Aviation. As we all know GE is HUGE and what most of us call a pilot would usually constitute a full implementation for most companies. GE Aviation implemented RFID at one location to evaluate reducing the size of its work in process (WIP). GE Aviation produces jet engines worth sometimes millions of dollars each. The manufacturing and assembly of these engines takes place all over the world so it is easy to understand the size (cost) of their supply chain. The challenge for GE was how to reduce the size of their WIP while still maintaining on-time shipments.RFID to the rescue! By installing BlueBean’s dock portals equipped with Alien RFID Readers at all dock doors and at choke points between departments provided production planners better visibility and more timely information. Keep in mind that most engine parts they deal with cost tens of thousands of dollars so they have great interest in just-in-time inventory control. It is a fine line the production planners must walk between having too much inventory and starving production. The visibility RFID provides allows the planners to better match WIP with production needs. With their WIP worth hundreds of millions of dollars company wide even a small improvement would be worth millions of dollars.
Keep tuned in for a follow-up post when the results of the pilot are available. I would expect sometime by mid 2008.
