BSH - Efficient Production Lines With RTLS

EUROPE’S #1 HOME APPLIANCES COMPANY

BSH Home Appliances is number 1 in Europe and the market leader at many regions and countries. This is the result of the vigorous efforts and dedication of BSH’s 58,000 employees around the world. The sole purpose of BSH is to improve the quality of life at home. BSH steps into the customer’s shoes, adopts their uniqueness and personal needs, and provides solutions that make the life at home easier and brighter. BSH has 40 factories worldwide.

In order to respond rapidly to the increasing market demands, BSH preferred Wipelot for milkrun tracking in order to increase efficiency in manufacturing processes.

INCREASING THE EFFICIENCY IN MANUFACTURING LINES BY DIGITALIZING THE MANUFACTURING PROCESS

Wipelot Project Team carried out a discovery study at BSH's Çerkezköy facilities; and in order to get optimum performance from the production, the Team carried out a study to digitalize the process with real-time location tracking.

In the scope of the project, the purpose was to increase the efficiency of the manufacturing process by measuring the stock levels of the semi-finished products and by providing the real time tracking of the side panel carrier vehicles and milkrun vehicles.

Expected outputs were;

1. Producing the footprints of the milkrun vehicles with sub-meter precision
2. Installing the signalling system for the management of the milkrun traffic
3. Determining the round trip durations for the milkrun vehicles and reporting the vehicles that violate these durations
4. Installing the signalling system
5. Tracking the side panel vehicles
6. Tracking the semi-finished products stock

STEP-BY-STEP TRACKING WITH PRECISE LOCATION

The greatest expectations of BSH from the system were producing the footprints of the milkrun vehicles, determining their optimum round trip durations, and producing the violation reports of the vehicles that exceeded the round trip durations, in order to increase the efficiency in manufacturing. In addition, it was aimed to eliminate the delays in the manufacturing lines due to volume by managing the milkrun traffic in the second phase. In order to meet these demands, it was necessary to carry out an in-depth analysis of the extremely busy vehicle traffic and the manufacturing process. Besides, it was also necessary to find out the physical conditions of the environment and to carry out a detailed discovery study for the instantaneous provision of real time location tracking and step-by-step movement data.

PRECISE LOCATING WITH MANUFACTURING ANALYSIS

After the in-depth analysis of the manufacturing process, the anchors were installed inside the factory for tracking with precise location. For the installation of the anchors, the project team made precise measurements and covered the whole area in order to produce the footprints correctly at every point.

The milkrun vehicles operate synchronously in pairs. In order to avoid loss of time, when the first vehicle in the pair takes the semi-finished products and leaves the manufacturing line, the other vehicle must arrive at the empty line. In addition, the round trips on the determined routes must be completed within the optimum duration.

With the data gathered from the field in real time in the scope of the project, the round trip durations were determined for the milkrun vehicles. Thus, BSH was provided with the information on:

• The starting time of the round trip,
• The time remaining for the next round trip,
• The time spent during the round trip.

Regarding the violations of the determined round trip durations, reports were submitted to the related department. In relation to the round trips completed, the route and footprint information was simulated on vehicle basis. Integrating the active and passive RFID technologies, the side panel vehicles were tracked with active RFID and the stock tracking of the semi-finished products was carried out with passive RFID. The stock reports were submitted to the customer on annual and monthly basis.

Lastly, with the installed signalling system, the management of the milkrun vehicle traffic between the manufacturing lines was provided. For the signalling system, traffic light were installed at beginning of the manufacturing lines and on the main road, and screens were installed at the waiting areas of the milkrun vehicles.

Traffic lights were installed at the beginning of each manufacturing line, the red light indicated that the line was occupied when a vehicle entered the line; and the screens installed along the lines indicated the occupied lines, preventing the entry of other vehicles to these lines and avoiding possible traffic jams. Thus, the milkrun vehicles are redirected and tracked throughout the whole process beginning from the waiting area.

With stock tracking, a permanent notification and reporting infrastructure is established for the critical stocks. The integrated use of the active and passive RFID technologies for the establishment of the infrastructure allowed for the cost-effective implementation of the project with an innovative approach.

The efficiency was improved with the tracking and redirecting of the Milkrun and Side Panel vehicles, making the field operation trackable and measurable, and creating a structure where the planning can be verified. Lastly, the traffic in the field was eliminated with the signalling system, avoiding problems such as the unnecessary use of the manufacturing lines and blocking of the road.

MODULAR DESIGN, LAYERED PROJECT PREPARATION

The manufacturing facilities of BSH consist of numerous factories on a 550,000 m2 area. For this large and extensive area, the customer demanded many solutions such as Lone Worker Safety System, Safezone Collision Warning System, Milkrun and Stock Tracking, and Signalling.

The solutions offered by Wipelot have a modular structure with regards to both hardware and software. Taking advantage of the system architecture in the analysis prepared specifically for BSH, Wipelot implemented a layered project preparation. Thus, a structure, allowing for different applications with the same hardware, was established.