Compensation costs are up but the visionary companies still increased profits – RFID can boost your profitability too.
According the US Department of Labor, compensation costs in the US increased 2.2% in 2016. Did this reduce your corporate profits? A typical manufacturer that we work with is spending about six minutes per transaction recording production using pen and paper. Often, we find their production workforce allocating 10% of their time to data collection.
By switching to RFID, manufacturers experience several immediate benefits. Profitability increases because production output goes up when employees aren’t burdened by data collection, and instead focus on the jobs they were hired for. Imagine every production worker in your plant working 11% longer and not having to pay them a penny more. Profitability also increases because managers make better decisions using real time data. There is less waste and production bottlenecks are resolved more quickly when managers immediately spot changes in output and address them. The data set improves with machine captured data versus the chronic errors that result from transposed numbers, illegible handwriting, and missing slips of paper that are common in pen and paper tracking.
The best applications for RFID are automated tracking of trays, bins, totes, and other containers that are used over and over. The RFID data capture devices are mounted in key areas or on production equipment and provide fully automated, hands-free scanning of these containers. This can update a products location, update its stage in the production process, issue raw materials to a work order, or production track newly produced WIP or finished goods. Linking these records produces real time traceability records.
Think of it like the toll roads.
Remember when you had to stop and get the ticket to get on and then stop again to pay on the way off? That is like pen and paper data collection. RFID is like the express lane where you never even need to slow down. By the way, those toll tags are actually a more expensive form of the RFID we deploy in manufacturing. It means higher profits for your company and it can help you offset rising compensation costs.
Is 2017 the year you will implement the project to increase your profits?
Your bonuses?
Create the opportunity to pay your employees more without hurting the bottom line?