RFID application in manufacturing: A case study on a pilot RFID project in household appliance production

Radio Frequency IDentification (RFID) is becoming an increasingly popular new technology in manufacturing. However, there are a lot of problems to be solved, such as architecture, process reengineering, and cost control. A case of RFID application in household appliance production lines is studied in this article. A three-layered architecture is presented for integrating the RFID system with the original manufacturing execution system and enterprise resource planning system, and the detailed workflow of the RFID application is introduced. In this case, the barcode technology is retained in some operations to bridge the legacy systems and the new RFID application system economically. Finally, the practical effects of the RFID application in a refrigerator production line have shown that the presented RFID application system is helpful to improve the production efficiency and reduce the cost of business operations for the enterprise.