Process improvement through production order tracking with moneo Track & Trace

Greater transparency in production lines using RFID and moneo Track & Trace

In the manufacturing sector, where products or semi-finished products are assembled, smooth production and the associated high product quality are essential. Although it is often known which and how many orders are in the production line, there is no transparent overview of the station the orders are currently at. Thus, possible bottlenecks, waiting times or transport problems cannot be identified and localised.

Because the production lines consist of different work stations, the production processes must be optimally planned to ensure optimum capacity utilisation of the respective stations without resulting in excessive material buffers and the associated storage costs. This ensures that sufficient orders and the necessary materials are available at all times.

Targeted production order tracking using RFID technology and the moneo Track & Trace software creates transparency in the process and provides live data on current order output volume. In addition, lead times are determined to further optimise the production flow. This increases the overall productivity of the production line.

The benefits of targeted production order tracking

Production order tracking using RFID technology and the powerful moneo Track & Trace software offers numerous benefits, including seamless transparency and real-time monitoring of your production processes. RFID enables you to precisely track the location and status of your orders at any time.

The moneo IIoT Core is used as a basic solution to configure the data from the sensor. The moneo Track & Trace solution, based on this, enables precise monitoring of the production process. ifm’s moneo solution offers an intuitive, user-friendly platform for managing all relevant data centrally and carrying out the desired analyses using the numerous functions.

Your benefits at a glance

• Transfer of live data: You know at all times how many orders are at each workstation.
• Overview of the processing times: The dwell times of orders are recorded and a complete lead time is determined.
• Support for process optimisation: The recording of quantities and times forms the data basis for possible process optimisations.
• Targeted order tracking: The unique order number enables orders to be located along the line at any time.
• Permanent monitoring: Ident rules enables the monitoring of lay/lead times and quantities per workstation.
• Clear retracing: Orders can be traced retrospectively.

This minimises errors, increases efficiency and improves decision-making through detailed analysis and evaluation options in moneo. You too can rely on state-of-the-art technology and optimise your production processes sustainably!

• Process optimisation
• Machine availability

Automated order tracking: From “wedding” to “divorce”

During production, orders are usually processed with accompanying documents on which all relevant information is noted. The start and end of an order are scanned manually and transferred to SAP, but there is no feedback on the current order status at the other stations. Order folders are equipped with RFID transponders to determine the exact location of the respective work order. These folders serve as a carrier for the order documents and remain within the production area.

The “wedding” takes place at the start of the production line: the order folder is linked to the order papers. At the “wedding”, the unique order number, the article number and the quantity are read optically using a multicode reader. This data is then linked to the RFID transponder’s UID on the folder and transmitted in parallel to moneo Track & Trace.

From this point onwards, the folder is clearly identifiable via RFID and can be automatically recorded via other reading stations (leakage (2), oven (3) and buffer (4)) along the line and the data transferred to moneo Track & Trace. At the end of the line, the order is separated from the folder with a “divorce” (5) and thus completed. The folder is now ready for a new order.

Automated order tracking

1. Marriage
2. Leakage
3. Furnace
4. Buffer
5. Divorce

Efficient localisation and data transfer through moneo Track & Trace

At the beginning and end of an order, the data is forwarded directly to SAP when it is scanned. For precise localisation in the production process, a reader at each workstation records the information from the RFID transponder attached to the order folder. Each RFID chip has its own identifier, which enables the precise tracking and monitoring of the location of each order.

The recorded data is sent to moneo Track & Trace via an IO-Link master and can be analysed and processed directly here. moneo Track & Trace can be used directly in the moneo Cloud and on-premises.

System structure

Marriage

1. Order folder with transponder (incl. information on order number, article, quantity and order end date)
2. RFID compact device
3. Light tower
4. multicode readers
5. ifm Agent
6. moneo Track & Trace software

Leak & laser

1. RFID read/write head
2. Bluetooth Mesh adapter
3. RFID compact device
4. ifm Agent
5. moneo Track & Trace software

Furnace

1. RFID read/write heads
2. IO-Link master
3. ifm Agent
4. moneo Track & Trace software

Buffer

1. Buffer inventory
2. RFID compact device
3. RFID compact device
4. IO-Link master
5. ifm Agent
6. moneo Track & Trace software

Divorce

1. RFID compact device
2. Light tower
3. IO-Link
4. ifm Agent
5. moneo Track & Trace software

How to implement moneo Track & Trace in your process

To precisely locate orders, the production manager defines the individual stations together with production management, and plans the corresponding reading stations. Depending upon the network infrastructure and the number of RFID reading points at the station, two different concepts are used: the IoT IO-Link master and the Bluetooth Mesh IO-Link adapter.

The IoT IO-Link master is suitable for workstations that require more than one RFID reading station or where a signal light is also to be used as a feedback signal.

The Bluetooth Mesh IO-Link adapter is useful if individual reading stations without signal lamps as feedback signals are being used.

The wedding station is different to all other stations. A multicode reader (O2I502) and a compact RFID device (DTE604) are used here, each of which is connected to the network via Ethernet TCP/IP. When the built-in button of a signal light (DV2121) is pressed, the multicode reader is triggered and the information (order number ①, article ②, quantity ③ and order end ④) is read from the order papers (barcode and text). At the same time, the RFID compact device is used to read the transponder’s UID (Unique IDentifier) on the workbook.

ifm Agent handles the data processing, saving the UID with the order information in the TagDB (SQLite database) integrated in the ifm Agent. ifm Agent simultaneously transfers the data to moneo. The employee then receives feedback via the signal light that the process has been completed. IO-Link RFID reading stations are used at all other stations. The data is requested by another ifm Agent from the respective IO-Link master every 500ms. When a UID is recorded by the reading station, the corresponding order information is transferred from the TagDB to moneo.

Notice: The data could also be stored directly on the transponder at the wedding station and read from it at the other stations. However, reading data from the transponder takes longer than reading the UID, which could result in reading errors if it is not ensured that the transponder is reliably detected for a sufficiently long time. The data is saved as a string in the TagDB with the hyphen separator (order number-article-quantity-order end, e.g. “1234567-ABC123-99-01.01.2025”). This enables the data to be easily decoded later within moneo Track & Trace.

Once the reading stations have been installed, they are configured via the moneo IIoT Core, ifm’s basic solution. The “DataHoldTime” parameter is set to 1000ms. The UID data must be available via IO-Link for at least 1000 milliseconds, even if the transponder data acquisition is short.

After onboarding the ifm Agents via device management, the individual reading stations can be created and configured in the layout. Data processing then takes place via the “Ident decoding” setting. The system is ready for use after these steps.