RFID-enabled aerospace manufacturing: Theoretical models, simulation and implementation issues

Radio frequency identification (RFID) is gaining significant interest from the aircraft manufacturing industry. It has become an increasingly recognized technology, with its real time tracking ability at a much greater level of accuracy, and provides more value across a supply network. RFID-enabled technology with an associated system structure has emerged to provide solutions which apparently close the gap between the physical flow of materials and the information flow in the production system. As manufacturing supply chains rapidly enter the virtual world of the networked RFID system, their information systems are sharing the fundamental information that require intelligent tracking and tracing performance. This paper discusses broad issues inherent in aircraft parts manufacturing with various applications including regulatory and quality requirements, production planning and control, product traceability, inventory management, and also labor productivity. A theoretical model with generic RFID framework is presented. The framework is then applied to an aircraft part manufacturing process with associated decision cost factors as a case study.