“EXPLORING RFID BENEFITS USING PROCESS SIMULATION”

The current study was aimed at exploring the possibility of improvements in the metrics of the repair and overhaul process, using process improvement and also an improved tracking system. The company was facing problems and wanted to reduce the turnaround time of critical items (with a penalty) inducted for Repair and Overhaul Process. The objective of the study was to assess the critical reasons of the inefficiencies and estimate delays in the Repair and Overhaul process . This was done using past three yrs ERP data, and supported by interviews of managers involved in managing the process and questionnaire survey. The effect of improvement in the key processes was clubbed with the benefits of use of RFID in tracking the material flow in the process and the combined effect was studied using process simulation with ARENA simulation tool. The study involved the following steps: ? To analyse As- Is process using real time data, by simulating the process with the help of Arena 8.01 software. ? Exploring potential improvements in process performance parameters, using process improvement also using Auto-Tracking technology. Benefits like reduction in throughput time and delay reduction were estimated