Pushing RFID Deeper Into Manufacturing

Joe Bellini, Brooks Software   Today’s Top Stories   or  Other Mobile and Wireless Stories  

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March 25, 2005 (Computerworld) -- As manufacturers rush to implement radio frequency identification (RFID) technologies, pushed by the likes of Wal-Mart Stores Inc. and regulatory mandates, don't be surprised if they start asking about what's in it for them. With much of the value appearing to benefit distribution-intensive suppliers such as Wal-Mart, some manufacturers are wondering what they can do to find some value from their RFID implementations that will benefit their operations. The good news is they don't have far to look. The answer lies in all that RFID data.
RFID's ability to provide volumes of data to help manufacturers track products through their factories has been recognized by asset-intensive manufacturers for years. Industries such as semiconductor manufacturing are old hands at this, having architected their application environments to help them manage the complex processes and high volumes of work in progress (WIP) moving through their multibillion-dollar factories.
Now that distribution-intensive companies are recognizing that RFID can help optimize the flow of products from their suppliers directly to the retail shelf, the attention is turning to the node in the middle, those material-intensive manufacturers that purchase products from the asset-intensive companies (such as chip makers) and then struggle to produce exactly the right number of the right product at exactly the right time that their customers expect. It's here that RFID can help manufacturers find value.
To help manage the hugely complex semiconductor manufacturing process, chip makers have settled on a relatively consistent application stack. At the lowest level is the instrumentation layer, which ensures that the machines that control the physics and chemistry involved in constructing a chip's circuitry behave according to a proscribed process recipe.
The next level in the application stack is a controls layer, which includes RFID technology, obtains data and assigns unique identifiers to the material so it can be easily tracked through the manufacturing process.

The third level is the manufacturing execution layer that tracks WIP and controls numerous rules-based functions such as ensuring that the right process recipe is downloaded to the right process tool when an RFID-tagged lot of wafers arrives.
The fourth level is a temporal historian that keeps a time-stamped picture of the shop floor in its database. The historian allows manufacturers to make "what next," "where next" and "when next" decisions, but it can also include decisions such as "how much" or "how often."
The final level is the workflow layer that choreographs the decision-making between the applications, allowing manufacturers to execute their plans in real time.
What's remarkable about the application stack described above is its similarity to the RFID application environment defined by EPCglobal Inc., the organization chartered with driving the

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