RFID-Enabled Real-Time Manufacturing Information Tracking Infrastructure for Extended Enterprises

Abstract

In extended enterprises, real-time manufacturing information tracking plays an important role and aims to provide the right information to the right person at the right time in the right format to achieve optimal production management among the involved enterprises. This paper proposes a RFID-enabled real-time manufacturing information tracking infrastructure to address the real-time manufacturing data capturing and manufacturing information processing methods for extended enterprises. Following the proposed infrastructure, the traditional manufacturing resources such as employees, machines and materials are quipped with RFID devices to build the real-time data capturing environment. Then, a series of manufacturing information processing methods such as manufacturing cost, progress, WIP (Work-in-progress) inventory etc. are established to track the real-time manufacturing information of extended enterprises. Finally, a case study is given to demonstrate the presented framework and corresponding methodologies.