Enhancing the Flexibility of Manufacturing Systems Using the RFID Technology

Abstract

The introduction of RFID technology in the manufacturing environment provides the basis for implementing much more agile systems by providing continuous, real-time information relating to the movement of physical items. The components traceability, enabled by RFID technology, may be used to increase the degree of automation of the system calibration process at the shop floor level. An interesting aspect relating to the calibration process of a complex reconfigurable system is how to automatically determine the production facility’s positions and the optimum routes between them, especially when the system is consisting of a big number of production facilities, routes and switches. This paper proposes an RFID-based method to automatically determine the positions of the production facilities involved in the manufacturing process, placed along conveyor belts. The information acquired in the discovering process will allow the optimal leading of raw materials towards the production facilities to be processed.