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Bell Helicopter Uses RFID to Save

$300K in Business Efficiency and

Labor Costs

Aaron Druyvesteyn

Manager of Logistics

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Background

• In May of 2007, Bell Helicopter consolidated 7 production stockrooms

into a single production parts warehouse called the CDC (Central

Distribution Center).

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• The CDC is the ‘hub’ of a hub and spoke logistics network supporting

production manufacturing centers in Ft. Worth, Amarillo, & Mirabel, PQ.

• Materials are ordered by each production center and delivered JIT

via closed loop, internal transportation.

• On average, the CDC fills ~1200 production orders each day.

Bell Helicopter CDC

Plant 1 Plant 2

Plant 6

Plant 5

Plant 8

Composites

Mirabel, PQ

Amarillo, TX

Problem

• Bell’s Legacy pick ticket system produced ‘paper’ pick

tickets. Orders were not electronic, real-time tracking did

not exist – there was no control.

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Order Placed

Order Picked

Scanned to MHE

Depart CDC

Arrive Customer

Legacy (paper)

Order Management

Critical Order Milestones

Known ? ? ? ?

Lack of control caused…

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– Expedites

• Disruptions to the production schedule

• Loss of production orders

• Excess Inventory

• Additional work for the warehouse

– Research

– Inspections

– Stock adjustments

– Displaced Assets

Solution

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1. Deploy a Warehouse Management System

– Launched the Pick Ticket Management System (PTMS) July 2010

– Orders were sent to RF guns vs. the printer.

Known ? ? ? ?

Order Placed

Order Picked

Scanned to MHE

Depart CDC

Arrive Customer

PTMS

Order Management

Critical Order Milestones

No Additional Labor Known Known

Solution Continued…

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2. Integrate RFID tracking into PTMS

– RFID incorporated into PTMS June 2011

– Gen2 Passive Tags, GRAI encoding scheme

Known Known Known Known Known

Order Placed

Order Picked

Scanned to MHE

Depart CDC

Arrive Customer

PTMS + RFID

Order Management

Critical Order Milestones

System PTMS Barcode Scans RFID Reads

RFID Project Strategy

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• Establish RFID Strategy Council

• Partner with an RFID Integrator

• Defined Project Goals

- Timeline

- Deliverables

- Requirements

- IT Architecture & Governance Policies

- GRAI Encoding Scheme (EPC)

- Gen 2 Passive Tags Create a company standard and

framework for future RFID projects.

Leverage industry expertise, deploy

a solution based upon proven

technology and best practices.

Develop a clear, simple design

requirement delivering the highest

possible results in the shortest time.

- OAT Systems

RFID EPC Governance

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Tag Type Desc

00001 Part Tag

00002 Conveyance Tag

00003 Tool Tag

00004 Traveler Tag

00005 (TBD)

SAP Org Element Tag Type Unique Tag Number from OAT Enterprise Suite

###### 00001 000001234…………..

SAP Org Element Desc

###### Bell Fort Worth

###### Bell Amarillo

###### Bell Mirabel

24 Hexadecimal Maximum

GRAI STD

GRAI Encoding Schema

Electronic Product Code (EPC) Global Returnable Asset Identifier (GRAI)

RFID EPC Governance

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• Centralized Management of EPC Numbers

- All EPC #’s managed / issued by a single system

- Ensure RFID tracking integrity, no duplicate EPC’s

- Lots of ‘potential’ RFID projects Pick is

executed in PTMS

PTMS requests EPC # from OAT

Xpress Server

OAT Xpress returns EPC

to PTMS

PTMS stores EPC for order *

PTMS sends print

job to BarTender

* Link is created between PTMS Order ID # and RFID EPC # which enable downstream tracking.

Center Orders a Part

START

RFID Testing

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35 Tags

• 2 Hard tags

• 33 Paper labels w/Gen2 tag inlay

Test Setup

‘Typical’ Configuration (Tub w/parts)

Reader configuration & antenna position was optimized based upon manual movement through the test portal.

Then, parts were passed through the portal using a fork lift.

The result…

100% read rate

RFID Portal Design

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How do we duplicate this configuration across Bell?

New Challenge

Each door presented different obstacles.

• Sprinkler risers

• Door & Leveler controls

• Fork lift barriers

Needed a standard, repeatable approach.

What about tightly spaced dock doors?

Good 1st step BUT…

Visual obstruction (Dock lock lights)

• 30” apart

• Safety concern

…also needed a ‘low-profile’ standard, repeatable approach.

RFID Portal Design

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Full Tower Low Profile Tower

RFID Deployed Infrastructure

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Bell Helicopter CDC 8 Readers

Plant 1 5 Readers

Plant 2 1 Reader

Plant 6 1 Reader

Plant 5 2 Readers

Plant 8 6 Readers

Composites 3 Readers

Mirabel, PQ 6 Readers

Amarillo, TX 2 Readers

34 Dock Doors (i.e. ‘Portals’) were equipped with Impinj Speedway R420 readers (4 antennas per door).

OAT Server

Each reader was assigned a Static IP address & managed via the OAT Server.

RFID Tag & Track Process

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Pick is completed in PTMS via RF Gun, RFID pick ticket label is generated.

1 Parts are scanned (associated) to RFID tagged MHE (Totes, Tubs, Dollies, etc.).

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RFID label is applied to packaging.

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Tags are read as they pass through the 34 strategic RFID Portals placed throughout the enterprise.

The following data is pushed to an ORACLE Parts Tracking Table:

EPC# , Date & Time, Portal Info

PTMS matches on the EPC (Tag) # from the Parts Tracking Table.

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RFID Results

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Order Placed

Order Picked

Scanned to MHE

Depart CDC

Arrive Customer

PTMS + RFID

Critical Order Milestones

09:43 09:01 08:04 05:30 04:34

Order Cycle Time = 5:09

RFID Benefit

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• Lost Parts & associated stock adjustments 27.6% Reduction

• On-Time Delivery (OTD) to the Centers 99.81% OTD

• Return on Invested Capital (ROIC) .83 Years / 120%

Warehouse Efficiency

Delivery Performance

Financials

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