Case Study: The Engineering Economics of RFID in Specialized Manufacturing

Calibrated tools are essential to producing highly specialized, defect-free parts. These tools are used in many processes in specialty manufacturing operations. Personnel could use the improper tool if the calibrated tool has been lost or stolen. This results in reduced business productivity and increased cost due to poor quality. This study demonstrates the cost effectiveness of using a radio frequency identification (RFID) system to track calibrated tools throughout a production facility. The costs of RFID tool tracking are described and return on investments of plausible scenarios are determined. Also, sensitivity analysis is performed utilizing spider plot and tornado diagrams.