Commercialisation
Opportunities

RFID-based Apparel Management Expert System for Operator Task Allocation and Production Line Balancing

In apparel manufacturing, decisions in operator task allocation and production line balancing greatly rely on the knowledge, experience and subjective assessment of production management. Their decisions are always found to be inconsistent and ineffective.  Although current RFID-based data capture systems can facilitate the capture of production data and provide real-time reports, they cannot utilise the captured real time data for detailed analysis to assist the production management for better decision making.  The RFID-based Apparel Management Expert (RAME) System utilising artificial intelligence techniques can generate effective and efficient solutions for operator task allocation and production line balancing.

Application

The RFID-based Apparel Management Expert (RAME) System integrating with the real time production data captured by existing RFID system, adopts artificial intelligence techniques to generate effective and efficient solutions for operator task allocation and production line balancing of apparel manufacturers.

Industry benefit

  • Time Shortening on Staff Deployment - The system can shorten time spent on operator assignment of a production line before a new production order is released for processing。
  • Increase of Production Efficiency - The system enables an efficient production distribution and effective solution on decision-making with collection and application of real-time data.

Technological breakthrough

  • The RAME system is the first innovation on integration of RFID and artificial intelligence techniques.
  • Unlike the existing RFID production data capture systems which can only capture data without analysis and generating solutions, the RAME system can conduct detailed data analysis, generate effective and efficient solutions for operator task allocation and production line balancing.

Licensing Details

A non-exclusive licence covers:

  • The knowhow including the patent document for the development of a Smart Process Flow Management Expert System for Agile Manufacturing of Apparel Supply Chain
  • A technical manual of the system

Awards

Award Name
Gold Award in the category of “Most Innovative Use of EPC / RFID” in the 2012 HK RFID Awards (2012)
Silver Award in the category of “Best EPC / RFID Implementation” in the 2012 HK RFID Awards (2012)
Related ITF project
Research Start Date 2010-07-15
Industry Partner
B & S Equipment Development Limited
IP Number
15402844, 15402843
303117843
2014100589675