Application of RFID technology in tobacco industry logistics system

RFID technology, as an extremely efficient, fast and convenient identification technology, has been widely used in various industries. Baoji Cigarette Factory introduced RFID technology to the tobacco industry logistics system, mainly to improve the efficiency of its tobacco industry production and reduce production costs.

后the remote transformation of the Baoji Cigarette Factory, the most advanced comprehensive automated logistics system in China has been introduced to realize the fully automated storage and unloading process of tobacco leaves, tobacco stems, tobacco auxiliary materials, and finished cigarette products, which greatly improves the material in and out. The efficiency of the warehouse reduces the error rate, saves labor costs, eliminates hidden safety hazards, and improves the competitiveness of the enterprise. It has now become a highlight of the cigarette factory. According to the functional area classification, the logistics overhead warehouse of Baoji Cigarette Factory is divided into three: raw material overhead warehouse, auxiliary materials overhead warehouse, and finished product overhead warehouse.

The raw material elevated storehouse is mainly responsible for the entry and exit of tobacco raw materials such as tobacco leaves, stems, and flakes. The specific workflow is as follows: Tobacco leaves, stems, and flakes are sent from the first floor of the raw material overhead warehouse to a conveyor using a forklift or a bagger. In the warehouse, when needed, the tobacco stems and sheets are discharged from the storage platform on the first floor of the raw material warehouse, and the tobacco leaves are discharged from the steel platform on the second floor of the raw material warehouse. jobs.

The auxiliary material overhead storage is mainly responsible for the entry and exit of tobacco raw and auxiliary materials, such as box skins, box skins, cellophane, cardboard, label paper, etc. The specific workflow is as follows: the raw and auxiliary materials are manually arranged by the tray, and then in the auxiliary material overhead storage On the third floor, a forklift or a strapping machine is used to feed the conveyor into the warehouse automatically. When needed, the warehouse will be delivered from the first-floor warehouse platform of the auxiliary materials elevated warehouse, and then transported to each machine using AGV (Automatic Guided Trolley).

The finished product high-bay warehouse is mainly responsible for the loading and unloading of finished cigarettes. The specific working process is as follows: The finished cigarettes are from the first floor of the rolling workshop, and the finished cigarettes are delivered to the second floor of the finished high-bay warehouse using a screw conveyor. Sort, then use ABB robot to automatically palletize, and then put it into the shelf by the stacker. When leaving the warehouse, the stacker removes the finished cigarette case from the shelf, and the conveyor sends it to the exit on the first floor of the finished high-bay warehouse for manual loading.

Application of RFID technology in logistics system

1. Overall design principles

In the loading and unloading operations of the three elevated warehouses, a semi-automated approach was adopted, and certain automation technologies and machinery were introduced, supplemented by manual operations to achieve a balance between efficiency and cost.

电子标签是部署在托盘的底部s and stem boxes, and readers are correspondingly placed in sorting lanes, storage openings, storage openings, and box sealers, and combined with the "Tobacco Industry Cigarette Production and Management Decision Management System Project (Project No. 1) ) ", Can achieve" one dozen two scans "-a cigarette industry enterprise applies a unified barcode issued by the competent department to each cigarette produced, and carries out the warehouse scanning code and the cigarette business enterprise warehouse scanning code, so that Tobacco authorities can grasp and implement effective control of tobacco company's purchase, production, and sales information in a timely manner, implement information collection and reasonably connect with the warehouse management system, and transmit data information to the warehouse management system through a combination of wired and wireless for storage , Analysis and processing, to achieve the purpose of rapid and transparent logistics control.

2. Business process design

In order to carry out effective positioning, first of all, it is necessary to encode the cargo location, and the encoding information is written into the WMS of the warehouse management system. Generally, address coding is used.

(1) Design of storage business process: When raw materials and tobacco auxiliary materials are stored in the warehouse, use a forklift to place tobacco leaves, tobacco stems, and tobacco materials on a tray labeled with an electronic tag. The reader at the entrance to the warehouse completes the code disk. The trays are scanned with the electronic tag of the tray, and the matching of the tray information and the product information is completed, and the matching information is transmitted to the warehouse management system. The conveyor then sends the goods to the aisle stacker, which is put into storage by the stacker.

When finished cigarettes are put into the warehouse, they are first sorted through the sorting lane. Install a reader at each sorting crossing, scan the electronic barcode on the cigarette box when the cigarette passes, and quickly identify its type. If it matches the type, push the cigarette into the lane by the side pushing device, and then by the ABB robot Palletizing is performed. After the palletizing is completed, the conveyor sends the entire pallet of smoke to the storage entrance, and the reader scans and records the pallet, and then the conveyor sends it to the stacker platform for storage.

The warehouse management system (WMS) determines the storage location of the goods and assigns the storage locations based on pre-set storage strategies (such as classified random storage), location assignment principles (such as first-in, first-out), and the status of goods inventory. The information is transmitted to the warehouse control system (WCS), which drives the conveyor and aisle stacker to complete the warehouse operation.

(2) Outbound business process design: When there is an outbound request, the warehouse management system WMS determines the location of the outbound goods according to the inventory status and the outbound rules, and the outbound information (such as outbound goods name, quantity, storage location Etc.) to WCS. The warehouse control system WCS drives the aisle stacker to take out the goods and send them to the outbound platform through the conveyor. The RFID reader automatically scans the goods or pallet tags to confirm and complete the update of the cargo location information. After the error, the shuttle, forklift or AGV trolley is used. Send the goods to the designated location. The outbound job is complete.

后the storage is completed, the pallets are manually or automatically sent to the palletizing machine. The WMS of the warehouse management system allocates empty cargo spaces to the empty pallet group, and transmits the information to the warehouse control system WCS. The warehouse control system WCS drives the conveyors and stackers. Return the empty pallet group to the designated location in the warehouse, and then automatically use it when it is next used.

With the introduction of RFID technology, real-time query of cargo location information can provide guidance for other operations. The query mainly includes two aspects:

Cargo inquiry: inventory, distribution status, basic characteristics of a certain kind of goods.

Inquiry of cargo space: utilization of cargo space (occupied cargo space, available cargo space, unavailable cargo space), utilization of cargo space, etc.

3. RFID and system information interaction

(1) Information interaction with WCS system. Upload the material or pallet information through RFID and send it to the WCS control system. After WCS can send control instructions to specific logistics equipment through PLC, after receiving the control instructions issued by the WCS system, the logistics equipment can accurately The material or pallet is transported to the designated target location, and then the final confirmation is performed by RFID, and the confirmation information is fed back to the WCS to complete the information interaction between the RFID and the WCS system. In this interaction process, RFID played the role of information collection and initiator, and finally acted as a confirmer and feedback, ending this information interaction.

(2)与WMS系统信息交互。后the RFID completes the interaction with the WCS, the WCS transmits the results to the WMS, and the WCS realizes the indirect information interaction between the RFID and the WMS. WMS summarizes and analyzes this information to understand real-time inventory information, inventory information, classification of materials, types and quantities that need to be replenished, etc. This information will directly guide the allocation and procurement of materials and directly affect the production normal operation. With this information, the WMS system can issue specific instructions to the WCS system to indirectly guide the operation of the equipment.

Therefore, RFID plays a very important role in the entire WCS and WMS system. It is both the collector of information and the confirmer of the final information. It plays a vital role in the entire flow of information. It can be said that RFID is the core and soul of the tobacco industry warehouse logistics system.

effect evaluation

With the help of RFID technology, electronic tags on tobacco leaves, tobacco auxiliary materials, finished products, and work in progress allow production plan managers to quickly locate and understand the consumption of tobacco leaves and tobacco raw materials, which will greatly improve the efficiency and quality of production; RFID technology can also collect and process product information, helping production personnel easily grasp the operation of the entire production line and the production progress of the product. Furthermore, due to the read-write characteristics of RFID, it can provide a continuously updated real-time data stream, which is complementary to the manufacturing execution system. The information provided by RFID can be used to ensure the correct use of labor, machines, tools and components, thereby achieving paperlessness. Production and reduction of downtime, promote the smooth running of production logistics.

库存管理是一项乏味且复杂task for enterprises, and a large amount of document data is processed every day. After the RFID technology is applied to the inventory management of manufacturing enterprises, because RFID realizes the automation of data entry, when entering and leaving the warehouse, the reader at the entrance of the warehouse will automatically identify the label without manual scanning. Based on the information obtained, the management system will automatically update the inventory list. This process greatly simplifies the traditional cargo inspection and storage procedures, eliminating the need for tedious inspections, records, and inventory, which require a lot of manual work.

The application of RFID technology can automatically and quickly collect a large amount of real-time data generated in the production process, and the real-time processing of data can be achieved with the assistance of a computer network. The application of RFID technology can make it easier for enterprises to manage production data, improve product quality, reduce and avoid the backlog of semi-finished products, and thereby improve enterprise production efficiency. Because RFID realizes the automation of data entry, it can realize more information collection and tracking operations, making the location of goods more accurate and specific. Therefore, RFID technology can achieve accurate inventory management.

Furthermore, combining RFID with existing manufacturing information systems such as ERP, MES, etc., can build a stronger information chain, and achieve accurate data transmission in a timely manner, so that various online measurements and quality control can be performed. Increase asset utilization and productivity.