www.airbus.com www.nitica.fr RFID BRINGS MORE PRECISION Until Airbus and ESAT administrators decided to work together, the laundry facility had processed YMCA member clothing with the help of barcode tags—sufficient for small volumes, but not satisfactory for the 2,000 pieces of clothing per day that Airbus would be sending through the facility. ESAT’s project manager, André Murlin, already had RFID experience under his belt and thought that this technology would provide the optimal solution. Once a feasibility study confirmed the suitability of RFID, Murlin needed to choose the equipment to use. ESAT’s barcode supplier Thermopatch proposed integrating RFID with the laundry’s existing Ramsès tracking system, but since project goals included real time garment tracking within the laundry and within the Airbus facility, a different solution was required. Garments in need of laundering were dropped off in no fewer than seven locations across the Airbus facility, and ESAT program members were to collect them as
Text: Carl Michener / ID BBN Images: Shutterstock
well as deliver fresh clothing. To make sure that the RFID system worked throughout, ESAT engaged NITICA, a French logistical solution integrator with 18 years’ experience in planning, building and modifying barcode- and RFID-managed logistical facilities. NORDIC ID MOBILE COMPUTERS
locker. If an Airbus worker is assigned a new location on the Airbus campus, the information is transmitted to the laundry control system, the tag is rewritten, and the garment in question is delivered to the new location. RFID BRINGS INCREASED CONFIDENCE
In the YMCA case, NITICA had to The entire RFID implementation cost the implement a simple, foolproof solution, YMCA 200,000 euros and allowed the given that handicapped workers would be laundry to reduce the number of steps in operating the system. For processing garments, such “The mobile computer as searching for and then mobile RFID and barcode reading, NITICA settled comes with simple, scanning garment barcodes, on the Nordic ID PL3000 intuitive controls and a as well as reducing human mobile computer, a portable highly usable interface.” error. RFID device equipped with both a barcode reader and a HF RFID In July a new garment management point is reader. The mobile computer comes with due to open on the Airbus campus, this time simple, intuitive controls and a highly usable a clothing distribution point for new workers. interface. Next up, Airbus will transfer responsibility for clothing stocks and resupply orders to the The RFID tags identify which changeroom YMCA— a measure of the extent to which fresh clothes are destined for, then barcode the RFID implementation has increased the tags affixeded within the changeroom are confidence that the aerospace manufacture read to match clothing with each worker’s now has in the YMCA laundry program.
Product: Nordic ID PL3000 HF RFID LIBRARY
Nordic IDea • 35