Integrated RFID driving supply chain improvements

RFID (radio frequency identification) technology is seeing increasing and beneficial use in high value asset management, and supply chain tracking in companies faced with the retail giants’ and defence department RFID mandates. Last month’s SAP Sapphire user conference revealed the technology being used to create automated workflows at aircraft manufacturer Airbus SAS and Frankfurt airport services firm Fraport AG – and in the retail sector, with Purdue Pharma applying a pilot version of SAP RFID systems to accelerate its supply chain and enable compliance for Wal-Mart. Airbus SAS is using RFID-enabled asset management for its leased tools supply chain. Specialised tools are RFID-tagged, for identification, transport and lifecycle information. Equipment is handled in a supply cycle between Airbus, the tool repair shop and the customer, where the tools are used for repair. When they require service, they’re sent to the calibration lab and repair shop where the data is written to the tags. “By putting RFID tags on our tools, we have significantly improved repair management,” says Thorsten Brinkop, senior director, Airbus Spares. “With the integration with SAP supply chain management, we will be able to create an even faster and easier data exchange and further change the paper process into automated supply chain processes with online availability of information either on the RFID tag or on the Internet.” SAP says it’s building considerable RFID functionality into its mySAP Business Suite (formerly R/3) and offering RFID packages for specific high value industries to enable this kind of asset management improvement. It’s built an extension to mySAP PLM (product lifecycle management) which now covers field service technicians. There’s an RFID-enabled mobile solution based on the SAP Auto-ID infrastructure which goes a long way to closing the loop on predictive and preventive maintenance. Fraport is using that system to reduce the costs of maintenance on ventilation systems. Service technicians are now equipped with PDAs that read RFID tags installed on ventilation shutters to confirm that each vent on the work order is checked and act as clients to the ERP software for automatically generated reports. By replacing its paper-based practices, Fraport anticipates reductions of up to 70% in facility control costs. “With the integrated mobile solution, we were able to optimally map mobile business processes into our existing SAP landscape,” says Werner Breitwieser, project manager, Fraport. “By shifting back-office processing to the asset maintenance site, the SAP solution delivers significant time savings while increasing transparency and safeguarding processes.”