Locaws: A Location-Aware System For Manufacturing Plants

Location awareness is a key issue to improve the visibility of goods receiving and dispatching within manufacturing enterprises. One of the critical elements of location awareness is to capture the real-time location data for determining the accurate movement and thus location of assets. In recent years, numerous cases have shown successful application of Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) technology as location sensing technique. However, a number of challenges still remain in estimating the direction or movement of RFID tagged-assets. Thus, this paper aims to investigate how the proposed RFID Location Awareness System (LocAWS) can be used to provide useful location information of assets in manufacturing plants. To illustrate the feasibility of LocAWS, we assume there are three production cells in a manufacturing plant and the movement of tagged-cartons among the cells is studied. Its overall performance is satisfied and it is claimed that LocAWS can serve as a promising location-aware solution.