Auto-ID enabled real-time manufacturing shop-floor management: a case study in a fastener manufacturer

Abstract

This research is motivated by a practical fastener company which is a supplier for most major automobile factories in China. Each month it receives more than 150 new orders, including 4000+ kinds of fasteners, and the production volume usually keeps in billion-level. As the managers suffer from the bottleneck of collecting the real-time shop-floor information, it is difficult to evaluate the available machine capacity, estimate the latest start time, and release appropriate amount of production orders. This paper presents a real-life case study to describe how to implement Auto-ID technology on a manufacturing shop-floor and use the collected real-time information to support decision-making processes. Meanwhile, the lessons like how to institutionalize a project team, how to defuse the resistance from the personnel will be discussed. We hope the experiences and insights learned from this project can be shared with other fastener manufacturers which are contemplating to adopt Auto-ID technology in their shop-floor management.