Real-Time Inventory Tracking
WhereNet's WhereCall/Fast Gate RFID Systems

As companies implement lean manufacturing processes, it's important to have real-time information. Knowing what you've got and where it is at any given time in the supply chain should be straightforward. Multiply that simple task by an enormous business with tens of thousands of items, such as Ford Motor Co., and knowing what you have—and where—becomes staggeringly complex.

Ford's manufacturing operations depend upon having the correct amount and type of production line-side inventory on hand at all times. Lacking adequate visibility into the location of containers, the company faced challenges of excess line-side freight, lost production capacity and inventory obsolescence.

To meet these challenges, Ford adopted an active radio frequency identification (RFID) real-time locating system, which has been implemented in almost all of its North American and European plants. The system, from WhereNet Corp. of Santa Clara, California, is driven by wireless tags, fixed-position antennas and Web-enabled software.

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Portable Metrology Makes Smith & Wesson's Day
ROMER Inc.'s Laser Scanning Inspection System

Top brass at firearm manufacturer Smith & Wesson wanted to batten down the hatches on any area of production with a negative pull on profitability. Nick Shah, manufacturing engineer at Smith & Wesson, was tasked with finding an industrial inspection solution that would streamline their forging operations, an area with high scrap rates. After an extensive period of benchmarking, Smith & Wesson purchased an integrated solution consisting of a laser scanning inspection (LSI) system from ROMER Inc. of Wixom, Michigan, and PolyWorks point-cloud processing software from InnovMetric of Quebec, Canada.

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