By establishing its Integrated Sales, Manufacturing, and Customer Call Centre in Xiamen, China, DELL became the second largest integrated computer manufacturer in the Asia-Pacific region. This facility manufactures Dell's range of OptiPlex desktop PCs, Latitude notebooks, and PowerEdge servers for Dell customers and distributors in China.
When initially established, the facility was challenged by the lack of data capture automation for its production operations; this created bottlenecks throughout different production points that dramatically impacted productivity.
A system was needed to increase productivity, efficiency and tracking inventory visibility throughout the plant. The system requirements included read/write capability and reusability of the tags. When DELL researched data capture systems and compared barcode vs RFID they realised that RFID was necessary for the application. DELL evaluated several RFID companies and came to the conclusion that EMS met all specifications and was the best company for the application.
EMS RFID is used for two different processes at DELL China: manufacturing and shipping.
The manufacturing process consists of 4000 trays that have LRP-P5050 tags attached to the bottom. The production cycle starts with writing the tracking code and computer assembly instructions to the tags; this determines the specific assembly line the trays travel down. These trays then convey the computer components to one of 16 different assembly sections, where at each section the tags are read by an LRP820-04 antenna for specific work instructions. After the computer is assembled and tested, production information such as date, time, section and employee code is written to the tags. The LRP820 reader/writer sends the tag data to the Control PC where the decision is made as to which specific shipping station is appropriate for the computer. The computer that is fully assembled is diverted to the appropriate shipping section where it will be boxed, labelled, and ready to ship.
At each shipping station EMS RFID is used to transfer tag data to the Control PC; this instructs the Auto Label Printer to print on the corresponding box. The label contains information about the configuration of the PC, serial number and other information required for customer service. Final inspection is done at this point to compare BOM (bill of materials based on actual order received) vs actual computer built. In case of any nonconformance, the computer is sent to the QA station for corrective action.
An additional advantage experienced by DELL was that there was no added expense involved in procuring any other devices (such as programmable logic controller). The only expense incurred was interfacing the EMS RFID system to the main server for data collection. The interface involves converting serial data to Ethernet for faster communication.
DELL as a whole is now convinced that EMS RFID has improved their production efficiency and helps them retain their world status as one of the best computer manufacturing companies. Process engineer Mike McNamara at DELL stated, "The earlier system architecture on the computer product lines needed many improvements. Hence, the automation of the new lines was pre-planned carefully while choosing the RFID system. As specifications were finalised on our entire requirement, EMS was the RFID provider that fit perfectly. Our productivity targets have been easily met after this installation and we are looking for other areas where RFID can bring us gains."
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