| Abstract: | Automaker's North American unit calls on WhereNet to provide real-time locating system hardware and software to help streamline in-bound supply and outbound delivery processes. |
| Keywords: | WhereNet, Yard Management System, Vehicle Tracking and Management System, YMS, VTMS, active RFID, in-bound supply chain management, outbound delivery |
WhereNet today disclosed that it has signed a "seven figure" contract with Nissan North America Inc. to deploy active RFID, real-time locating system (RTLS) technology to streamline the inbound supply chain and outbound delivery processes at the automaker's assembly plant in Canton, MS.
Nissan will use a single wireless architecture across the 4-million-square-foot facility to run multiple WhereNet applications, including its Yard Management System (YMS) and the Vehicle Tracking and Management System (VTMS). Work on the project is already underway, and is expected to be completed in the first quarter of next year, according to Gary Latham, the director of industry solutions for WhereNet's automotive division.
The active RFID project, which is part of a continuous improvement initiative at the facility, is aimed at improving production velocity and throughput, labor productivity, and vehicle quality, Latham said in an interview. Nissan did not return calls by press time to comment on the deal.
Latham said the "seven figure" deal, while not WhereNet's largest in the automotive space, was "above average" in terms of dollar value. Other WhereNet customers include BMW, Ford, GM, HUMMER, Jaguar, Land Rover, and Toyota. Latham declined to specify the project's value, and argued that the deal's significance extends beyond dollars and cents.
He said Nissan's "big bang" approach of equipping its entire plant with an active RFID infrastructure that connects to its enterprise information architecture -- and can be extended over time with new applications -- represented a bet that automaker can achieve greater overall ROI compared with the one-off deployments that have undermined the efficacy of many RFID projects.
Chantal Polsonetti, vice president of manufacturing advisory services at ARC Advisory Group, said many automakers have taken a piecemeal approach to RFID, only to find it difficult to achieve returns on their investments.
"One of the things we [have found] with RFID is that [some] solutions have a tangential relationship to the overall information architecture." This, Polsonetti said, is counter-intuitive, since tying supply or finished goods shipment data to the enterprise systems architecture is critical to establishing solid ROI metrics for auto-identification projects.
"What's critical is how Nissan is going forward with the integration of the RTLS system to actually make decisions," she continued. "The use of this data in terms of just-in-time [JIT], inbound supply management -- knowing when you need a part for car, and knowing where it is and then executing by bringing the part where it is needed," is a significant advance in the use of RFID in the car assembly process, Polsonetti said.
And that's precisely what Nissan is doing to automate manual procedures at its Canton plant, which has the capacity to produce 400,000 vehicles annually, including the Altima sedan, Armada sport utility vehicle, Infiniti QX56 sport utility vehicle, Quest minivan, and Titan pickup truck.
Here's how the supply chain portion of the project is expected to work:
- All car parts and equipment entering the facility will be tracked using active -- i.e., battery-powered -- RFID tags that are affixed to the trailer trucks transporting that material. The tags will contain data about the trucks' contents and arrival times.
- WhereNet's automated gate check-in/out package, Fast Gate, will then sense when a truck is approaching the gate; cross-reference contents data with a corporate database; and, if authorized, open the gate to grant entry.
- Once the truck enters the Nissan yard, its data will be transmitted to WhereNet's YMS application, which uses pre-set business rules to generate instructions that tell drivers and yard personnel on which docks to move certain materials to support JIT sequencing of parts, WhereNet's Latham explained.
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