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The Ludhiana-based Abhishek Industries is one of the leading textile
exporters, exporting to over 40 countries and supplying to the biggest brands in
the retail market. Strict control over quality, therefore, becomes a given. The
use of RFID technology, in conjunction with ERP, has helped the company drive
greater operational efficiencies, eventually aiding in quality adherence.
Problem Areas
Abhishek Industries faced the challenge of tracking semi-finished goods in
greige folding at its Terry Towel plant. It was critical for the company to
track the Work In Progress to bring in the required operational efficiencies in
the manufacturing process.
The greige stock area has running towels wound on very large pipes, called
doffs. This is the stage between the weaving and dying stage. At any given
point, there are around 1,000 doffs lying in the area. According to Ravi Tandon,
CIO, Abhishek Industries, Manual tracking of the doffs is a very cumbersome
task and also throws open various challenges like locating the right doff.
Though the doffs look similar, they may be belong to different orders and have
different characteristics and quality. A lot of time was lost in trying to
locate the right doff as someone had to manually go through. There is also the
probability of the doff coming in last and going out first, as that would be the
easiest thing to do for the person handling it manually. So, ensuring the right
sequence of first in, first out was becoming difficult.
RFID to the Rescue
The company outlined on the RFID solution from Avaana to automate the
tracking of doffs. As part of the solution, active RFID tags were placed on each
of the doffs, while RFID readers were placed in strategic locations in the
greige stock area. The data with respect to a particular doff is fed into the
tag, which is then read by the RFID reader. As a result, the system can help the
floor manager know the stock levels; and where are the physical stocks, whether
there are any non-moving stocks. It also sends alarm signals when an
unauthorized doffs are moved.
Tags have an up-to-date and real time status of doffs at any given point of
time. So, if materials has been taken from doffs and used, the tag will provide
the latest position at that point of time. The company has integrated its RFID
system with its SAP R/3 ERP system and ensured that the technology works
consistently. The company invested around Rs 25 lakh on the RFID implementation.
The implementation, however, was not without its set of challenges as the
implementation partners had to work around the interference with metals. There
was specific casing done for each tag depending on which material it was going
to be placed on.
The RFID implementation has given the company clear visibility of the WIP,
something that it did not have before. Today, the company is able to determine
the current position of the doff and is able to ensure its first in and out
usage. This has led to saving time earlier lost in trying to locate which doff
is lying where. Further, there has been an improvement in the operational
efficiencies as the loader is now able to pick up the correct doff for the
specific order. All this eventually helps in maintaining the required quality.
Future Plans
Abhishek Industries has outlined plans to extend the usage of the technology to
other areas within the company as well. This includes areas like finished goods
warehouse, cotton warehouse for raw material tracking, tracking of certain
critical movable assets, and manpower access control and attendance. The pilot
project for employee attendance recording and access control through RFID has
already been done.
Shipra Malhotra
shipram@cybermedia.co.in
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