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International Journal of Computer Integrated

Manufacturing
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RFID technology in manufacturing and supply chain

a
Mika Liukkonen
a
Department of Environmental Science, University of Eastern Finland, Kuopio, Finland
Published online: 22 Jul 2014.

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To cite this article: Mika Liukkonen (2015) RFID technology in manufacturing and supply chain, International Journal of
Computer Integrated Manufacturing, 28:8, 861-880, DOI: 10.1080/0951192X.2014.941406

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 International Journal of Computer Integrated Manufacturing, 2015
Vol. 28, No. 8, 861–880, http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/0951192X.2014.941406

RFID technology in manufacturing and supply chain

Mika Liukkonen*
Department of Environmental Science, University of Eastern Finland, Kuopio, Finland
(Received 23 October 2012; accepted 23 June 2014)

Radio frequency identification (RFID) is a promising technology which can potentially assist in enhancing the efficiency of
manufacturing by reorganising and optimising internal operations, such as purchasing, warehousing, management, and
distribution of materials in the production, as well as in external supply chain management. RFID makes it possible to
identify individual objects in the production automatically and wirelessly, so it has an increasing potential in various
applications which can make manufacturing more efficient and productive. This survey provides an insight to the application
of RFID technology in the management of manufacturing and supply chain. The survey includes a summary on the main
purposes of use and on the main application fields of the technology. In manufacturing, typical application targets of RFID are
related to warehouse management, process management, tool management, supply chain management, and life cycle manage-
ment. In addition, the main users, i.e. those manufacturing branches which have been the primary users of RFID this far, are
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listed in this survey to reveal the current industrial practice. Furthermore, the current challenges in implementing the
technology are discussed, as well as the most potential future manufacturing applications and research directions. The sources
used for this study are original peer-reviewed reviews and journal articles, conference papers, and web references.
Keywords: radio frequency identification; traceability; manufacturing; manufacturing management; manufacturing control

1. Introduction
RFID technology is supposed to increase in manufactur-
Today’s manufacturers are eager to enhance their business ing, when it comes to the management of traceability of
efficiency by reorganising and optimising internal busi- both WIP and final products, as well as manufacturing
ness operations, such as purchasing, warehousing, man- materials and tools, for example.
agement and distribution of materials in the production, A large part of the current RFID applications in man-
and external supply chain management. In the future, it ufacturing have been driven by external mandates, for
will be ever more important to be able to monitor and example from the American multinational retailer corpora-
control these operations, but it seems that the technology tion Wal-Mart, which first announced plans for an exten-
used traditionally for these purposes has certain restric- sive supplier requirement to tag pallets and cases of
tions which make it difficult to develop those operations products with the electronic product code (EPC) form of
any further. Moreover, modern manufacturing is con- RFID in 2003. As a result, the most general response to
stantly facing new challenges arising from the evolving this demand has been simply the attachment of tags to
production environment, increasing product variety and finished goods just before shipment to ensure the trace-
complexity, miniaturisation of components and products, ability of products in the supply chain. Later on, it seems
new environmental regulations, and increasing time-based that a growing number of companies have begun to use
competition (Liukkonen, Havia, and Hiltunen 2012). RFID for the so-called in-house applications, as they have
In shop floor management, for example, manufactur- realised the potential of the technology that can make
ing companies generally confront several challenges such individual objects ‘visible’ to the information systems
as information gaps between individual manufacturing and have therefore begun to use it to trace products,
units and poor visualisation of production stages, WIP, pallets, materials, tools and even employers to control
and the state of warehouse. The main reasons for this are quality, or even to automate process control.
the lack of efficient methods to acquire manufacturing data There is no doubt that RFID technology has an
and software to support online shop floor management. increasing potential in various applications that can make
Radio frequency identification (RFID) is an automatic manufacturing more efficient and more productive, and
object identification and data collection technology based there is also recent evidence on that. It has been shown
on radio waves. It is a promising technology with full that the information generated by RFID can be used for
benefits to be emerged to all industries in the future. reducing inventory levels, cut down lead times, and facil-
Generally speaking, it can be assumed that the use of itate enterprise-wide operational visibility throughout the

*Email: mika.liukkonen@uef.fi

© 2014 Taylor & Francis

 862 M. Liukkonen

entire product life cycle (Huang, Saygin, and Dai 2012). management can also be seen on a larger scale as life cycle
Moreover, Mehrjerdi (2011) has listed almost 80 benefits management, in which the product can be monitored or
of RFID based upon 10 case studies already reported in manipulated after it is delivered to its final user. At the
the literature. The cases analysed in the paper are spread moment, these kinds of applications seem to be merely future
among various industries, such as health care industries, scenarios, however. This survey includes a summary on the
retail industries, restaurant management, and supply chain main purposes of use and on the main application fields of
management, but the concentration of the survey is not so the technology. In addition, the main users of the technology,
much on discrete manufacturing. Additionally, Zelbst i.e. those manufacturing branches which have been using
et al. (2012) have studied the impacts of RFID on manu- RFID the most, are listed in this survey.
facturing efficiency and effectiveness, concentrating on The sources used for the present study are survey and
such firms in the manufacturing sector which have been review articles, peer-reviewed original journal articles, and
at their growth stage of adopting the technology. The conference contributions. In addition, web references have
authors provided empirical evidence of the role of RFID been used to take a closer look at the application of RFID in
technology in increasing the efficiency and effectiveness practice. It has to be emphasised here that an application is
of manufacturing, and in improving customer satisfaction deliberately defined as broadly as possible in this survey, to
and organisational performance. ensure that there would be as few limitations as possible
On the other hand, there are also drawbacks which which would restrict the content of the survey. Therefore, in
have more or less restricted the implementation of RFID the present survey a RFID application may be a laboratory
technology when looking at the issue from a wider view- scale experiment, a pilot-scale implementation, or a full-
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point. The most important of these include certain techno- scale industrial application. Besides, it is not always easy to
logical issues, privacy and security issues (Nambiar 2009), draw the line between, for example, a pilot-scale and a full-
and standardisation issues (Xiao et al. 2007). Although scale application integrated to production, because the first
worldwide efforts have been put to develop standards for versions of full-scale applications are usually implemented in
RFID development and deployment, the achievement of a smaller scale. Also some studies which have not been
the potential benefits of RFID in manufacturing has been, applied in practice have been included to this survey, because
unfortunately, slower than expected (Huang, Saygin, and they provide some useful insights into novel and future
Dai 2012). However, although certain technical and secur- applications areas. An example of these is life cycle applica-
ity questions are still open today, all these issues are likely tions of RFID, which is a promising future direction in the
to be resolved with time, experience, and investment. management of manufactured products.
Other surveys and reviews on RFID applications in
different fields have been authored by Angeles (2005),
Domdouzis, Kumar, and Anumba (2007), Gaukler and 2. RFID technology
Seifert (2007), Ilie-Zudor et al. (2011), Li et al. (2006), 2.1. Brief history
Monette (2006), Nambiar (2009), Xiao et al. (2007), and
Zhu, Mukhopadhyay, and Kurata (2012). Huang, Wright, Early RFID technology was developed shortly after radar
and Newman (2009) have reviewed literature on the was invented before the Second World War. The first
development of wireless manufacturing (WM) applica- application of the technology was to identify enemy
tions which benefit from wireless devices such as RFID planes among the country’s own planes when they were
or Auto-ID sensors and from wireless information and arriving home (Roberti 2005). The major advancements of
communication networks such as Wi-Fi and Bluetooth the technology since then are presented in Table 1.
for the collection and synchronisation of the real-time Commercialisation of the technology began in the 1970s
manufacturing data. In addition, Visich, Powers, and and 1980s as the development was transferred to public
Roethlein (2009) have examined the empirical applica- companies, and new advancements have been introduced
tions of RFID in the manufacturing environment and pre- frequently since then. It is also notable that the research on
sented several practical uses for the technology in using low-cost RFID tags in supply chains began in the
manufacturing. Nonetheless, it seems that a comprehen- late 1990s, as Auto-ID centre was established.
sive literature survey concentrating on the management of
manufacturing based on RFID technology does not exist.
This survey provides an insight to the application of 2.2. Information management using RFID technology
RFID technology in management of manufacturing and sup- RFID is an automatic object identification and data collec-
ply chain. In manufacturing, typical application targets of tion technology based on radio waves. It involves a radio
RFID seem to be connected to various purposes in ware- frequency transmitter/receiver pair, where one (tag) trans-
house management, process management, and supply chain mits its identity to the other (tag reader) (Brusey and
management. In addition, manufacturing tools and instru- McFarlane 2009). In addition, the technology usually
ments can be controlled with the aid of RFID. Supply chain includes an information management system for
 International Journal of Computer Integrated Manufacturing 863

Table 1. The milestones in the development of RFID technology according to Roberti (2005).

Decade Advancement

1920s Development of radar and early RFID, which was a combination of radio broadcast technology and radar
1940s Identify friend or foe systems for military planes in the Second World War
1960s Tagging was developed further to improve the safety and security in transporting nuclear materials
1970s The first US patent for active RFID tag with rewritable memory
Passive transponder used to unlock a door without a key
The technology was transferred to the public sector by Los Alamos Scientific Laboratories in 1977 resulting in two companies,
and civilian use began
1980s First automated toll payment systems based on RFID
Passive RFID system based on ultra-high frequency (UHF) radio waves to track and identify cows
First low frequency (125 kHz) systems which enabled smaller transponders
First high frequency (13.56 MHz) systems which offered greater range and faster data transfer rates
1990s First UHF system by IBM
Auto-ID Centre was established at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1999: the research on using low-cost tags in
supply chain was begun by David Brock and Sanjay Sarma
2000s Air interface protocols (Class 1 and Class 0), and the EPC numbering scheme were developed
EPCglobal was established to commercialise EPC technology
2010s Miniaturisation and technology development go further
Cost of RFID technology continues to go down
Technology continues to spread within numerous fields of industry
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processing and transferring the produced data. For a more information included to the tag. This generally
detailed description on the technology, the reader may includes a server connected to a database, and system
refer to Lehpamer (2006) or Ranky (2006). management software with a connection to back-
The main parts of a RFID-based information manage- ground programs such as Enterprise Resource
ment system include (see Figure 1): Planning (ERP).
(4) The end-users have an access to the database via a
graphical user interface, which enables flexible use
(1) Tag is attached to a product to identify it. The
of information for various purposes.
microcircuit of the tag includes a unique code
and/or other information.
(2) Tag reader (manual or gate). The information of the The main software components of RFID-based informa-
tag can be read and possibly altered using the reader. tion management system include middleware, application
The reader has an antenna that emits radio waves, software, databases, possible background systems such as
and the tag responds by sending back its data. ERP, and the necessary infrastructure for information
(3) The reader is connected to an information manage- transfer. The information flows in such a system are as
ment system, which can be used to process the follows. The tag communicates with the reader, which is

(4) End-user PCs

(3) Server, database, and

information management
system

(1) Product equipped with (2) RFID antenna and

RFID tag reader

Figure 1. The main parts of a RFID-based information management system.

 864 M. Liukkonen

connected to the main information server or, in a simplest ● Process monitoring, management, and control
case, straight to a user PC with appropriate application – Tracking of WIP and assembly status during
software. Generally the user can also manipulate the read- production
ers via the user PC. Usually some filtering is needed – Quality control and process management on the
before transmitting the data, however, which necessitates job-shop level
the existence of a piece of software between the reader and ● Tool management
the server. – Locating production tools using RFID
This piece of software is often called middleware. This – Supply chain management of manufacturing tools
software component connects the RFID reader to the other and instruments
software components in an information and communica- – Control of manufacturing robots and instruments
tions technology (ICT) system and also filters the data ● Supply chain management
before it is transmitted forward (Sørensen, Christiansson, – Distribution of information about the location of
and Svidt 2010). In its simplest form, RFID middleware is individual products progressing through the chain
a software layer residing between the RFID hardware and from manufacturers to selling companies and
the existing back-end system or application software. The end-users
middleware software is usually located on ordinary PCs or ● Life cycle management
servers and provides an interface for many sensor technol- – As above, but concerns the monitoring and man-
ogies, which enables cross-platform hardware integration agement of entire life cycle
(Chen, Tu, and Jwo 2010).
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The different stages of the product life cycle managed by

RFID applications on different levels can be seen in
3. RFID-based applications in the management of Figure 2.
manufacturing and supply chain
As mentioned, the number of industrial RFID applications
seems to be increasing exponentially. Based on the litera- 3.1. Warehouse inventory tracking and management
ture survey, RFID applications in manufacturing can be Warehouse applications are one of the earliest ways of
divided into five groups depending on their purpose employing RFID technology in manufacturing. Warehouse
of use: management can include all kinds of operations related to
manufacturing logistics, such as inventory tracking, iden-
● Warehouse inventory tracking and management tification of components, control of material flows, and
– i.e. ‘Manufacturing logistics’ management of picking, receiving, and shipping of mate-
– Control of material flows rials. The main users of RFID in warehouse management
– Management of picking, receiving, and shipping have been the automotive and other heavy industry,

Life cycle management

Supply chain management
Factory
Warehouse management
Distributor Retailer End-user
Process management

Tool management

Recycling/
Service
disposal

Figure 2. The flow of manufactured products and the stages managed by RFID applications on different levels.
 International Journal of Computer Integrated Manufacturing 865

electronics industry, and semiconductor manufacturing. 3.5. Life cycle monitoring

The present survey yielded 7 articles in refereed sources Monitoring of products through their entire life cycle is
and 22 web references which were related to warehouse the newest application of RFID. Often these aspirations
management. Applications of RFID in warehouse inven- are crystallised in the concept of PLM, which is the
tory tracking and management can be seen in Table 2. process of managing the entire life cycle of a product
from its conception, through design, and manufacturing,
to service and disposal. So far these kinds of applications
have been rare, however, and the existing literature dis-
3.2. Process monitoring, management, and control cussions seem to concern more or less scenarios and
RFID enables the tracking of raw materials, WIP inven- general framework issues rather than real applications. In
tory, automated WIP monitoring, tracking of finished this survey, 6 refereed articles and 4 web references
products, and even monitoring of assembly status dur- related to life cycle management were found. They are
ing production. Tracking of objects, quality control, and listed in Table 7.
resource management on the job-shop level have been
the main application targets related to process monitor-
ing, management, and control. It seems that the ultimate 4. Discussion
motivators for implementing RFID on the job-floor level
4.1. Summary of existing applications
have been the reduction of human errors and manual
work. Moreover, many companies have considered it RFID can assist in several operations of warehouse man-
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important to be able to track their WIP in real time, as agement, such as inventory tracking, identification of
the meaningful real-time manufacturing information components, control of material flows, and management
supports different management levels of enterprises to of picking, receiving, and shipping of materials. RFID can
make accurate decisions fast and efficiently. In total, also improve process management by making it possible
this literature survey yielded 38 refereed articles and to track WIP, automating WIP monitoring, and monitoring
19 web references related to process monitoring, man- of assembly status during production. Moreover, the tech-
agement, and control. RFID applications in process nology can be used as a tool for quality control, to ensure
monitoring, management, and control are presented in that a finished product has been assembled correctly, for
Tables 3 and 4. example.
RFID applications in tool management include locat-
ing production tools, the assurance of the use of correct
manufacturing tools and settings, supply chain manage-
3.3. Tool management ment of manufacturing tools and instruments, and even
the control of manufacturing robots and instruments.
Tool management includes applications which aim at Furthermore, the technology is used in modern tracking
locating production tools (tool tracking) using RFID, and systems for supply chains, which are able to deliver infor-
the assurance of correct assembly and the use of correct mation on the location of individual products progressing
tools and settings. Furthermore, supply chain management through the chain from manufacturers to selling compa-
of manufacturing tools and instruments and the control of nies and service units. The newest and perhaps the most
manufacturing robots and instruments are typical applica- promising application field is the monitoring of products
tions of RFID in this field. In total, 2 articles in refereed through their entire life cycle.
sources and 7 web references related to tool management The literature survey produced interesting results on
were found (see Table 5). the application of RFID technology in the management
of manufacturing and supply chain. If a special view is
taken into those articles published in international refer-
eed journals (the total number of these articles is 54),
3.4. Supply chain management almost 15% (8/54) of the contributions have been pub-
Supply chain visibility is one of the key factors when lished by the International Journal of Computer
operational efficiency is being pursued on the organisa- Integrated Manufacturing (see Figure 3). International
tional level. A modern tracking system for supply Journal of Advanced Manufacturing Technology has
chain could deliver information on the location of indi- published 11% (6/54) of these articles.
vidual products progressing through the chain from Based on the literature survey, it can be concluded that
manufacturers to selling companies and end-users. In RFID has been exploited in a wide scale of applications
all, this survey revealed 11 refereed articles and 12 from simple tracking solutions to complicated systems
web references related to supply chain management for supply chain management. A summary of existing
(see Table 6). and proposed future RFID applications in manufacturing
 866 M. Liukkonen

Table 2. RFID in warehouse inventory tracking and management.

Authors Year Description

Manufacturing of electronic products

RFID Journal 2003a Pilot of a component tracking system in a factory producing refrigerators and freezers, designed to track
components from the warehouse to the production line.
Black 2005 RFID-controlled feeder system for an automated assembly line of electronics, which is installed on
component placement machines, enabling automated identification of feeders.
Bacheldor 2006g Tracking and managing inventory in the manufacturing of electrical power converters in real time.
Swedberg 2008d Identification of incoming components in electronics manufacturing, and tracking the locations of staff
members, visitors, tools, and company cars.
Liu, Chen, and 2009 Electronic control system for material flows in IC packaging houses by integrating RFID, a business
Romanowski protocol, and the ERP system, aimed at improving check and accept operations in receiving raw
materials, monitoring stock-in records, automating inventory management and record keeping, and so
on.
Qu et al. 2010 Case study of applying an automated strategy platform (Huang, Zhang, and Jiang 2008) for managing
material distribution in a complex assembly shop floor at a large air conditioner manufacturer.
Swedberg 2011b Automated tracking of component reels used for assembling PCBs, enabling automated shutdown when
error is detected, real-time inventory of components, and monitoring the number of components.
Automotive, machine, and aircraft industry
Sullivan 2004 Inventory tracking system, in which all individual, more expensive motorcycle parts are tagged to track
their movement through the production to identify where motorcycles are in the manufacturing
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process.
Bacheldor 2006f Real-time locating system (RTLS) at Ford Motor Co. of Canada to ensure the staging of parts and
components at the final assembly areas at the moment they are needed.
O’Connor 2007 Application for automating parts replenishment on automotive manufacturing lines, which has made it
possible to keep the parts in a separate storage off the assembly floor.
Swedberg 2008a Pilot tests of a system for tracking containers filled with car parts of Land Rovers coming into the
assembly plant and empty containers leaving the factory.
Swedberg 2008b Tracking of incoming inventory at a car manufacturing facility.
Swedberg 2008c RFID-based system in a car insulation manufacturing facility for tracking entering raw materials and their
use in manufacturing, and a system to track finished products in the warehouse and supply area.
Swedberg 2009c Management of parts replenishment in the manufacturing of vehicular heating and air-conditioning
systems to avoid large storages at assembly stations.
Wessel 2009a RFID-tagged kanban cards to speed up the replenishment of components in the making of diesel fuel
injectors.
Wessel 2009b Tracking of motorbike components in the production to assure that correct parts are assembled onto the
right motorbike frames.
O’Connor 2009 Pilot RFID system at tractor manufacturer Valtra to automate parts replenishment and inventory
management.
Swedberg 2011d RTLS at John Deere to speed up material replenishment and equipment preparation; reports a 10%
increase in the efficiency of welding, and a reduction of 5% in the cycle time.
Swedberg 2012 Solution at an aircraft parts manufacturer to track composite materials and products that can withstand
temperatures of ca. 150°C during curing after being stored at freezing temperatures.
Other applications
Wessel 2008 RFID-enabled kanban cards to track containers packed with components and to automatically update a
back-end system for monitoring of components usage in the manufacturing of bathroom fittings.
Swedberg 2009a Monitoring of parts usage in the manufacturing light bulbs.
Swedberg 2009b Automating the stocking of components at assembly lines in the manufacturing of light bulbs.
Wessel 2009c Automated replenishment of small parts by equipping the part containers with active RFID tags, which
can trigger replenishments automatically in the manufacturing of book binding equipment.
Friedlos 2010 Detecting the precise location of steel bundles, reducing errors during retrieval, and speeding up
inventory management in the warehouse of stainless steel profiles.
Jinrong and Haiquan 2010 A large-scale enterprise-level application of RFID-based warehouse management, loading process and
traffic management, and asset management at a global printing company manufacturing small items.
O’Connor 2011 Warehouse tracking in the manufacturing of cleaning products; it is reported that the accuracy of
inventory records was increased from 80% to nearly 100% after implementing the system.
Swedberg 2011c Locating components for tire assembly, reducing the time workers spend searching for parts.
Poon, Choy, 2011 Real-time decision support system for solving material demand problems in manufacturing, demonstrated
Chan, et al. by a pilot test in a mould manufacturing company; report productivity enhancements.
Poon, Choy, 2011 Real-time system for planning warehouse operations to solve small-scale batch replenishment problems
Chan, Ho, et al. using RFID and genetic algorithms.
 International Journal of Computer Integrated Manufacturing 867

Table 3. RFID in the monitoring, management, and control of manufacturing (Part 1).

Authors Year Description

Manufacturing of electronic products

Lamontagne et al. 2002 Tracking system integrated into a surface-mount line producing single-sided PCBs for multiple products;
report major savings by better product reliability and quality, cost reductions, and increased productivity.
Blazier and 2003 Quality control system for double-sided reflow applications when challenging moisture sensitive devices
Corriveau (MSDs) are soldered; including material identification, data capture, and real-time tracking of MSDs.
Cambrils et al. 2003 Discussion on the problems and advantages of tracking MSDs in a high reliability production environment
and of monitoring their exposure and bake time in the reflow process.
Black 2005 RFID-controlled feeder system for controlling the proper assembly of circuit boards.
Bacheldor 2006a Tracking of laptops in the production; reports that a reduction of as high as 90% is achieved in the overall
time required for processing products through the warehouse, from receipt to shipment.
Bacheldor 2006d Inventory management and production tracking in the manufacturing of automation components.
Crowl, Mares, and 2006 RFID application to a kitting process at Dell Computer to replace a barcode system; report an improvement
Moore of 4% in scanning accuracy and the total return-on-investment (ROI) of 122%.
Budak et al. 2007 Monitoring and analysis of a discrete manufacturing environment using RFID; the pilot system was
planned to be implemented in a generator assembly process.
Swedberg 2010a Combination of barcodes and RFID tags for tracing components installed on circuit boards, and quality
control for assuring correct assembly and for enabling component traceability for customers.
Baishun and 2011 A general description of a RFID-based Manufacturing execution system (MES) in the electronic assembly
Baoding industry.
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Zhu et al. 2012 Application of RFID to a refrigerator production line; report many benefits over the barcode system (e.g.
online schedule management, real-time visibility), and give advice for successful application.
Semiconductor manufacturing
Thiesse et al. 2006 Real-time tracking of plastic wafer boxes and cassettes in a chip manufacturing process; report an increase
from 65% to nearly 100% in location visibility of fabrication lots.
Thiesse and Fleisch 2008 Investigating the value of real-time information obtained by the above mentioned system in making job
scheduling more efficient; report significant improvements in cycle time, machine utilisation, etc.
Wessel 2007a RFID combined with ultrasound-based location-tracking technology to continuously monitor and manage
the production of silicon wafers for making integrated circuits.
Bacheldor 2007b System for locating WIP at a factory for fabricating silicon wafers.
Qiu 2007 Combination of agent and RFID technologies for enabling instant delivery of information on a unique job/
product across individual factories; validates in a test-bed manufacturing system for semiconductors.
Tsai and Huang 2007 Real-time job scheduling and rescheduling system based on RFID information for two fully automated
semiconductor foundry fabrication units; simulate using a support vector machine (SVM) algorithm.
Texas Instruments 2008 System for tracking products, improving the transport of materials, enhancing security, and detecting errors
or failures in semiconductor manufacturing.
Chen, Tu, and Jwo 2010 Framework for RFID-based enterprise application; present implementation as a computer integrated
manufacturing system used in a shop floor environment for semiconductor packaging and testing.
Automotive, machine, and aircraft industry
Chappell 2004 Automated tracking on the assembly line of Harley Davidson to improve efficiency and eliminate errors.
Bacheldor 2006c RTLS to help in tracking inbound auto parts, as well as new vehicles rolling off the assembly line at one of
the factories of Nissan.
Swedberg 2009d Tracking of vehicles, monitoring cycle times, and quality control in the manufacturing of cars.
Datalogic 2011a Automatic tracking system to track vehicles at all stages during a painting process and to track
maintenance records of dollies and hangers at Toyota.
Bacheldor 2006b Replacing the bar-code labels used during pick-and-pack operations with reusable read–write RFID tags in
the manufacturing of transmission parts.
Bacheldor 2007a Product quality assurance and monitoring of assembly operations at the manufacturer of cargo
management and protection systems for pickup trucks
Bacheldor 2007c Pilot system for monitoring WIP and ensuring proper distribution of parts in production at John Deere.
Wessel 2009d Identification of transmission housings during different assembly phases, and directing the production of
individual transmission units.
Datalogic 2011b Quality control tool to eliminate human errors in the manufacturing of truck cab and car seats.
Wang, He, and 2010 Real-time, laboratory-scale monitoring of a dynamic job-shop environment in which fuel delivery systems
Kong for passenger cars and light trucks are manufactured.
Lee et al. 2011 Concept of ubiquitous technology applied to an existing product life cycle management (PLM) to manage
the entire product life cycle from design to disposal; partial application to automotive press die tryout
processes.
Dai et al. 2012 Industrial case study on implementing real-time RFID-based MES at an engine valve manufacturer.
Huang et al. 2012 Monitoring system for improving visualisation and controllability of a painted body storage at a vehicle
manufacturer; report improvement in the efficiency, transparency, and controllability of the process.
Liu et al. 2012 Production management system for a motorcycle assembly line; report increased production by as high as
10%, and improved quality control.
 868 M. Liukkonen

Table 4. RFID in the monitoring, management, and control of manufacturing (Part 2).

Authors Year Description

Other applications
Liu and Miao 2006Monitoring system for sanitary ware manufacturing (production of bathtubs), which is connected to the
ERP system by a database to control the process in real time.
Wessel 2006 Tracking of production, quality control, and shipment of new and reconditioned filters.
Zhou, Ling, and Peng 2007 Remote system for monitoring production status in an enterprise internally; enables monitoring the status
of raw materials and outsourcing, status of parts and components, status of finished products, etc.
Huang et al. 2008 Framework for development and deployment of WM solutions; the objects with RFID tags and readers
are considered as smart objects that detect, update, track, and trace their own statuses and movements,
representing the flow of materials and information.
Vrba, Macurek, and 2008 System architecture for integrating RFID with agent-based control systems; verified in a laboratory-scale
Marík environment designed for packing and unpacking of items.
Yang and Dong 2011 Dynamic system for monitoring of manufacturing in workshop environment; can be used for collecting
information automatically, and can provide decision support for production planning.
Swedberg 2009a Monitoring of part usage and WIP by loading parts onto trays equipped with passive RFID tags to view
the exact locations of the trays and determine how long they have located there.
Brusey and McFarlane 2009 Automated identification and tracking of objects in customised manufacturing; tested in a laboratory-
scale manufacturing system packing Gillette gift boxes.
Chen, Xie, and Zheng 2009 RFID-based MES to track products, materials, inventory, and personnel to facilitate operations in a
mixed-model assembly line laboratory; discuss practical implementation issues.
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Chen and Tu 2009 Agent-based framework to monitor and control dynamic production flows and to improve the
traceability and visibility of manufacturing processes; a case study in a bicycle manufacturing
company.
Wang, Lin, and Huang 2009 Manufacturing planning and control system based on autonomous agents and RFID; items equipped
with tags report on the production status and receive instructions; test environment consists of a
computer-controlled lathe, a milling machine, an industrial robot, and automated material supply
system.
Swedberg 2010b Manufacturing control of metal products; tag information is sent to a programmable logic controller
(PLC), which links the ID number with correct machine settings and presets them.
Gao, Yang, and Ning 2010 RFID-based application for gathering and reserving the material and product data to control production
and trace a quality problem in tire manufacturing.
Wessel 2010a Controlling the conveyor belt in a picking process of assembly and fastening materials.
Hodgson, Nabhani, 2010 Automatic identification system to facilitate the flow of real-time data; case study in the manufacturing
and Zarei of feed screws and barrels for the plastic, rubber, and food industries; report significant annual
savings.
Li, Tan, and Zhu 2010 Monitoring and control system for a discrete manufacturing line; case study in a clothing factory; report
benefits such as optimised scheduling, more accurate management, and increased productivity.
Wang, Yang, and 2010 Production control by recording its real-time status and transferring data to a local workstation by a PLC;
Wang verification in an imaginary production system for fabricating multiple products.
Zaeh et al. 2010 General concept for an adaptive production planning and control system, in which products act as smart
objects which store information on the production and its current state; prototypical implementation.
Zhang et al. 2012 Real-time manufacturing information tracking and monitoring; manufacturing resources such as
employees, machines, and materials are tagged to acquire real-time data.
Lv et al. 2012 Combination of RFID and Petri net modelling for estimating performance indicators of manufacturing
such as yield rate and throughput; test in a complex repairing process of coated buckets.
Wang et al. 2011 Prototype of a RFID-based supervisory control system for a manufacturing cell; report that produces
accurate and visible state information that can be used in real-time production control and scheduling.
Zhong et al. 2011 Real-time MES to improve shop floor management in discrete manufacturing; case study in the
manufacturing of mechanical equipment for the ceramic, stone, and wall material industry.
Ngai et al. 2012 Real-time monitoring of manufacturing; case study in a garment manufacturing company; report several
benefits such as better line balancing and monitoring the performance of individual employees.
Wang et al. 2012 RFID-enabled MES to achieve adaptive real-time control and scheduling for one-of-a-kind production
workshops; case study in a tire mould and die manufacturing company.

presented in the literature can be seen in Figure 4. As can of objects that may not be physically visible to the readers.
be seen, the range of applications is wide, and they include They are designed to automate warehouse operations and
many operations aimed at improving production and busi- improve inventory tracking on the shop floor. On the other
ness efficiency. hand, the number of different process monitoring, man-
Most of the RFID applications in the management of agement, and control applications has been increasing
manufacturing are focused on the automatic identification after the mid twenty-first century. This is mainly because
 International Journal of Computer Integrated Manufacturing 869

Table 5. RFID applications in tool management.

Authors Year Description

Automotive, machine, and aircraft industry

Bacheldor 2006e Tracking of high-cost moulds to save labour time and lower expenses in aircraft parts manufacturing.
Swedberg 2006 RFID portal for managing the allocation of 10,000 manufacturing tools by tracking their movement in the
manufacturing of lift trucks; estimates daily saving as high as $200 to $300 on costs associated with
lost and dislocated tools.
Bacheldor 2007b Management of robots positioned at different manufacturing and assembly stations of Audi; the RFID
system is connected to PLCs, which monitor and control the robots performing manufacturing and
assembly operations.
Swedberg 2009e RTLS system to ensure that workers use the correct wrench and torque when installing hoses into
hydraulic valves at Caterpillar, and to record information on the assembler and assembly time.
Swedberg 2009f RTLS system of BMW to locate and identify cars, control the tools used in the assembly, and to assure
the vehicles are assembled at correct settings; reports that the system is able to track the location of
each car and tool within 15 cm throughout the entire assembly line.
Swedberg 2011e Tracking of large machining tools in the manufacturing of aircraft components; reports a remarkable
reduction in the amount of time spent by the workers for locating tools.
Makris, Michalos, 2012 Framework for enabling RFID based identification of parts to control robotic assembly operations, which
and Chryssolouris is demonstrated in a case study from the automotive industry.
Other applications
Cheng and Prabhu 2007 RFID enabled system for estimating the remaining life of computerized numerical control cutting tools,
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automated recording of calibration data, and for automating tool replenishment; estimate reduction of
50% in the time used currently for manual recording, and anticipate reduction of typing errors.
Swedberg 2010c Integration of RFID with machine-tool controllers to adjust the machine’s operational settings
automatically.

Table 6. RFID applications in the management of supply chain.

Authors Year Description

Manufacturing of electronic products

Swedberg 2007 Tagging of freezers and fridges to ensure traceability after the products leave the factory.
Wang, Liu, and Wang 2008 Simulation of the impact of a RFID system on the inventory replenishment in the supply chain of
liquid crystal displays (LCD); report to yield better results in terms of total inventory cost and
inventory turnover rate.
Automotive, machine, and aircraft industry
Maselli 2003 One of the earliest RFID applications in manufacturing and implemented by BMW, a real-time
system to locate vehicles when they come off the assembly line or are moved to the parking
yard.
Rametse 2005 Automated vehicle tracking system at Toyota South Africa Motors Ltd. to accelerate throughput
of produced assets in the supply chain.
Swedberg 2008e Tracking system for reducing the amount of labour needed to track vehicles in the shipping yard
and ensuring that vehicles are shipped at the correct time.
Kim et al. 2007 Value analysis of the information provided by a RFID tracking system used for deployment and
load makeup planning of vehicles on a shipping yard of an automotive assembly plant; suggest
that the system can significantly reduce dwell time and decrease labour cost.
Wessel 2009e Tracking of production and shipment of motor drives using RFID integrated with ERP; reports
that the main benefit is the reduction of shipping errors.
Wessel 2010b Controlling the correct distribution of replacement parts in bus and truck manufacturing.
Other applications
Kärkkäinen, Ala-Risku, 2003 Agent-based system for product centric information management (product tracking and logistics
and Främling control), tested in a limited pilot installation for tracking deliveries of a heavy industry
company.
RFID Journal 2003b RFID transponders in tires to enable them to be tracked electronically after manufacturing.
O’Connor 2006 Pilot by Gillette in which RFID smart labels were placed on all razor cases and pallets shipped to
the 400 RFID-enabled retail locations of its two customers; reports speeding up the product
launch by 11 days.
Bacheldor 2007e Combination of barcodes and RFID integrated with ERP to achieve complete tracking and
management of gun shipments.
(continued )
 870 M. Liukkonen

Table 6. (Continued).

Authors Year Description

Hurjui, Turcu, and Graur 2008 Computer system for manufacturers, selling companies and service units for viewing product
information and estimating the return time of products changed or repaired on their warranty
period at the time they are brought to service; discuss also security threats concerning RFID-
based authentication system.
Lee and Park 2008 Dynamic model for tracing tasks in supply chains using RFID, focusing especially on the
manufacturing tier; present also data model and system architecture for supply chain
management to obtain full traceability of items.
Swedberg 2010d– Management of warehouse and supply chain in furniture industry to reduce manual recording
2010e work and the amount of shipment errors.
Jinrong and Haiquan 2010 Management of supply chains at a global printing company manufacturing small items.
Perin 2011 Managing the supply of large metal components in a ship construction project; verification of the
correctness of shipments in the supply chain, real-time materials inventory, and better control
of inventory locations on the factory level.
Kelepouris, Harrison, and 2011 Probabilistic tracking model based on Bayesian networks for estimating the current and future
McFarlane locations of products across a supply network; use model in enhancing tracking information
delivered by the RFID technology and the EPC network.
Ng 2011 Holistic framework for collecting and analysing data collected by RFID in a supply chain
network; illustrates the techniques of modelling and storing RFID data as well as solutions to
some technical issues in translating RFID queries.
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Tudora and Alexandru 2011 System architecture for verifying the authenticity of branded products and tracking them in a
supply chain; discuss some general issues related to the integration of RFID technology with
supply chains, as well as the benefits and challenges of the technology in supply chain
management.

Table 7. RFID applications in life cycle monitoring.

Authors Year Description

Manufacturing of electronic products

Roberti 2006 Tracking of printer units through production and distribution to customers, and identification of individual units
that have been returned, repaired, or recycled.
Bindel et al. 2010 Technical approach for embedding wireless (RFID) components into multi-layer PCBs and a monitoring system
based on them, which can be used for storing product-related information into electronic products, tracing of
components, monitoring of processes, operations and costs, and for enhancing environmentally optimised
recycling.
Automotive, machine, and aircraft industry
Wessel 2007b Locating car seats in manufacturing and accessing their respective production information in case of a recall,
enabling quickly achievable information on the exact time of building the seats, as well as manufacturing
information.
Osman et al. 2010 Optimisation models for a RFID system in the assembly of aircraft gas turbine engines to support their
management over their life cycle; optimisation of tag placement on a product and its components, the
allocation of the data on tags, and the selection of RFID tags and their configuration.
Swedberg 2011f Solution to ensure life cycle traceability of electric truck parts by attaching tags on them to be read by mechanics
when the trucks come to service, and a vision of achieving the maintenance history of the vehicle’s electrical
system automatically.
Lazarevic 2011 A general methodology for product tracking using RFID-based models as part of a PLM solution, which enables
et al. updating of all critical product management information pertaining to changes in product status during its
lifetime; verified using a circulation pump case study.
Other applications
Stankovski 2009 Method of product life cycle tracking for in-mould labelling robots, recording of user information, and
et al. forecasting the working period of the robot.
Lee and Chan 2009 Reverse logistics system based on RFID and computational intelligence for monitoring the quantity of returned
products at collection points to optimise their transportation to collection centres, demonstrated by creating an
integrated model for optimising the coverage of product returns.
O’Connor 2010 Life cycle management of manufactured furniture, which is being provided as an additional service; reports
significant time savings when inventory is performed in office rooms, as the average time of 10 min per office
room can be reduced by 98% when RFID is used.
Jun et al. 2009 General framework for RFID manufacturing applications in PLM from technical and business viewpoints;
containing the definition of an object, which is able to gather, process, and store data into itself.
 International Journal of Computer Integrated Manufacturing 871

10 60
Refereed sources
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management management management management management

Figure 3. Ten journals which have published the most articles

Figure 5. Classification of RFID applications in manufacturing.
on the management of manufacturing and supply chain using
RFID technology.
The classification of RFID manufacturing applications
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the miniaturisation of tags and the reduction of technology by the purpose of use can be seen in Figure 5. As can be
cost have made the technology applicable to a larger seen, process management has been the main application
gamut of manufacturing operations than ever before. It field, comprising over 40% of the applications. Warehouse
also seems that the number of applications concentrating and supply chain management applications are other
on the product’s traceability after it has left the factory is important groups, especially if only web references are
likely to increase in the future. taken into account.

Warehouse management Process management

Automated
Identification of Inventory/product Error prevention
delivery of
components tracking in manufacturing
assembly
logistics
instructions

Automated
Real-time Automated alerts picking, receiving, Automated Automated WIP Automated real-
Resource
monitoring of when shortage in and shipping of identification of localisation, time schedule
management on
stock status materials components and WIP and monitoring, and management and
the job-shop level
materials components status reports optimisation

Automated Real-time Quality control,

Control and error
documentation of monitoring and assurance, and
checking of
materials and reporting of monitoring of
material flows
components assembly status WIP

Tool management
Life cycle management
Automated
Localisation of
production tools
maintenance and
replenishment of
RFID Localisation of
Storing
production-related
Access to product
tools and products at history for service
information into
instruments different stages units, etc.
products

Automated Automated Assurance of the Monitoring of Identification of

stocking and delivery of Record-keeping Automated
use of correct tools processes, returned, repaired,
record-keeping of manufacturing and updating of generation of
and tool settings operations, and and recycled
tools tools product history inventory lists
costs products

Control of Supply chain management Recording use-

Recycling
manufacturing related
Theft prevention optimisation
robots and information and
Automated based on material
instruments Assurance of prediction of
product tracking information
product remaining life
in the supply
traceability
chain

Keeping of stock
Verification of the records
Prevention of
authenticity of (manufacturer,
product thefts
branded products selling company,
service unit, etc.)

Verification and
Management of
error prevention in
the distribution of
shipping and other
replacement parts
operations

Figure 4. A summary of existing and proposed future RFID applications in manufacturing presented in the literature.
 872 M. Liukkonen

25

20

15

10

0
2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012

Figure 6. RFID manufacturing applications by year.

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In Figure 6, the numbers of reported manufacturing In Figure 9, the numbers of applications by the year of
applications by the year of publication can be seen. It publication are presented for the most important manufac-
seems that after the mid twenty-first century, there has turing sectors. It is remarkable that the number of reported
been a rapid increase in the total number of applications. applications has remained approximately the same after
The classification of applications by the year of publica- the first implementations in, practically, every one of the
tion can be seen in Figure 7. industrial branches, but the total number of RFID applica-
The distribution of applications into different manu- tions has increased with time as new branches of industry
facturing branches can be seen in Figure 8. It can be seen have come along.
that the electronics industry, containing the entire branch Classification of applications by different manufactur-
from the manufacturing of PCBs to the assembly of com- ing sectors can be seen in Figure 10. In general, it can be
plex electronic products, and heavy industry such as the concluded that the higher the degree of processing is for
automotive, car part, and machine industry have been the the product, the more sophisticated are also the applica-
major branches exploiting the technology, covering about tions, as supply chain and life cycle applications become
50% of the applications altogether. more abundant.

4.2. Current implementation challenges in

manufacturing
The word application can include many interpretations. As
mentioned, a broad interpretation is selected in this survey
to ensure that there are not many limitations which could
restrict the content of the survey in this sense. Basically, it
15 seems that RFID applications in manufacturing can be
classified into three groups:
10
(1) Applications implemented in real manufacturing
environments
5
2012 (2) Laboratory-scale implementations
2011
2010 (3) Scenarios or frameworks for RFID-based tracking
0 2009
2008 systems
Process mgment 2007
2006
Warehouse mgment 2005
Supply chain mgment 2004 Applications which are implemented in a real manufactur-
Life cycle mgment 2003
Tool mgment 2002 ing environment can be further divided into prototypes,
pilots, and full-scale applications, although it is not always
Figure 7. Classification of RFID applications by year. easy to draw the line between a pilot system and a
 International Journal of Computer Integrated Manufacturing 873

N/A

Other

Garments
Electronics
Sanitary ware
Light products

Toiletries

Furniture

Tires

Metal products

Automotive
Semiconductors
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Machinery
Car/aircraft parts

Figure 8. Classification of RFID applications by manufacturing branch.

Electronics
6
4
2
15
2002 2004 2006 2008 2010 2012
Automotive 10
6
4
2 5

2002 2004 2006 2008 2010 2012 0

Car/aircraft parts
6 Electronics
4 Automotive
Car/aircraft parts
2 Machinery
Semiconductors
2002 2004 2006 2008 2010 2012 Metal products
Tires
Machinery Furniture
Toiletries Process mgment
6 Light products
4 Sanitary ware Warehouse mgment
Garments Supply chain mgment
2 Other Life cycle mgment
N/A Tool mgment
2002 2004 2006 2008 2010 2012
Semiconductors Figure 10. Classification of RFID applications by manufactur-
6
4 ing branches.
2
2002 2004 2006 2008 2010 2012
Metal products full-scale application which is fully integrated to the pro-
6
4 duction, for example.
2 There is no doubt that RFID technology has an
2002 2004 2006 2008 2010 2012 increasing potential in existing and novel applications
which can improve the efficiency and effectiveness of
Figure 9. Number of RFID applications by year in different manufacturing. On the other hand, there are also draw-
branches of manufacturing.
backs which seem to restrict the implementation of RFID
 874 M. Liukkonen

technology at the moment. At least four fundamental materials, and tools, for instance. It also seems that the
questions require answers before the implementation can importance of assuring the traceability of products after
be started on a larger scale. The first question often they have left the factory is likely to increase, and there-
encountered is the technology, which can be referred to fore it is probable that the number of different supply
as hardware, and its cost. The hardware includes not only chain and life cycle applications become more abundant.
the RFID tags and readers, but also computers and servers Potential supply chain and life cycle applications include:
needed to collect and store the data provided by the sensor
technology. Selecting the right technology is the key ques- ● Error prevention and automation of deliveries and
tion, because the so-called ‘one size fits all’ RFID tech- their documentation
nology is not available, and each system has to be tailored ● Automated maintenance history records and identi-
case-specifically. For example, monitoring of supply chain fication of products in maintenance
requires a totally different technology than monitoring ● Detection of counterfeits in maintenance or repair
single products on the production line. (especially products with warranty)
The second question to be answered is the software ● Identification of original, branded products, and
needed to process the data and information provided by connecting them with production-related data
the technology to a form that can be utilised on the ● Automated outsourcing of correct spare parts
different organisational levels of the factory. The software ● Life cycle covering data storages (e.g. enabling
include not only the application software to monitor pro- feedback from maintenance to production and vice
cess variables such as throughput times based on the data, versa; recycling assistance systems)
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but also the invisible modules that manage the entire ● Authentication of final products and prevention of
system and databases, and perform communication counterfeiting
between different interfaces. ● New service businesses based on product tracking,
The third question is the construction of infrastructure, to be provided on the retail and end-user level
which ensures transferring the produced data and informa-
tion between separate hardware and software modules. RFID costs are decreasing fast, and this applies both to the
The hardware, software, and infrastructure altogether cost of equipment and to the costs of tags. As the technol-
form the information management system. Typically, the ogy will continue to evolve at the meantime, it is easy to
cost of infrastructure increases with the scale of the see that the total number of RFID applications will con-
implementation. tinue to increase. As the cost of technology continues to
The fourth and perhaps the most important question is fall, it is easier for manufacturers to find profit in imple-
the money, i.e. the overall cost of the system compared to menting RFID in their production and supply chain.
the achieved profit. Before the implementation, the most Therefore, it is presumable that also cheaper consumer
interesting, important, and difficult questions are the sys- products will be provided with RFID tags in the future,
tem cost and the repayment period. Although it may be if only the ROI turns out to be reasonable.
difficult to answer, the ROI has to be defined as accurately Moreover, as electronic components, including RFID
as possible before integrating RFID into production. Some chips and antennas, continue to reduce in size, it is possi-
approximate numbers have been presented in the litera- ble to include the technology to smaller products than
ture, but it should be kept in mind that the total cost before. Printed circuit board, in which the design space
depends largely on the special features of the case con- is always restricted, is a good example on this. In the
cerned such as the extent of application, number of read- future it will be less costly to solder small RFID chips to
ing points needed, number of tags, the type of readers, and PCBs, which makes the technology more attractive among
the software needed, etc. the electronics manufacturers, and especially among their
Despite these difficulties, many manufacturers have customers. This opens new possibilities for using the
already implemented RFID, which suggests that the tech- technology in the manufacturing and supply chain of a
nology has at least partly claimed its place in the manage- larger variety of products.
ment of manufacturing. In addition, the results of this When looking further into the future, it is probable that
survey suggest that the urge of adopting the technology the so-called intelligent applications such as those based
is also increasing in the industry. on agent technology will become more abundant also in
real-life manufacturing applications. This means that the
manufactured products can act as intelligent agents, can
4.3. Future applications communicate with production equipment, provide infor-
In summary, it is easy to see that the use of RFID technol- mation on their own state, and can even control the timing
ogy in manufacturing is supposed to increase in the future and settings of production equipment. This can increase
when it comes to the management of traceability of indi- the flexibility of production, but before they are imple-
vidual objects, i.e. products, semi-products, manufacturing mented on a larger scale, a lot of product development has
 International Journal of Computer Integrated Manufacturing 875

to be performed. Furthermore, it is probable that these so 4.4.1. Readability of tags

called intelligent applications and their maintenance will Radio frequency waves cannot penetrate into metals,
be offered as a service provided by another company, which can make it difficult to read tags placed on metal
which is specialised in providing these challenging, tai- surfaces. In addition, water and other liquids absorb radio
lored solutions. frequency waves, which reduces the read range to a great
extent, and also dielectric materials and environmental
conditions may reduce the efficiency of antenna and
shorten the reading distance (Singh et al. 2009).
4.4. RFID life cycle applications and their
Especially when reading multiple products loaded on a
technological challenges
pallet, factors such as product-package type, tag location,
Life cycle applications offer another potential future direc- tag type, pallet pattern, and speed through a portal have a
tion for RFID in the art of manufacturing management. significant effect on the read rate for case level tagging, as
Collecting and storing different pieces of information has been shown by Singh et al. (2009), so with current
regarding its manufacturing, delivery, daily use, etc. dur- technology each case has to be optimised separately and
ing its life would offer several benefits in the management products should be packed every time in a standardised
of manufactured products. Moreover, there is recent legis- manner.
lation (e.g. the so-called WEEE-Directive of the European
Union; Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment) that
has forced manufacturers to introduce new concepts for
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the recycling of WEEE (Kurk and Eagan 2008), and PLM 4.4.2. Durability of tags
is therefore considered an important future issue. Resistance to time and varying environmental conditions
The interesting framework for a life cycle monitoring is naturally of primary concern when designing life cycle
system in electronic manufacturing with embedded RFID applications using RFID tags. The tags have to survive
components presented by Bindel et al. (2010) is a good years and even dozens of years in conditions that depend
example of this. In the presented system, the printed largely on the product.
circuit board can be uniquely identified by its serial num-
ber after embedding the component and integrating it with
supporting systems. After this, process information and 4.4.3. Data retention
use profiles can be stored either on the tag or the board
Data retention means the ability of the RFID memory to
could be linked to a distributed database system which is
retain data over time. As mentioned, the ability of a RFID
interfaced with the company’s ERP or MES systems
tag to retain its data is an essential property when con-
(Bindel et al. 2010). It is presumable that this kind of
sidering the life cycle covering RFID traceability of pro-
application could assist in implementing systems monitor-
ducts. Today’s RFID chip manufacturers declare data
ing production performance and status, providing relevant
retention times as long as 20 or even 50 years. RFID
information on the manufacturing life cycle and produc-
memories contain typically an Electronically Erasable
tion supply chain, and offering benefits for the whole life
Programmable ROM type non-volatile memory, which
cycle, including optimised recycling and system design.
can handle tens to hundreds of thousands of rewriting
Improvement of the visibility throughout the life
cycles. This would be enough for most RFID manufactur-
cycle of products is vital in the future especially for
ing applications. Nonetheless, environmental factors such
companies making products of higher value. It is pre-
as temperature may affect the performance of the memory
sumable that embedding RFID in products could reduce
and inflict damaging.
the life cycle costs of manufactured products by increas-
ing detectability, traceability, and controllability of man-
ufacturing and distribution of products. Therefore,
durability and data retention issues will also remain 4.4.4. Data storing
major research issues in the near future. Life cycle man- Management of life cycle information using RFID tech-
agement applications also offer another possible form of nology has its limitations. One of these is that the tag
business for service providers concentrating on specia- memory capacity is limited, so only a limited amount of
lised RFID solutions. data can be stored on the tag. In case of complex products
Nonetheless, as Cao et al. (2009) have suggested, life that go through several phases of life cycle, there is a need
cycle management necessitates that RFID devices work for a large amount of information that cannot be written on
properly during the product life cycle, which requires the tag, but has to be stored in a database instead. As long
adequate performance from them. At the moment there as the memory capacity of tags remains limited, this is the
are certain incompatibility issues with regard to read only reasonable option in any large-scale life cycle
range, reliability, and lifespan of RFID devices. application.
 876 M. Liukkonen

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reasonable to implement RFID in their production and Industry.” International Journal of Computer Integrated
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RFID tags in the future. At the meantime it seems that System for Manufacturing Control and Coordination with
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after delivery is likely to increase, especially when it Applications 36: 7581–7593. doi:10.1016/j.eswa.2008. 09.068.
comes to specialised branded products. Therefore it is Chen, R.-S., M. A. Tu, and J.-S. Jwo. 2010. “An RFID-Based
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Acknowledgement Manufacturing Execution System for Intelligent Operations.”
In Proceedings of 16th International Conference on Industrial
This study has been conducted under project Erfid – Life cycle Engineering and Engineering Management (IE&EM ‘09),
covering traceability and information management for electronic Beijing, October 21–23, 843–847. IEEE.
product using RFID. Cheng, C.-Y., and V. Prabhu. 2007. “Applying Radio Frequency
Identification for Cutting Tool Supply Chain Management.”
In Proceedings of 2007 IIE Annual Conference, Nashville,
Funding TN, May 19–23, 1–9. Institute of Industrial Engineers.
I am grateful to the Finnish Funding Agency for Technology and Crowl, S., V. Mares, and M. Moore. 2006. “Radio Frequency
Innovation (Tekes), the European Regional Development Fund Identification (RFID) Application at Dell Computer.” In
(ERDF), and the companies Genelec Ltd., Kemppi Ltd., and Proceedings of Engineering Management Conference (2006
Webrosensor Ltd. for financial support. In addition, I wish to IEEE/UT), Bahia, September 17–20, 28–30. IEEE.
thank the Finnish Cultural Foundation for financing my research. Dai, Q., R. Zhong, G. Q. Huang, T. Qu, T. Zhang, and T. Y. Luo.
2012. “Radio Frequency Identification-Enabled Real-Time
Manufacturing Execution System: A Case Study in an
Automotive Part Manufacturer.” International Journal of
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Process.” Accessed June 2012. http://www.rfidjournal.com Wessel, R. 2007a. “German Semiconductor Maker Tracks
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Swedberg, C. 2010a. “Circuit-Board Maker Adopts RFID.” Wessel, R. 2007b. “Manufacturer Tags Vehicle Seats to Help
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Swedberg, C. 2010b. “Foundry Improves Core Operations.” journal.com
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Controllers.” Accessed June 2012. http://www.rfidjournal.com Wessel, R. 2009a. “Bosch Earns Fast ROI From RFID.”
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bound Furniture.” Accessed June 2012. http://www.rfidjour- Wessel, R. 2009b. “Honda Italia Shifts Its RFID Deployment
nal.com Into Second Gear.” Accessed June 2012. http://www.rfid-
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Swedberg, C. 2011a. “Hong Kong Electronics Manufacturer Costs at Müller Martini.” Accessed June 2012. http://www.
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Swedberg, C. 2011b. “Sumitomo Electric Lightwave Boosts Production.” Accessed June 2012. http://www.rfidjournal.com
Productivity in Its Warehouse.” Accessed June 2012. http:// Wessel, R. 2009e. “RFID Drives Up Efficiencies at ABB.”
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Swedberg, C. 2011c. “Continental Tire Uses RFID to Keep Wessel, R. 2010a. “Wurth Oy Retools Its Picking Line.”
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Swedberg, C. 2011d. “John Deere Planter Factory Gains Replacement Parts.” Accessed June 2012. http://www.rfid-
Efficiency.” Accessed June 2012. http://www.rfidjournal.com journal.com