Questions
Before you commit
Will RFID work with all the metal on a shop floor?
Yes, with on-metal tags and careful antenna placement. Metal reflects and detunes, which is exactly why the read-rate trial happens before the order rather than after.
Can it talk to our PLCs?
Yes. We supply industrial readers with Modbus TCP, Profinet and EtherNet/IP, so the read can gate the machine directly rather than going through a server.
Do we tag the product or the carrier?
The carrier, wherever possible. It is reusable, it survives the process, and it costs nothing per unit produced. Product tagging is used where the item itself must carry its identity onward.
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Read moreTalk to us about factory automation
Send your site details and what you need to track. We come back with a specification, a hardware list and a read-rate trial plan — before you commit to anything.
Or call +91 97305 32888 — Monday to Saturday, 9:30 am to 6:30 pm.