ANNISTON ARMY DEPOT, Ala. -- The depot plans to implement Radio-Frequency Identification technology in fiscal year 2021.
The goal of the depot’s passive RFID project is to increase visibility of work-in-progress, decrease the labor hours required to perform inventory transactions and capture the actual labor hours required to perform specific process functions.
Currently, WIP inventory is managed in the Complex Assembly Manufacturing Solution system. The CAMS WIP tracking module allows employees to track material and conveyances within and at work center delivery points.
Employees currently use the Material/Conveyance Start/Stop graphical user interface within CAMS to glean labor collection information from WIP tracking tags.
This tracking method requires personnel to scan/inventory material and/or conveyances individually.
Starting and stopping material operations requires the artisan to log into CAMS at a fixed workstation, record the work performed, log out and then travel back to their actual work area.
Once the RFID technology is fully implemented, it will enable tracking of multiple conveyances simultaneously, automate WIP tracking for current material flows, capture actual start/stop times for material operations and provide near real-time data for enhanced information management, while not requiring constant employee/computer interaction.
This will be performed through fixed RFID readers, mobile RFID readers, “smart” technology and RFID middleware.
This data will flow directly into the CAMS database tables via a server-to-server connection, which is already in place.
The plan for initial implementation of RFID incorporates depot-wide WIP tracking, while a test of the labor capture functionality will occur in Bldg. 409.
This will reduce ANAD “computer time” incurred by both direct and indirect labor by approximately $1.8 million per year, with an immediate increase in material tracking accuracy, due to decreased human involvement.
These figures indicate a 189 percent return on investment in year one, even after software and hardware procurement.
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