Locking in Savings with RFID

David Lewis SAP Business Analyst

Sentry Safe

David Lewis - Bio

•  13 years of SAP development experience

•  8 years of Materials Management and Production Planning

•  3 years RFID related experiences •  Low man on the totem pole for Wal-mart

compliance during the third wave

Who is Sentry Safe

• Consumer Products Company •  500 + Employees in Rochester, NY •  2 Manufacturing Plants and our Main

Distribution Center in Rochester •  Privately held company •  Same family owners for 80 years

What is a Sentry Safe?

Who’s here today?

•  SAP system users? •  IT or business process? • Operations or production support? •  Prior RFID exposure or new to RFID?

Our Wal-Mart Compliance •  Currently we have 5 SKU’s being tagged at

the Case/Item level •  Installed conveyor application with encoding

and verification •  Used existing peel off barcode for our metal

safes (probably a unique approach) •  We currently do not track any outbound Wal-

Mart serial information

Peel Off Tag Example

Material Transfers Our Challenge

• We do internal transfers of 125,000 pallets per year between our production facilities and the distribution center

• We were using a flawed process that put the inventory into stock at the receiving warehouse at the time of the production receipt

Material Transfers Our Challenge

•  We never knew if the inventory was in transfer or if transactions were correct

•  User error caused us component issues and finished goods issues

•  The put-away drivers at our warehouse had to: – Print out lists of pending put-aways in our WM

system – Put the product physically away – Confirm their transactions at a work station

Our RFID Solution •  With the help of Acsis Inc, we developed an

RFID based solution that is tied directly to our SAP system

•  We utilize .NET applications hooked to a series of SAP BAPI’s to post our transactions in real time

•  We set up a separate SQL Database to store the individual line item transaction detail

Our System Architecture

Print Pallet Tags

Production Backflush

Goods Issue Against STO

Goods Receipt Against STO

Our SAP ECC 6 System

Custom RFID Applications in SQL Database

Printing Pallet Tags •  We print an RFID encoded tag at common print

stations on our production floors •  The user scans an order sheet that populates the

print label application and encodes and prints our tags

Printing Pallet Tags •  The print pallet application makes an RFC

call to SAP to obtain the related material data •  The user can validate qty per pallet and pallet

type as key fields •  We assign a unique pallet number that’s

encoded using RFID into the tag

Pallet Tags and Goods Issue

•  The tag serial number is stored in the SQL database and processes through each step of the process

• We use Stock Transport orders in SAP as our production schedule and as the facilitator for the subsequent steps

•  Two pallets tags are applied to each pallet

Material Backflush •  We use handheld RFID scanners to scan each pallet

tag and using the .Net application and a series of BAPI’s posts the backflush into SAP

•  Note that the scanners can process all transactions, which gives us our redundant backup for all transfer processes

Goods Issue using Portals •  After the backflush,

the pallet then passes through a portal, which is our RFID reader

•  While passing through the portal, the Goods Issue is posted in SAP against the Stock Transport Order

Goods Issues in SAP

•  The SQL database that’s tracking each individual tag has been updated with the backflush so it gives the driver an almost immediate feedback that the goods issue has occurred

•  The actual posting in SAP is delayed by a few seconds but the driver doesn’t need to wait because of the SQL table validation

•  If there is an error, then a red or blue light-stack is lit and a horn is sounded. The driver corrects any error using the handheld scanner

Goods Receipts •  After the goods issue, all stock is now “In-

Transit” in SAP. This allows us to know exactly what is on a truck

•  A portal is located at the Warehouse and when the pallets are driven through this portal, it posts a goods receipt in SAP

•  A stand-alone portal at the WH allows us to receive product through multiple doors

Automated Put-Aways •  Forklift Computers were

added for the put-away staff at the WH.

•  The receipt in SAP generates a put-away instruction to the driver

•  The driver posts the confirmation in our WM system, real time and the stock is immediately available for customer shipments

Transaction Reversals

•  If an error occurs the tags are turned in to a supervisor and they have access to a .Net reversal program that will undo any of the SAP postings

Solution Advantages •  Higher inventory accuracy (2008 was the first

year with no full physical) •  Visibility to stock that’s still on a truck waiting

to be unloaded (in-transit) •  Fewer user errors •  98% plus read accuracy •  Real time posting to SAP •  RFID was the perfect tool, because of no line

of sight requirements

Implementation Issues •  Safes made of metal and filled with a

special cement mixture (water based) • Dock door plates at the WH caused

issues with our original dock door portals

• Original wireless solution was very inadequate at our production plants

•  Some initial program issues (like daylight savings time update in 2007)

Questions

rfidjournalevents.com/presentations