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

How to apply RFID in tobacco logistics

1. Characteristics of the logistics system of Baoji Cigarette Factory

After the off-site technical transformation of Baoji Cigarette Factory, the most advanced comprehensive automated logistics system in the country has been introduced, realizing a fully automated warehouse entry and exit process for tobacco leaves, tobacco stems, tobacco accessories, and finished cigarettes, which has greatly improved the material entry and exit processes. It improves warehouse efficiency, reduces error rates, saves labor costs, eliminates safety hazards, and improves corporate competitiveness. It has now become a highlight of the cigarette factory. According to the classification of functional areas, the logistics elevated warehouse of Baoji Cigarette Factory is divided into three types: raw material elevated warehouse, auxiliary material elevated warehouse and finished product elevated warehouse.

The raw material elevated warehouse is mainly responsible for the entry and exit of tobacco raw materials such as tobacco leaves, tobacco stems, and flakes. The specific work process is as follows: Tobacco leaves, tobacco stems, and flakes are sent from the first floor of the raw material elevated warehouse to the conveyor automatically using a forklift or a clamping machine. When needed, tobacco stems and flakes are taken out from the outbound platform on the first floor of the raw material elevated warehouse, and tobacco leaves are taken out from the steel platform on the second floor of the raw material elevated warehouse. An elevator is used to send the cigarette packs to the automatic unpacking machine for unpacking. Work.

The auxiliary materials elevated warehouse is mainly responsible for the entry and exit of cigarette raw and auxiliary materials, such as box covers, case covers, cellophane, cardboard, trademark paper, etc. The specific work process is as follows: the raw and auxiliary materials are manually plated, and then placed in the auxiliary materials elevated warehouse On the third floor, a forklift or clamping machine is used to send the materials to the conveyor for automatic storage. When needed, the materials are taken out from the warehouse platform on the first floor of the auxiliary elevated warehouse, and then transported to each machine using an AGV (automatic guided vehicle).

The finished product elevated warehouse is mainly responsible for the entry and exit of finished cigarettes. The specific work process is as follows: the finished cigarettes are transported from the first floor of the packaging workshop to the second floor of the finished product elevated warehouse using a screw conveyor, and then the finished cigarettes are transported through the sorting lane. After being sorted and automatically palletized using ABB robots, they are sent to the shelves by a stacker. When leaving the warehouse, the stacker will take out the finished cigarette boxes from the shelves, and the conveyor will send them to the exit on the first floor of the finished product elevated warehouse, where they will be manually loaded and transported away.

2. Application of RFID technology in logistics systems

1. Overall design principles

In the entry and exit operations of the three elevated warehouses, a semi-automatic method is adopted, and certain automation technology and machinery are introduced, supplemented by manual operations, to achieve a balance between efficiency and cost.

Deploy electronic tags at the bottom of pallets and tobacco stem boxes, and deploy readers correspondingly in the sorting lanes, storage entrances, exits and sealing machines, combined with the "Tobacco Industry Cigarette Production and Operation Decision Management System Project (i.e. Project No. 1) )" regulations can realize "one dozen and two scans" - cigarette industrial enterprises will affix a bar code issued by the competent department to each piece of cigarettes produced, and scan the code when leaving the warehouse and scan the code when the cigarette commercial enterprises enter the warehouse, so that Tobacco authorities can timely grasp and effectively control the purchase, production, and sales information of tobacco companies, collect information and reasonably connect it to the warehouse management system, and transmit data information to the warehouse management system for storage through a combination of wired and wireless methods. , analysis, and processing to achieve the purpose of rapid and transparent logistics control.

2.Business process design

In order to carry out effective positioning, the cargo location must first be coded, and the coding information is written into the warehouse management system WMS, generally using address coding.

(1) Warehousing business process design

When raw materials and tobacco accessories are put into storage, a forklift is used to place tobacco leaves, tobacco stems, tobacco materials, etc. on pallets with electronic labels. The reader at the storage entrance scans the electronic label of the pallet with the code plate completed, and the process is completed. Match pallet information and product information, and transmit the matching information to the warehouse management system. The conveyor then sends the goods to the tunnel stacker, which carries out the warehousing operation.

When finished cigarettes are put into storage, they must first be sorted into cigarette categories through the sorting lane. A reader is installed at each sorting passage. When the cigarettes pass through, the electronic barcode on the cigarette box is scanned to quickly identify its type. If it matches the type, the side push device pushes the cigarettes into the lane, and then the ABB robot Stacking is carried out. After the palletizing is completed, the conveyor will send the entire pallet of cigarettes to the storage port. The reader will scan and record the pallet, and then the conveyor will send it to the stacker station for storage.

The warehouse management system (WMS) determines the storage location of this type of goods and allocates storage locations based on preset storage strategies (such as classified random storage), cargo location assignment principles (such as first-in, first-out), cargo inventory status, etc. The information is transmitted to the warehouse control system (WCS), which drives the conveyor and lane stacker to complete the warehousing operation.

(2) Outbound business process design

When there is a request for outbound goods, the warehouse management system WMS determines the location of the goods that should be outbound based on the inventory status and outbound rules, and transmits the outbound information (such as the name, quantity, storage location, etc.) of the outbound goods to the warehouse control system WCS. The warehouse control system WCS drives the tunnel 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 labels for confirmation and completes the cargo location information update. If correct, the goods are transferred to the shuttle, forklift or AGV. Deliver the goods to the designated location. The outbound operation is completed.

After leaving the warehouse, the pallets are fed into the palletizer manually or automatically. The warehouse management system WMS allocates empty cargo slots to the empty pallet group and transmits the information to the warehouse control system WCS. The warehouse control system WCS drives the conveyor and stacker. Return the empty pallet group to the designated location in the warehouse, and then automatically leave the warehouse for use next time.

After the introduction of RFID technology, cargo location information can be queried in real time to provide guidance for other operations. The query mainly includes two aspects:

Goods query: inventory, distribution status, basic characteristics of goods, etc. of a certain kind of goods.

Cargo space query: cargo space utilization status (occupied cargo space, available cargo space, unavailable cargo space), cargo space utilization rate, etc.

3. Information interaction between RFID and system

(1) Information interaction with WCS system. Upload the material or pallet information through RFID and send it to the WCS control system. WCS can issue control instructions to specific logistics equipment through PLC. After the logistics equipment receives the control instructions issued by the WCS system, it can accurately The materials or pallets are transported to the designated target location, and then the RFID performs final confirmation, and the confirmation information is fed back to the WCS to complete the information interaction between the RFID and WCS systems. In this interaction process, RFID played the role of information collection and initiator, and finally served as the confirmer and feedbacker, ending this information interaction.

(2) Information interaction with WMS system. After RFID feeds back the completed interaction information with WCS to WCS, WCS then transmits the results to WMS. Through WCS, indirect information interaction between RFID and WMS is realized. By summarizing and analyzing this information, WMS can understand inventory information, cargo location information, material classification, types and quantities of materials that need to be replenished, etc. in real time. This information will directly guide the allocation and procurement of materials and directly affect production. normal operation. Through 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 systems. It is both a collector of information and a confirmer of the final information. It plays a vital role in the entire information flow process. It can be said that RFID is the core and soul of the tobacco industry warehousing and logistics system.

3. Effect evaluation

With the help of RFID technology, electronic tags on tobacco leaves, tobacco accessories, finished products and in-process products allow production planning managers to quickly locate them and understand the consumption of tobacco leaves and tobacco raw materials, which will greatly improve the efficiency and quality of production; at the same time , 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 paperless production and reduce downtime, promoting smooth production logistics.

Inventory management is a tedious and complicated task for enterprises, and a large amount of document data must be processed every day. After applying RFID technology to the inventory management of manufacturing enterprises, because RFID realizes the automation of data entry, the readers at the entrance and exit of the warehouse will automatically identify the tags when entering and exiting the warehouse, without the need for manual scanning. Based on the information obtained, the management system automatically updates the inventory list. This process greatly simplifies the traditional goods inspection and storage procedures, eliminating the need for tedious inspection, recording, counting and a large number of manual tasks.

The application of RFID technology can automatically and quickly collect a large amount of real-time data generated during the production process, and real-time processing of data can be achieved with the assistance of computer networks. 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, thereby improving enterprise production efficiency. Since RFID automates data entry, more information collection and tracking operations can be achieved, making the location of goods more precise and specific. Therefore, accurate inventory management can be achieved with the help of RFID technology.

Furthermore, by combining RFID with existing manufacturing information systems such as ERP and MES, a more powerful information chain can be established and accurate data can be transmitted at an accurate time, allowing for various online measurements and quality control. , improve asset utilization and enhance productivity.