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Improving EnterprisePerformance with RFID

Real-Time Manufacturing Applications

RFID IN SEMICONDUCTOR Semiconductor manufacturing is a complicated and rigorous process where removing inefficiencies in the manufacturing flow is fundamental to driving cost down and achieving the needed return on investment.

RFID tags enable manufacturers to track materials in a highly automated environment (wafer manufacturing, fabs and “back-end” units). RFID readers are regularly deployed in advanced fabs at each tool, throughout the Automated Material Handling Systems (AMHS), in stockers and the under-track storage (UTS).These systems help to reduce manual handling, automatically identify tools and parts, while facilitating contamination control and waste reduction, resulting in higher quality and increased profitability.

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Executive SummaryA busy mom charges fast food to her credit card by flashing a key fob in front of a plastic box. The same technology helps retailer Marks & Spencer track gourmet dinners to prevent spoilage. DHL tested it in anticipation of tracking the 160 million packages it ships annually. Semiconductor companies, such as Samsung, ST, Wacker and Siltronic, use it in their cleanrooms to track materials, gain control, improve quality, operator efficiency and increase equipment utilization.

Fueled by a desire to share information about their goods, Wal-Mart, Tesco and the US Department of Defense (DoD) all published mandates in 2003 for RFID tracking level requirements (some to be rolled out as soon as 2005). Other major retailers and manufacturers are initiating RFID programs as well. Europe’s Metro stores, Target, Albertsons, Carrefour and the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA), have also issued RFID compliance mandates in 2004.

Compliance is not the only driver of this progressive technology. In today’s competitive market, businesses are looking for ways to cut cost, streamline spending, run leaner, more efficient operations, increase visibility into demand flow, improve cycle times and maximize utilization of assets. Automated business processes utilizing RFID technologies can reduce labor costs while simultaneously improving productivity and efficiency.

RFID enables new ways to conduct operations, creating new benefits and challenges. As discrete manufacturers move to implement RFID in their operations, they need to address a key strategic question: how to optimize all of the real-time RFID-tagged data for improving enterprise performance?

To achieve the benefits promised by RFID solutions, companies need to do more than just collect the data. They need to implement systems that enable them to leverage the strategic value of this data across the enterprise. THE CURRENT STATE OF RFID TREAD Act requirements in automotive, WEEE directives in electronics, DoD & FAA requirements for aerospace, Wal-Mart for retail, FDA- cGMP and 21 CFR Part 820 specifications for medical devices and life sciences are requiring new levels of product and process traceability that are driving demand for RFID. The RFID market is projected to double by 2008 and by 2008 RFID researchers anticipate that approximately 30% of manufactured capital goods will be RFID-enabled with that percentage growing to 80% by 2013.

EPCglobal, Inc. is leading the development of industry-driven standards for the Electronic Product Code. In 1999 it consisted of just 2 supporting companies — Procter & Gamble and Gillette. Today it comprises 103 members, including consumer giants like Johnson & Johnson, Kimberly-Clark, Kraft Foods and Unilever. These evolving industry standards are expected to simplify the integration of RFID into existing business processes.

RFID IN MANUFACTURING RFID is ideal for manufacturers who build several products on a single production line, or manufacture complex or customized products in multiple plants and across multiple geographies. Production planners and inventory control personnel use RFID tags to automatically update the customer data and finished goods inventory. potential errors in the system.

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RFID IN MEDICAL DEVICES FDA regulations and Good Manufacturing Practices (cGMP) dictate that medical device manufacturers collect and store component usage as part of their Device History Record (DHR). Further, medical device manufacturers must be able to provide full genealogy and traceability reporting for critical components used in medical devices. The collection of the component identifications and usage can be a burdensome task in manufacturing. The maintenance of the Device History Records and component traceability reports can be costly.

RFID can provide a cost effective mechanism for collecting component ID’s as part of the Device History record. RFID can insure regulatory compliance and reduce the cost of that compliance.

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Using an RFID reader and PC, rather than manually creating data entry sheets, eliminates potential errors in the system. RFID tags can be applied to subassemblies to enable automated, unattended WIP tracking and can be integrated with industrial control systems to route items automatically through assembly processes.

Many automotive manufacturers apply RFID tags to chassis to track them through paint stations. RFID tags embedded within products are especially effective for routing and tracking materials in cleanroom applications. RFID electronic tracking can replace paper “travelers” eliminating a potential contaminant. Product serial numbers and lot identification data can be securely encoded in read-only memory during manufacturing to provide lifetime tracking and product authentication. Some manufacturers take advantage of this functionality to verify eligibility for returns, warranty repairs and detection of counterfeit products. Maintenance history or other relevant data can be stored on higher capacity tags and updated whenever service is performed.

RFID’s ability to do multiple reads per second and scan at a greater range provides manufacturers with much greater data sampling than previously possible. In turn, companies can reduce inventory levels due to increased confidence in on-hand, in-transit and manufactured inventory levels, minimizing stock-outs and inventory shortages, thereby ensuring optimized manufacturing and distribution with negligible waste. By implementing these improvement measures to enhance the productivity of a manufacturing facility, RFID also meets the goals of ‘Lean’ manufacturing and eliminates waste throughout the extended enterprise.

Material TrackingRFID offers distinctive benefits over present day data-collection methods. As a non line-of-sight technology, automated readers can derive data from the latent tags without manual intervention. The tags connect to a centralized database containing extensive information about the product or part. Using this, manufacturers can track and record in-process assembly/flow information through the RFID tag attached to an item as it progresses along the line.

Manufacturing operations that require sequencing or build-to-order production rely on item-level identification to ensure the right components are added to assemblies. RFID provides a way to quickly verify identities and can be integrated with material handling and production control systems to route items to the appropriate assembly, testing or packaging locations.

Example: In an automotive shop floor, RFID tags can be applied to racks that carry engines to their installation location. Each engine will contain a RFID tag that will associate the specific engine with its rack in the database enabling verification that engines on the rack belong to the same type of engine being installed in a chassis. Forklift-mounted readers provide data to operators enabling them to confirm that they are picking the right rack. The racks are read again prior to the engines being unloaded. The scanned data is used to prevent sequence loading and installation errors. All of this helps the automotive manufacturer avoid the high cost of product rework.

Product traceabilityUsing RFID, manufacturing units can define detailed bill of materials (BOM) information for each manufactured item with item genealogy

RFID IN AUTOMOTIVEThe automotive industry is characterized by still too lengthy design cycles, complex, multi-tiered supply chains and narrow profit margins. Add to these challenges an ever-increasing number of regulatory and environmental standards and it is no wonder that automotive manufacturers are seeking best-in-class solutions for increasing productivity, reducing costs and gaining competitive advantage.

RFID integrated manufacturing systems offer manufacturing control, detailed product traceability, regulatory compliance and direct linkage to enterprise systems, thereby closing the supply chain loop in real time. RFID can be an important part of the advanced ‘track and trace” capability needed to significantly drive down warranty, recall and scrap costs.

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tracking of the serial and lot numbers from the raw materials to the finished goods. When building serial or lot tracked items, detailed sub-assembly information, such as component serial or lot numbers can also be attached to products and passed to the upper assembly for a complete history of a “finished good”. In addition, the RFID tracking data is stored in the “As-Built” history for the finished good. Expanding the example above; the engine is readily tracked as it is installed in the particular automobile — which is tracked by vehicle identification number (VIN). This provides for cost-effective compliance to quality, governmental traceability and genealogy requirements. Further, by enabling unit level traceability, manufacturers can reduce their warranty and recall expenses by having detailed “where used” information with forward and reverse traceability information.

Are We There Yet? In most manufacturing environments the RFID journey is just beginning. RFID provides the avenue to pump much more information into data systems than previously possible, yet there are fundamental inadequacies in typical systems that prompt many manufacturers to wonder:

• “How do I get data from disparate systems melded together into something that is useful?”• “How can I rapidly retrieve this data in a format that I can easily examine?”• “How can I leverage my processes to act on what I learn, for the optimization of my enterprise?”• “Who can help me avoid pitfalls as I roll out my RFID enterprise optimization initiatives?”

What is required is a cohesive solution that integrates the information collected by tags/readers through functional middleware and into enterprise applications, facilitating intelligent decision-making based on real factory events and activity.

HOW BROOKS FITS INBrooks is a leader in deploying passive RFID systems with over $25 million in annual revenues having implemented large scale (1,000+ readers) systems in numerous manufacturing environments. Brooks Software provides a complete software application suite to support Brooks Automation’s RFID readers or readers from other manufacturers. The Brooks RFID Solution is aligned with the technology architecture outlined by EPCglobal. Brooks’ Sense Decide Respond™ real-time applications extend that RFID offering — focused on material tracking and product traceability/genealogy — into a comprehensive manufacturing solution supporting product and process tracking/control, closed loop automation and Lean manufacturing.

Brooks Software RFID Solutions — Answering 3 Key Questions: 1. Where is it? - RFID technology allows you to track the physical location of the materials… in the warehouse, in the plant and across the distribution channel. 2. Where was it used? - Brooks RFID applications go beyond the concept of material tracking to full product traceability and genealogy. RFID is an excellent way to record where a component is used (by serial, lot or batch number). Brooks RFID applications allow you to track as a component is assembled into a sub-assembly and then into a final assembly.

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RFID IN AEROSPACE AND DEFENSE Aerospace and defense manufacturers need factory automation solutions that will help them deploy a make-to-order model, control costs and create an integrated manufacturing environment, incorporating geographically dispersed production facilities and extensive subcontractor networks.

RFID-enabled, collaborative manufacturing systems, efficiently collect product data to meet customer and FAA/DoD/NASA regulations, while providing ERP material consumption data needed for planning and demand-based scheduling.

3. How was it used? - Brooks’ solution can be readily extended with optional modules to provide full product and process traceability in manufacturing.

MiddlewareThe Brooks RFID solution performs reader and event management, data collection, tracking, the ability to write to higher capacity tags and other middleware functions. With this component a user knows where inventory is located in their operation. The system tracks relationships between tagged objects and other objects (tagged or virtual) and the history of where the product has been. RFID event activity is stored and made available to other systems.

Integration with RFID hardware provides device management and detailed tracking of both tagged and untagged objects. This proven middleware component is scalable and today ranges in use from desktop pilots to large scale, mission critical environments. The system is scalable and can easily be modified to support the dynamic nature of manufacturing without system shut down.

Temporal PerformanceGathering and assembling pieces of the manufacturing data into a common place is the first step toward process improvement. Data from RFID readers, ERP, Warehouse Management Systems (WMS) and other software systems in the enterprise is collected in a high speed, temporal data repository. The RFID tag information is combined and cross-referenced with the state of the facility with the added dimension of time. Now product and process of an enterprise may be easily considered with a single real-time view. This enables complex business questions to be answered about problems and productivity in the facility in real-time. This is achieved with no changes to existing data schemas. Data is compressed for high-speed retrieval.

Real-time extraction and reporting of states, activity and change on the shop floor provide a vital glimpse into manufacturing operations. Brooks examines a ‘point-in-time’ view with temporal data that will, in an instant, support or invalidate the ‘point-in-time’ analysis. Key business decision metrics are presented to manufacturers in real-time, based on current and historical factual data. Visualization of manufacturing activity that is validated by temporal data is important because of the improved accuracy of the data.

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Temporal report showing WIP levels at a specific work area.

What is temporal data? The EPCglobal Technology Guide defines temporal data as data that changes over time. A temporal data system combines event-based data (traditional relational) with state- based data. This combination enables complex queries such as “when” and “how much”, which relational databases can not achieve without a high level of customization. A simple example is, “What is the average time that my product is waiting for pickup, excluding when it is on hold?”. Using temporal data, Brooks offers a variety of reporting capabilities.

• Accurate statistics for time in a zone: average, maximum, minimum, mode, median, standard deviation and percentile statistics. These statistics can be evaluated over time to understand trends.• Trend views can be provided to show how this data changes over time, in addition to zone to zone transitions for material over time.

Brooks’ easy-to-use temporal reporting technology provides RFID systems with a powerful reporting solution that is unmatched by standard reporting tools. No other reporting solution today can show a complete view of a user’s operation at any instant in time.

Automated ActionsOnce business goal metrics are more accurately presented and visualized, actions may be taken for operational improvement and extended back into the facility. Sometimes this is done manually while other instances call for automated decisions. Brooks evaluates activity in the factory and initiates corrective action or optimization without the need for human intervention. This capability utilizes the temporal data described above to increase its decision making accuracy. This software component provides flexible, intuitive tools for building task management logic, allowing appropriate configurable actions when unique conditions arise. This enables operations and activities to be proactive and predictive rather than reactive.

Brooks senses changes in factory or business operations, detects events and exceptions, decides the best course of action and executes back to factory or business resources. With its tight integration to the temporal reporting repository and RFID, this system will sense event changes and trigger automation or exception handling jobs based upon subscriptions to these events. As it tracks inventory and material movement through the manufacturing process, it can also send automatic requests to ERP applications to reorder and replenish depleting stock as required, entirely eliminating manual intervention and saving time.

Brooks’ RFID products are highly scaleable, from controlling just a handful of readers and managing its data, to managing and controlling hundreds of readers with all the associated information. Ease of use, from monitoring and maintaining the operation to self-configuring additional read points, provide the flexibility necessary to enable dynamic layout modification, expansion on the fly and a rollout of same-solution to multiple factories. The result is a tighter solution with high reliability and lower system maintenance.

EXPERIENCEBrooks is experienced in the deployment of RFID technologies and has provided passive RFID systems to semiconductor manufacturers for 10 over years. Brooks’ software runs in 7x24 mission critical facilities. Brooks’ strong implementation services experience helps manufacturers to quickly get their RFID systems up and running by eliminating risk and improving decision-making surrounding RFID, including layouts and lessons learned. Brooks has direct global operations in the United States, Canada, Europe, Japan, Korea, Taiwan, China, Singapore, Malaysia and India

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Overview of the Brooks RFID Software Solution

Brooks Software Solution

RFID Capabilities Benefits

Brooks Material Control System for RFID (Middleware)

Middleware: • Interfaces with RFID readers. • Tracks the physical location of material and mobile equipment.• Maintains tagged object relationships

• Scales from pilot to large scale• Dynamic configuration (no down time). Add object attributes in real-time• User configurable• Mission critical maturity· Fully integrated with temporal data warehouse• RFID reader vendor independent• Supports writing as well as reading

Brooks Temporal Repository

Temporal Performance: • Stores event and state data• Joins data from multiple external systems in a temporal format• Data compression• Advanced reporting capability• Supports highly complex queries• Friendly GUI for defining reports

• Provides real-time visualization including animation (replay) of events• Shows performance over time: Answers questions of “when” and “how long”• Works with existing disparate DB schemas• Middleware independent • Mission critical maturity

Brooks Automated Actions

Automated Actions:

• Facility execution control• Exception handling• Directs workflow across applications• Friendly GUI for defining automation logic• Dynamic logic creation

• Automate policies and processes• Easy to change task logic – for a changing environment• Mission critical maturity• Integrates to ERP, WMS and/or MES• Optimizes business processes• An alternative to hard-coded software solutions.

SUMMARYRFID represents the ability to get more data into software systems than previously possible. The use of temporal data in the decision making process provides greater accuracy than point-in-time data. Proper presentation, visualization and use of that data is what leads to the return on investment. The opportunity for improvement using RFID is to exploit the data for operational enhancement, which would include supply chain visibility, labor reduction, paper trail reduction, inventory loss reduction, etc. Such improvements will ultimately result in increased quality, waste elimination and operational productivity improvements, resulting in an improved cash flow for the operation. Brooks, with 10 years of RFID deployment experience is uniquely qualified to help solve these complex manufacturing problems.

For more information about Brooks Software’s RFID solutions and how they can benefit your manufacturing operation, call us today and talk with one of our RFID experts. And be sure to visit us on the web at www.brookssoftware.com.

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Sample scenario in manufacturing using Brooks RFID solution • As a part arrives at a tool to be processed, a passive RFID tag is read for identification. Reader management software relays information about the next part to be processed at the tool.

• Information is then passed to Brooks’ equipment automation software that recognizes what material has arrived and validates it for that process step and instructs the tool accordingly.

• Once the process is completed, the part moves on to the next step. Area level software uses the ID information on the tag attached to the part to allow the production line to rapidly switch in-line products and/or feed data forward and backward through the line to enhance throughput.

• As it passes through various tools and is processed, the tag is automatically read and the status of the part is updated.

• The movement of a part through the plant causes a variety of events and activities that are captured and tracked. Current status is melded with real-time temporal data supplying an added dimension of accuracy and visibility.

• Business metrics are presented to decision makers for enhanced decisions to be made in the enterprise.

• Automated, proactive steps are taken to move materials, replenish inventories, prioritize work in progress, etc. driving operational improvement.

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PRODUCT LIFECYCLE TRACKING

Taggedsoda can

Soda canin carton

Cartonin pallet

Brooks RFID solutions can track the product into the box, into the carton and onto the pallet.

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