White Paper: Bar Code Readers Increase WIP Visibility For Industrial Appliance Manufacturer

By Microscan Systems, Inc
In order to stay ahead in today's competitive manufacturing environment, effective inventory management must extend beyond the warehouse and include real-time monitoring of work-in-process inventory as well. When a large manufacturer of industrial electronic appliances decided it was time to implement a data-driven production line system in their China-based facilities, they set out to achieve very specifi c goals. The automated component traceability system needed to provide a complete manufacturing history of each unit and the visibility required to optimize production line effi ciency.

In a data-driven production line, the operation at each production station depends entirely on product identifi cation. The successful operation of the production process rests on the quality of the symbol used to identify the product and the bar code readers used to decode it. "We knew bar code production and identifi cation would form the core of our new system," commented the department manager of the project. "That's why we spent a few years testing and evaluating fi xed-position bar code readers from several manufacturers with the sole purpose of fi nding an outstanding product." They eventually selected the Quadrus® MINI imager and the MS-3 laser scanner from Microscan. "Not only did Microscan offer high-performance products," the project manager said, "But they were able to bring it all together into a complete, integrated solution that increased the stability of our system."