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Airbus has selected IBM and OATSystems to provide a software solution for a multimillion dollar, multiyear RFID project, the companies announced Thursday.
The lofty goal to "error-proof and automate" its supply chain and manufacturing operations aims to streamline the company's supply chain and manufacturing operations, significantly reducing aircraft production and maintenance costs. The companies say that the project represents the manufacturing industry's single largest RFID software deployment to date.
The Airbus RFID rollout will occur in three phases:
1) Supply chain logistics and distribution: Phase One, already underway, focuses on tracking supplies and reusable shipping containers through the supply chain to warehouses and assembly facilities. In a warehouse logistics and inventory management pilot, Airbus reduced physical handling time by 75%, achieving 100% automated data entry. This enabled the company to reduce inventory carrying costs and increase its labor productivity substantially.
2) Manufacturing and assembly: Phase Two focuses on Airbus' global transport, manufacturing and assembly operations. It includes tracking the movement of large parts such as wings and fuselages across Airbus' manufacturing facilities, automating the confirmation of work orders, and streamlining the "track and trace" process for parts that are assembled into aircraft.
3) In-service and support operations: Final Phase extends RFID into in-service and support operations. This aims to benefit Airbus' customers, for example, by enabling service personnel to take an accurate inventory of critical aircraft features, such as oxygen containers and life jackets, and recall the maintenance history of parts when performing on-site maintenance and support.
The platform runs on IBM's RFID infrastructure, powered by service oriented architecture technology that includes IBM WebSphere Premises Server and IBM Business Process Management, from WebSphere Process Server, to WebSphere Business Monitor. The IBM Tivoli Monitoring and IBM Tivoli Composite Application software products are being used to monitor the infrastructure. The solution will use OATSystems' business applications, including the OAT Foundation Suite, Asset Tracking and Work-in-Process solutions.
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