With the fast profitable development, the real estate construction assiduity is become another pillar of the country economy, which has driven the quick development of the steel inventory management solutions in the industry. The use of steel bars has also increased by nearly 370 times after the reform and opening up. It’s relatively delicate to break a series of problems of steel bar in inventory management, inventory, anti-theft, delivery of several models, and anti-smuggling.
The traditional management system uses ordinary handwritten markers to hang on the side of each pack of steel bars, and you need to bring a ladder supplementary tool for inventory. The manual recording system is veritably inefficient, and there may be recording mistakes and incorrect information. It affects client orders, and the value of a pack of steel bars is fairly precious. Transferring the wrong goods causes the loss of commercial means.
RFID long distance radio frequency identification technology is used to manage, and the steel bar in the warehouse is managed ever, so as to rapidly understand the information of all accoutrements in the storehouse in real time. The possibility of transferring the wrong goods has also been greatly reduced. Information for instance, as the volume and model of steel bars entering and leaving the storehouse is also automatically collected and uploaded in time. Avoid manual handwriting errors.
Steel is a critical raw material in construction and equipment manufacturing, used in structuring houses, roads, bridges, and manufacturing buses, vessels, and machine tools. It comes in several forms like steel bars, plates, and pipes. In this blog, we are going to discuss the steel inventory management solutions by RFID technology.
Also read: Revolutionizing Inventory Management with RFID in Retail
How To Manage Steel Inventory Management Solutions?
These large and heavy metal items are delicate to identify, and barcode scanning is clumsy and time consuming. Radio frequency Identification (RFID) technology is changing this geography. Numerous steel inventory management solutions for steel manufacturing enterprises and rolling manufactories now use smart technologies like RFID and IoT (Internet of Things) to achieve automatic steel identification, tracking, and management, perfecting the intelligence position of steel inventory chain. Following are the perpetration way of RFID technology in warehouse management
Preparing RFID Tags
An RFID marker printer prints material information (including material code, name, and specifications) in batches onto RFID markers grounded on the unified code generated by the ERP system. UHF flexible anti-metal RFID markers or magnetic RFID markers are preferred for steel products due to their metal characteristics.
Stock In
When steel bars and pipes are put into storehouse, warehousing staff attach the RFID markers to the applicable position of the steel and overlook them with an RFID handheld terminal to enter the steel information. When the steel is transferred to the applicable mounding position, the RFID reader is used to associate the steel with the mounding position, completing the inbound management.
Stock Out
During goods outbound, the staff check the outbound order information on the handheld terminal to find the finished product inventory, corroborate it, and modernize the payload information to the database.
Steel Inventory Management
Steel inventory management solutions includes real time monitoring, counting, and analysis of steel. Count labor inventory can use RFID handheld bias to look from a distance without aiming at the markers, greatly perfecting management effectiveness. Also, iron and steel storages are frequently dusty and weakened, so published barcodes are susceptible to environmental influences and delicate to overlook. RFID markers have stronger environmental resistance, assuring stable reading.
Whatever the company or assiduity, RFID greatly makes logistics and steel inventory management effective. With some smart planning and expansive testing, integrating RFID is one of the simplest ways to increase productivity and cost savings.
Iron and steel manufacturers can revise the way they do business with the right solutions partner to guide the RFID process. In the steel fabrication assiduity, the perpetration of an RFID grounded system increases productivity and reduces cost. Along with the benefits, the challenges should also be mentioned. The ambient conditions are harsh, the products are made of metal, and the ambient temperature of the plant is high. Thus, the use of RFID has some specialized limitations, but advances in RFID technology offer results to these as well.
Ambient Conditions
The challenge is that RFID chips and markers must repel harsh surroundings. Steel making is a complex process that uses extremely high heat. Steel plates retain heat for a while after they’re produced. Wastes must be linked post-production, while still hot, and markers must cleave to hot metal surfaces. Markers must also be resistant to chemicals for example, as strong acids, alkaline solutions and wetting down agents. Recent advances in RFID technology now allow RFID chips to be applied to nearly any type of marker. Non-adhesive or adhesive, high temperature, acid and oil painting resistant markers are produced.
Reflection on Metal Surfaces
One of the difficulties is the reflection of signals emitted by the chips from metal surfaces. Reflection reduces the outstations’ capability to read. To help it, it’s necessary to place RFID markers at a suitable angle, as far outside of the distance metal and rolls as possible, and test.
Does Metal Damage RFID Markers?
Another problem is that when metal comes into contact with the chip, it can mess up the RFID antenna settings. To help the chip from coming into direct contact with the metal and ultimately getting out of alignment, there are chips that absorb reflection. In addition, special antenna designs are used to gain longer reading distances.
Before moving to RFID, careful evaluation and testing of the given points will increase the overall quality of the management.
Also read: How is Automation Transforming and Improving Warehouse Operations?
Final Studies
Steel storehouse management geography is witnessing a metamorphosis towards towards informatization, robotization, and intelligence. The management of RFID technology exemplifies this trend. We offer a comprehensive range of RFID hardware solutions, including RFID printers and handheld outstations, feeding to the growing demands of smart manufactories, logistics, and healthcare.
Communicate with us now to have a discussion on RFID technology.