Asset tracking
Real-time asset and material tracking
Sewio RTLS allows you to fully visualize each resource, tool and material. What is important, it is possible in real time, across the entire facility. The location of all assets tracked in this way is determined on the site plan (this is done with an accuracy of 30 centimeters). Everything can be monitored at any time and on any device. This is a great help, because knowing exactly where resources are located can significantly reduce the time of searching for missing or misplaced resources or all discards from a single batch.
Full insight into where a given resource was located in the past, as well as how it flowed across the entire plant, allows you to improve the planning of individual processes and inventory monitoring. It also helps reduce search time, reduce bottlenecks, and improve workflows.
Triggers Based on Real-time Asset Locations
In the industrial world, the very location of a given material or resource is often an indicator of the stage of its production. Sewio RTLS allows you to control all objects within designated, virtual boundaries (i.e. geo-fencing). Thus, it allows you to set up an unlimited number of virtual zones corresponding to different stages of production. Placing the resource in or out of the zone may then automatically trigger the desired action.
A good example is the automatic material booking in or out in the milk run process, as it is leaving one facility to another. Zone Watch, advanced Sewio RTLS virtual zone wizard, gives users full control and flexible configuration ability to define zone logic without programming.
Indirect asset tracking (via overhead Crane Tracking) while increasing safety
Resources or materials as well as their flow can also be traced indirectly. This is possible in real time by monitoring the hook position of the crane that manipulates them. This way, the material is identified with each loading and then tracked from the hook. This happens until the moment of unloading and data synchronization with the WMS system. Importantly, in this case it is not only about monitoring the material flow itself, but also preventing unloading into wrong positions.
The same infrastructure can be used to track employees – to increase their safety in the workplace. This is possible thanks to special, automatic alerts appearing on the crane operator’s screen when someone comes near the hook.
eKanban for material and production flow planning and monitoring
Using Sewio RTLS, you can replace your paper Kanban cards with their digital version. Digital eKanban cards can store the same information and, in addition, are equipped with a UWB tag for precise card placement in real time. Thanks to the digitization of the Kanban process, the implementation time of all processes is shortened. And that’s not all! Fewer workers are required to support the operation, inventory is sized appropriately, and manual entry errors are reduced. Plus: you get full visibility of your processes in real time.
Digital Work Orders for Searching for Assets in Real-time
A short lead time is a key aspect of success in custom-made (also called “made-to-order”) production models. With Sewio RTLS you can track and track any asset and find their exact locations on maps of your facility in real time. Current paper (document) orders are simply being replaced with digital work orders that contain the same information, but with real-time location and other data types (based on sensors).
Indirect Asset Tracking via Tracking Handling Vehicles
In scenarios where hundreds or even thousands of resources (e.g. pallets) are transported by vehicles (such as forklifts), you can get a better ROI. This can be done by tracking fewer forklifts, not all the pallets that are handled by the forklifts. The trick is to identify the pallets using cameras and barcodes or NFC technology – while loading! You should then link this information to the forklift and then simply track that particular forklift to be aware of the exact location of the pallet.
Thanks to forklift tracking, you get full visibility of the material location in real time, as well as its flow in the facility. This is possible while keeping the costs of your indoor tracking project to a minimum.