Ford Case Study
Breakthrough Wireless Technology Saves
Ford Motor Company Time and Money
Knowing what you have and where it is within the supply chain at any given
time should be straightforward. After all, it doesn’t require sophisticated
technology solutions to see when a box is empty or when it’s full.
But consider an enormous manufacturer, such as Ford Motor Company, which must
manage tens of thousands of items, and suddenly the seemingly simple task of knowing
what you have—and where it is—becomes staggeringly complex. Temporarily
misplaced items can stop a manufacturing process, delay the delivery of products,
result in excess or obsolete inventory and contribute to a loss of productivity.
And as companies implement lean manufacturing processes, the value of real-time
information for every container of inventory flowing through the supply chain
is critical.
To meet these challenges, Ford Motor Co. has adopted a wireless Real-Time Locating
System (RTLS), which has been implemented at several of its plants throughout
North America and Europe. The system, from WhereNet Corp., the leader of wireless
supply chain visibility solutions, is driven by wireless tags, fixed position
antennas, and Web-enabled software. This industrial information system locates
and tracks inventory using extremely low-power radio frequency tags and a communications
network. Antennas positioned inside and outside the factory receive tag transmissions
and deliver tracking information to a computer. The system then identifies the
location of the tag within 10 feet of its exact position.
Ford initially implemented its WhereNet system in February of 1998, to track
materials within a 250,000 square foot area of its Van Dyke facility in Sterling
Heights, Mich., which produces more than nine million components annually for
Ford cars and trucks. Utilizing the same local infrastructure of antennas, Ford
and WhereNet then co-developed a wireless “call” system known as WhereCall
to bring parts to the line as needed. To date, roughly 35 Ford Motor Company manufacturing
plants have begun to use the WhereCall technology. Most recently, Ford implemented
a third application of WhereNet’s real-time locating technology—the
Vehicle Inventory Management System (VIMS). The use of VIMS began as a pilot project
in June 2000, at Ford’s Michigan Truck Plant, which assembles thousands
of vehicles daily. The pilot was completed in February 2001, and a version of
the technology – called Quick VIMS has been rolled out to all manufacturing
plants in North America.
Finding the Right Car in the Parking Lot—Times
10,000
Finding your car in a crowded parking lot can be time-consuming
and frustrating—even if you parked it there yourself. Imagine trying to
locate a particular car in a vast lot filled with two to three thousand nearly
identical vehicles, and you can understand the impetus behind the development
of WhereSoft Vehicle, a WhereNet-based Vehicle Inventory Management System (VIMS).
This application provides constant visibility and management of vehicles from
final assembly to shipping, making it easy to instantly locate specific vehicles
to fulfill dealers' custom orders or to identify any automobiles "on hold"
for quality control.
"By implementing VIMS, we can now locate exactly which vehicle we want
or need in a matter of seconds," said Al Ver, Ford Motor Company vice president
of Advanced and Manufacturing Engineering. "Before we began using VIMS, the
same process could easily take hours."
A single vehicle manufacturer may spend more than $1 million dollars each year
locating and managing inventory within its delivery chains. It is estimated that
the integration of VIMS will reduce the time that vehicles sit on the lot by at
least one day.
Tracking Materials with the Previous System
Finding
a finished vehicle can be tough, but it’s nowhere near as challenging as
tracking all the individual components that make up dozens of different vehicle
models. The WhereNet system first proved itself at Ford’s Van Dyke plant,
tracking materials. Van Dyke receives parts according to a pre-determined delivery
schedule. While the Van Dyke plant has adopted lean manufacturing principles,
parts often end up being stored until needed at the line.
WhereNet Provides Real-Time Location Information
Ford’s
WhereNet RTLS tracks each item during its time in the plant so that personnel
can always locate it quickly. Containers can be permanently affixed with a pager-sized
WhereNet transmitting tag. Each WhereTag has a bar code that is associated with
the product ID of the item. Every four minutes, the tag transmits its location
to continually update the warehouse management system on its location. The tags
can remain on the container even after leaving the facility, as they have a battery
life expectancy of seven years.
The tag technology isn’t restricted to use within a single plant, but
facilitates the movement of parts among different Ford locations. For example,
at Van Dyke, tags are placed on racks of completed transmissions, most of which
are shipped to the Wayne Assembly Plant in Wayne, Mich. There, another WhereNet
RTLS picks up the tag transmissions and begins tracking as the racks reach the
docks.
"This was one of our biggest tests of the location accuracy and robustness
of the tag," says Ford's Ver. “For a technology that depends on radio
transmissions, this is a very harsh environment: there’s a metal transmission
rack, a metal environment, a metal part that goes into the rack, and lots of racks
stacked upon one another, all in a facility with a lot of heavy machinery operating.”
Bringing Parts to the Line
In addition
to reliably indicating where inventory parts are located, the WhereNet RTLS also
makes it easy for line workers at the plant to request fresh supplies of materials.
Most major automakers have adopted the paper card-based Japanese Kanban system
for bringing parts to the assembly line.
WhereNet and a Ford subsidiary, Ford Global Technologies, jointly developed
a special call functionality that has greatly improved the efficiency of traditional
material replenishment processes and has enhanced the capabilities of the locating
system. Ford now places WhereCall devices at assembly stations. When supply of
a specific part reaches a pre-determined replenishment level, the line worker
presses the WhereCall button that sends a signal to re-stock that particular part
so that the line will never run out of parts. This process eliminates the need
for replenishment workers to travel routes to pick up Kanban cards. The system
also eliminates some lag time from the process, further minimizing line-side inventories.
When the WhereCall button is pressed by an operator, a light on the unit flashes
10 times to confirm the transmission and the timer begins counting. With multiple
parts at some assembly stations, the timer helps remind workers which tags have
been activated and how much time has elapsed since each call was made. During
shift changes, this is extremely beneficial as it eliminates confusion and potential
overstocking of parts.
Using the same local infrastructure of antennas mounted in the plant ceiling
that pick up the WhereTag pings, the WhereCall’s message for parts is conveyed
to the WhereNet server, which determines the location of the call and the part
that needs to be replenished. The data is then passed onto Ford’s SMART
System, which in turn displays a message on a touch-screen computer. The system
ensures that drivers never have to leave the cabs of their lift trucks as they
receive the order, pull parts from inventory, and deliver them to the exact location
of the line-side operator who initiated the WhereCall just a few minutes before.
The wireless nature of WhereCall offers tremendous flexibility and helps assure
that the line is reliably stocked with materials as needed, ensuring smooth operation.
Ford has achieved some impressive results through its use of WhereNet technology:
More efficient use of labor, implementation cost savings of approximately $200,000
to $500,000 per facility over hard-wired systems, faster installation that allows
a facility to be online with the call system in a matter of weeks, and proven
reliability with performance approaching six sigma ratings.
As a testimony to this technological breakthrough, Ford Motor Co. awarded the
co-development team from WhereNet and Ford with the Henry Ford Technology Award
in October 2000.
Developing the call system application has helped Ford engineers to leverage
the benefits of the container locating system in new ways with little additional
investment, because the systems share the same transmitting and receiving infrastructure.
As Ford adds more applications, the costs per application come down and the savings
increase dramatically.
Impressed by the results achieved through WhereNet technology to date, Ford
recently gave full corporate backing for use of the technology in plants worldwide.
“It has the accuracy and the potential we need,” Ver says, adding,
“Our experience at the Van Dyke plant has fully proven to us that it can
meet and even exceed our expectations. In today’s competitive automotive
market, WhereNet gives us a valuable edge.” |
