Production material

Long searches for missing parts can be avoided when every material movement is captured automatically and can be analysed. SICK combines material location with its Asset Analytics platform, which shows movement profiles as well as transport and idle times. Event management automates bookings in the inventory management system. In its own operations, SICK thus cut the search time for missing material from 45 to 15 minutes and throughput time by 20 per cent.

Assembly line feeding across sites becomes transparent when the position and status of every transport are reported automatically. At SICK, production sites are located away from the warehouse, and staff used to have to check on site. Today, the trolleys send events to the SAP Logistics Business Network as they pass through defined warehouse zones. When a trolley is loaded onto the truck or arrives at production, the system books goods issue and goods receipt automatically.

With SICK's LOCU system, production material can be located to within less than one metre, with up to 1,000 updates per second. Each object carries a LOCU tag that receiving antennas detect and identify unambiguously. Parts remain visible even when they leave a fixed assembly line or conveyor on industrial trucks. From this data, Asset Analytics displays movement profiles as well as transport and idle times and shortens the search for material.

Digital material replenishment books every movement automatically and uses a light signal to show which lane new material belongs in. In the Stock Management application from Bosch Connected Industry, all material movements in the supermarket are recorded via RFID, barcode or sensor, and put-to-light signals point out errors. Visual tags show in real time which material number is in which lane. This reduces both the error rate and search effort.