RFID Tool Tracking

Want to reduce manual administrative costs in your shop by up to 22%? RFID tool tracking has proven results at companies like Airbus, Air France, Audi, Boeing, Caterpillar, and others. Tracking expensive, specialized tools while ensuring calibration and compliance is one of the most time consuming tasks facing aerospace manufacturers. Companies looking to be as efficient as possible lament the fact that their highly skilled and well-paid employees spend up to 30% of their time looking for tools, jigs, or specialty equipment. Compounding the cost of human labor is the practice of often re-purchasing tools when they can’t find the one they are looking for. With many companies focused on Lean Six Sigma reducing tool related costs is an important way to cut operating costs and reduce complexity. ODIN’s RFID tool tracking solution can help on all fronts.

ODIN’s Aerospace RFID Tool Tracking Solution has been designed from experience deploying tool tracking solutions at the most complex aerospace supply chains in the world. The solution is based on a unique combination of active and passive RFID tags and has been proven to drive a return on investment in less than a year. From tracking jigs on the world’s largest parts transporter, Airbus’s Beluga Aircraft, to real time locating tools specifically designed for MRO on the world’s most sophisticated fighter jets, ODIN’s tool tracking solution is real-world proven to add value.

ODIN’s RFID tool tracking solution

• Uses a combination of passive and active RFID
• Is a complete packaged solution that installs in less than two weeks in most instances
• Includes user training and system customization for specific tasks
• Automates calibration time compliance by signaling at check-in and check out
• Associates individuals with specific tools including date and time stamp
• Creates a work-area “virtual fence’ and notifies users if tools breach a perimeter

If you are looking for ways to gain efficiencies, cut cost and increase throughput an RFID-based tool tracking solution from ODIN may be the next step in competitive advantage. Contact one of the aerospace experts at ODIN for more information.

RFID Baggage Tracking

The International Air Transportation Association (IATA) chose one partner when it decided to scale up its RFID baggage improvement programme (BIP) initiative. After an extensive vendor evaluation they chose ODIN. IATA’s data have shown that a single lost bag can cost an airline almost $100, and the total annual cost is over $14 Billion. An RFID-enabled baggage tracking system can ease many of the pains that airports around the globe face – from selecting bags that may have changed their final destination en route, to eliminating huge cost and environmental waste from printing up billions of baggage labels. In the United States leading airports are applying for stimulus funds to install RFID infrastructure, and then using the RFID network as a revenue stream to sell usage and data to the airlines. This is particularly effective in a hub and spoke model addressing baggage transfer.

The choice of an RFID tag for a baggage tracking system has the biggest impact on both cost and performance. With more than three dozen types of tags the right choice for an RFID inlay must take into account everything from orientation sensitivity and antenna design to cost and global frequency performance. That's why ODIN released the RFID for Baggage Tracking Benchmark in November 2009.

The future of baggage tracking is moving rapidly toward RFID, and it is only a matter of time before paper tags are completely eliminated in favor of permanent or semi-permanent RFID tags. The sooner an airport authority or airlines understands the pitfalls and benefits of an RFID baggage tracking system the sooner they will gain benefit, including a new revenue stream and being a more attractive location for international transfers.

Airports looking to adopt an RFID baggage tracking system will have the following benefits:

• Reduced operating expense (generally a 12-14% reduction in baggage related OpEx)
• Less errors in re-routed baggage and international transfers (up to a 5x error reduction)
• Increased revenue from international operations as RFID tagging is a competitive differentiator for airports
• Friendlier environmental strategy as RFID tags can be reused and make paper tags obsolete

Check out this article on RFID Baggage Tracking, featuring an interview with ODIN's Bret Kinsella: RFID Switchboard article

Everyone is talking “Green” lately and airlines are no exception. With today’s volume of baggage tags the waste is astronomical. According to IATA if every bag tag printed was laid end to end around the equator, a year’s worth of baggage tags would circle the globe three times. The day will arrive soon when luggage will have permanent or semi-permanent RFID tags affixed to them and registered with frequent flyer programs.

The ODIN baggage tracking solution starts as low as $100,000 for a single location, and can scale up to integrate seamlessly with entire automated systems. We’ve learned the tough lessons that will reduce your risk and increase the return on investment. We are also partnered with the world’s largest baggage handling systems and airport technology providers such as Siemens, SITA, Rockwell Automation and IBM.

Leading airport operations and technology teams realize that RFID is such a unique field that expertise, experience and specialization are a must. They also value ODIN’s vendor neutral approach and deep Benchmarking capability. There is no one hardware that is best for everyone; the right printer, the optimal antennas, the right reader configuration all can save hundreds of thousands of dollars in operating costs and increase read success to over 99.9%. Only ODIN has repeatedly demonstrated this capability on a global scale focusing on only RFID.

ODIN also has a municipality leasing program for airport authorities. Since many airlines are likely to be the users of RFID data the system stands to be a potential revenue stream for airports. The challenge is getting over the initial cost of deployment. Rather that spend $1-2 million for a full production system, ODIN has a program backed by GE Finance that allows municipalities to pay quarterly for use of an installed RFID network. The airport authority can then sell the data back to their airline customers. Contact one of the aerospace experts at ODIN for more information.

RFID Aircraft Parts Marking

The two major players in commercial aviation Airbus and Boeing have in the past mandated RFID for parts marking on their newest aircraft – the A350 XWB and the 787 Dreamliner. The two planes have almost 70% commonality in parts suppliers. RFID part marking is critical for both companies, and requires very specialized RFID expertise. ODIN was selected as the exclusive RFID integration partner for Airbus over five years. If you are looking for the lowest cost way to meet the parts marking compliance with the least amount of risk ODIN’s aviation parts marking solution is what you need.

When looking at the parts marking standard it is important to adhere closely with the two key standards which have been developed to address the main part of the guidelines: SAE AS5678 and ATA Spec 2000 Chap 9-5. The ODIN aviation parts marking solution is set up for tagging the parts themselves not the containers or boxers (shipping labels) that hold the parts. This would be covered under our automated shipping and receiving solution.

How do you know if you need to participate in a parts marking initiative?

If you have already been contacted by one of your clients and asked to participate in the RFID parts marking program you are most likely looking for a solution. If you have not been contacted yet, but your parts meet the following four criteria you need to enable RFID part marking:

1. The part is a serialized item
2. The part is a line replaceable part (LRU/LRI/LRM etc.)
3. The part is repairable or has a life limit
4. The part has an expected GMTBUR lower than 60 000h or the part is subject to life monitoring

The minimum tag memory is 512 bits for the program. This is considered the “low memory” tag for purposes of the parts marking programs. Currently there are three suppliers who produce such a tag, with very different performance results. In many instances there are issues that arise with these new 512 bit tags that create specific challenges when embarking on an RFID installation. ODIN’s extensive experience and deep hardware relationships ensure there is no risk to end-users. No one is more familiar with the 512 bit RFID solution than ODIN. In fact ODIN was the first company to deploy an Intelliflex solution in the aerospace industry, and the first company to deploy 512 bit tags on multiple vendor UHF readers. The lessons learned from these pioneering efforts ensure that ODIN’s global support team can deliver a guaranteed optimal UHF RFID solution at the lowest costs and least risk to you.

The second critical component after choosing the RFID tag is where the tags are affixed. Both companies specify a particular use of the RFID tags. Improper placement can not only effect the performance of the system, but also the useable life of the tag.

The ODIN RFID aviation parts marking solution takes into account all required components and starts as low as $25,000 including hardware, software and services for Boeing and Airbus suppliers. This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it at ODIN for more information.