Automotive industry

〈 Industry Case Studies 〉

Automotive
Industry

For the automobile industry, each company is developing solutions utilizing IoT technology. In particular, the use of RFID requires management of raw materials and processes at manufacturing sites.

Issues in the Future

At manufacturing sites, it is essential to manage a large number of materials and multiple manufacturing processes, and there is an urgent need to deal with labor shortages. Productivity improvement using RFID, in other words, reading and writing data such as production numbers and work instructions from IC tags, is expected to enable rapid transmission of work instructions and acquisition of status information for each vehicle.

Solution

[Raw Material Management]

RFID labels are attached when raw materials are received, and the RFID label ID information, material management number, and location information (storage location) are linked. By registering the location, it becomes possible to search where the material is in stock when it is needed. In the factory, materials are shipped and returned according to each manufacturing process, and so the comings and goings are repeated, so RFID tracing improves the accuracy of material management. By reading the RFID label when using the material, the inventory quantity can be grasped in real time. Since the shortage of materials affects the operation of the production line, it is necessary to cooperate with the system, but the ideal system is to automatically order materials based on the number of stocks and the order point.

[Manufacturing Process Control]

In terms of production management, by attaching an RFID label to each work-in-progress product and reading the ID information at each process, it is possible to manage the process for each work-in-progress product. Conventionally, barcodes and QR codes have been used, but because each point needs to be read, the work itself takes time, and there are also human errors such as double reading and missing reading. Multiple simultaneous reading, which is an advantage of RFID, not only improves the accuracy of process control, but also reduces the burden on workers. By performing this process management in real time, it is expected that the bottlenecks will be eliminated by finding processes that are causing business stagnation and productivity decline.

[Usage History Management]

RFID is embedded in the tire, and usage history such as shipment, installation, and recycling is also managed. In terms of tire sales, we are starting to look at how to break away from the conventional one-off sales business and secure continuous earnings in the maintenance and other areas.

Products Handled

RFID Tag Types in the Automotive Industry:
Metal-compatible Tags, Hard RFID Tags