In the current issue of RFID Journal, reporter Claire Swedberg wrote about how Trane restocks supplies, the heating and air-conditioning systems manufacturer, improved efficiency with an Ultriva Solution by having its logistic centers attach passive UHF RFID tags to the packaging of components shipped to its factory. The article is entitled, “Trane Restocks Supplies at Assembly Plant Via RFID.”
The factory uses a kanban (just-in-time-ordering) system to ensure the efficient movement of components from a third-party warehouse to the plant. Since 2009, the company—a division of Ingersoll Rand—has been utilizing a portal-based software solution provided by Ultriva to help suppliers, as well as warehouse and factory personnel, ensure that materials flow to the assembly line as needed, without falling behind or backing up.
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Swedberg reported, “By using this system, the company is able to stock just two hours' worth of supplies on the plant floor, thereby conserving space and ensuring that components are always available but never stockpiled longer than necessary. This year, however, Trane has boosted that efficiency by adding RFID technology to automate the process of identifying when supplies are received at its Tyler plant. A process that used to last approximately 30 minutes—the receiving of goods at the factory's warehouse, and the scanning of those products' bar codes—now takes only about five minutes to complete, as workers pass the RFID-tagged goods through a fixed RFID reader.”
Trane suggested that the RFID implementation will save it about $120,000 annually in reduced labor costs. Prior to the RFID deployment, the Ultriva system created an automatic link between orders received and the picking and shipping process. When additional goods were needed from suppliers, Trane posted orders on the Ultriva Web-based portal, residing on a server hosted by a third-party behind Trane's firewall. Its suppliers would access that portal, and most responded by shipping goods directly to one of the company's two third-party logistics centers, while a few send them directly to a warehouse at the Tyler plant. Once an item was received at the logistics center or warehouse, a worker scanned the packaging's bar-coded ID number. That ID, linked to that item's description in the software, was then stored, indicating what was received and was now available.
About Ultriva
Ultriva (www.ultriva.com) empowers leading industrial, automotive, healthcare, aerospace and defense businesses to operate more effectively and collaboratively by providing real time visibility and targeted actionable intelligence into inventory and material flows. Ultriva’s cloud-based platform leverages and seamlessly integrates with leading ERP and MRP systems, to deliver an end to end pull based replenishment model for 21st century enterprises such as ATK, CareFusion, Emerson, Ingersoll Rand, McKesson, Magellan, Regal Beloit, Thermo Fisher and more. Ultriva is a privately held, growing software company based in Cupertino, California. Follow Ultriva on Twitter @Ultriva.
Ultriva, Inc.
www.ultriva.com
Cynthia Leonard
Marketing Executive
cynthial@ultriva.com
408.961.2495
