Research on the use of wireless data capture with in-plant logistics

The goal of this project is to investigate the potential use the wireless data capturing technology with the dynamic analyses and re-design of the internal goodsflow coupled with the definition of efficiency parameters.
The product life cycle in the vehicle industry has evolved over the past 15 years from 10 years via 3 years to the current 24 months. The plant design cycles have however not followed this evolution and are still running on an icremental basis and often ad-hoc.
The RFID technology allows us to shorten the logistic design cycle of the factory drastically and - with dynamic analyses - apply a so called "evolutive plan: design". Based on the RFID signals which give a (semi-) continuous picture of the reality, the good flow model can be adjusted and controlled on a much more frequent basis.
In order to achieve this goal the RFID technology will be investigated in it's broad sense. As the RFID technology is no "one size fits all" solution we will perform a technology watch which aims at mapping the different possible technologies. One of the possibilities is the RTLS technology (Real Time Location System). With this technology the position of a data tag is calculated based upon the signals the tag exchanges with so called "Fixed reference tags", tags with a fixed location which is exactly known. The reaction time to problems in the goods flow will thus be drastically shortened.