David Lewis - Bio
• 13 years of SAP development experience
• 8 years of Materials Management and Production Planning
• 3 years RFID related experiences • Low man on the totem pole for Wal-mart
compliance during the third wave
Who is Sentry Safe
• Consumer Products Company • 500 + Employees in Rochester, NY • 2 Manufacturing Plants and our Main
Distribution Center in Rochester • Privately held company • Same family owners for 80 years
Who’s here today?
• SAP system users? • IT or business process? • Operations or production support? • Prior RFID exposure or new to RFID?
Our Wal-Mart Compliance • Currently we have 5 SKU’s being tagged at
the Case/Item level • Installed conveyor application with encoding
and verification • Used existing peel off barcode for our metal
safes (probably a unique approach) • We currently do not track any outbound Wal-
Mart serial information
Material Transfers Our Challenge
• We do internal transfers of 125,000 pallets per year between our production facilities and the distribution center
• We were using a flawed process that put the inventory into stock at the receiving warehouse at the time of the production receipt
Material Transfers Our Challenge
• We never knew if the inventory was in transfer or if transactions were correct
• User error caused us component issues and finished goods issues
• The put-away drivers at our warehouse had to: – Print out lists of pending put-aways in our WM
system – Put the product physically away – Confirm their transactions at a work station
Our RFID Solution • With the help of Acsis Inc, we developed an
RFID based solution that is tied directly to our SAP system
• We utilize .NET applications hooked to a series of SAP BAPI’s to post our transactions in real time
• We set up a separate SQL Database to store the individual line item transaction detail
Our System Architecture
Print Pallet Tags
Production Backflush
Goods Issue Against STO
Goods Receipt Against STO
Our SAP ECC 6 System
Custom RFID Applications in SQL Database
Printing Pallet Tags • We print an RFID encoded tag at common print
stations on our production floors • The user scans an order sheet that populates the
print label application and encodes and prints our tags
Printing Pallet Tags • The print pallet application makes an RFC
call to SAP to obtain the related material data • The user can validate qty per pallet and pallet
type as key fields • We assign a unique pallet number that’s
encoded using RFID into the tag
Pallet Tags and Goods Issue
• The tag serial number is stored in the SQL database and processes through each step of the process
• We use Stock Transport orders in SAP as our production schedule and as the facilitator for the subsequent steps
• Two pallets tags are applied to each pallet
Material Backflush • We use handheld RFID scanners to scan each pallet
tag and using the .Net application and a series of BAPI’s posts the backflush into SAP
• Note that the scanners can process all transactions, which gives us our redundant backup for all transfer processes
Goods Issue using Portals • After the backflush,
the pallet then passes through a portal, which is our RFID reader
• While passing through the portal, the Goods Issue is posted in SAP against the Stock Transport Order
Goods Issues in SAP
• The SQL database that’s tracking each individual tag has been updated with the backflush so it gives the driver an almost immediate feedback that the goods issue has occurred
• The actual posting in SAP is delayed by a few seconds but the driver doesn’t need to wait because of the SQL table validation
• If there is an error, then a red or blue light-stack is lit and a horn is sounded. The driver corrects any error using the handheld scanner
Goods Receipts • After the goods issue, all stock is now “In-
Transit” in SAP. This allows us to know exactly what is on a truck
• A portal is located at the Warehouse and when the pallets are driven through this portal, it posts a goods receipt in SAP
• A stand-alone portal at the WH allows us to receive product through multiple doors
Automated Put-Aways • Forklift Computers were
added for the put-away staff at the WH.
• The receipt in SAP generates a put-away instruction to the driver
• The driver posts the confirmation in our WM system, real time and the stock is immediately available for customer shipments
Transaction Reversals
• If an error occurs the tags are turned in to a supervisor and they have access to a .Net reversal program that will undo any of the SAP postings
Solution Advantages • Higher inventory accuracy (2008 was the first
year with no full physical) • Visibility to stock that’s still on a truck waiting
to be unloaded (in-transit) • Fewer user errors • 98% plus read accuracy • Real time posting to SAP • RFID was the perfect tool, because of no line
of sight requirements
Implementation Issues • Safes made of metal and filled with a
special cement mixture (water based) • Dock door plates at the WH caused
issues with our original dock door portals
• Original wireless solution was very inadequate at our production plants
• Some initial program issues (like daylight savings time update in 2007)