1) The document presents an RFID-based digital warehouse management system designed to improve operations in a traditional plane warehouse. Key problems addressed include storage/retrieval assignment, rapid and accurate picking, complex order efficiency, and inventory visibility. 2) The proposed system uses RFID technology to automatically identify products, integrate with a computer system, and provide functions like automatic storage/retrieval management, real-time inventory management, and accurate shelf management. 3) The system is divided into several subsystems including digital shelf management, forklift guidance, and rules management. It aims to reduce inventory errors, increase capacity, and lower operating costs through automated processes and inventory tracking.

1. 1
A Presentation on:
An RFID based digital
warehouse
management
system in the tobacco
industry
Presented by:
Ankit Phartiyal
Dheeraj Kumar
Santosh Ghildiyal
Ashwani Kumar
72
118
77
22

2.  Introduction:
•
2
Firstly, is the plane warehouse (Normal warehouse) that are without high racks
or automatic equipment (e.g. . Robotic arms, automated guided vehicles).
• Traditionally, in such a plane warehouse, the products are randomly placed
on the floor without pallets, and the operation performances mostly depend
on the operator’s memory and experiences, which results in more operation
time and mistakes.
•
So, with the increasing types of products and more and more complex
customer orders, the warehouse mangers have been facing a dramatic
challenge on changing the traditional mode of manual operation.
•
In a plane warehouse following are some significant problems faced by
managers :-
1. How to identify a storage/retrieval assignment strategy for fast moving
products?
2. How to help the operators to pick the products more rapidly and accurately
once the assignment decisions have been made?

3. 3. How to improve the operational efficiency of the warehouse as customer
3
orders become more complex?
4. How to improve inventory visibility in the supply chain, so as to better
synchronise material and information flows and reduce inventory discrepancies?
•
RFID ( Radio frequency identification) based digital warehouse management
system (RFID- DWMS) to improve the warehouse operations have been
introduced
•
This system benefits from the advantages of RFID in data collection, such as
wireless object identification, multi-object identification and more storage
space
•
RFID allows objects to communicate
automatically without human intervention
•
RFID-DWMS design helps to improve the operations in a plane warehouse, by
integrating RFID, computer and wireless Communication technology
•
The proposed system enables a plane warehouse to achieve the functions of
automatic
storage
retrieval
management,
real
time
inventory
management, and accurate shelf management
information
about
themselves

4.  Literature review:
4
 Warehouse management –
• The main warehousing operations consist of inventory storage, order product
mixing, cross docking and customer service. The most important of them is
inventory management, including storage/retrieval management and
inventory control
•
Vast amount of literature focuses on the use of the warehouse management
which can be organised into the following two categories- optimal order
picking and modelling as a job shop scheduling problem
•
In the past decade, RFID has become popular in the fields of business and
industry, Particularly in the logistics and SCM domain

5. 5

6.  Modules:
6
1- DWMS
1.1 Digital Shelf ManagerMonitor the inventory events in warehouse and
provide a platform for operators to manage the inventory visually.

7. 1.2 Reader Adapter• It enhance the flexibility of DWMS.
• Performs as a bridge between DWMS and RFID readers.
• It specifies a virtualised API (Application Programming
Interface)
7
1.3 Storage/ Retrieval Manager-
Digital Pallet Packing- Helps the operators to gather the barcodes of
palletising products and write these barcodes into the corresponding
pallet tag with an RFID reader.
S/R Assignment Engine- Designed to improve S/R assignment.
Its actions are based on a set of basic S/R rules, which are predefined
and stored in ECA rule base.
If assignment decision is made the S/R assignment engine will lock the
shelves and generate relevant commands for despatching to FGS.

8. 1.4 Event Processor Manager8
The input events are accepted in the event
buffer, and then move through the series of components with specific
functions including decomposition, grouping, filtering and complex
event processing.

9. 2. Forklift Guided System (FGS)
FGS is installed on Forklift.
Guide the forklift driver
to the operation
location
Cache the series of
commands.
9

10. 3. Back End Module
Recognise specific
situation and react
to them without
user intervention.
It enable a system
to have
autonomous
response to an
event.
10
Contain all the
basic rules in
ECA forms.
ECA rules are
well establishes
in active
database.
User can
add, modify
and delete
rules in the
rulebase.

11.  Storage/Retrieval Rules:
11
 For the benefits of,
reduced picking travel time
less congestion
enhanced space utilization
For different requirements in practice, the storage rules must be
accordingly various
Here is given 10 most common rules used in practice

12. 1. Random
Any available digital shelf is equally likely to be an
assignment
12

13. 2. Closest
An available digital shelf, closer to I/O point, has the higher
priority to be assigned, regardless of its velocity
3. Velocity
Similar to the “closest” rule, it considers the velocity of
turnover
4. Weight
The heavier goods should be placed on the lower digital shelf
on the racks
13

14. 5. Comparability
Similar products should be placed separately to avoid
mistakes
6. Identity
The same products should be placed together for convenient
to manage inventory
7. Balance
Distribute velocity across zones as evenly as possible for
reduction of congestion
14

15. 8. Shape
An item with a special shape should be placed in a special
space to enhance the space utilization
9. FIFO
The first unit into inventory will be delivered first
10. LIFO
Contrary to FIFO, the first unit into inventory will be delivered
last
15

16.  Warehouse process analysis
16
Problems • In a typical flow of a warehouse operation, when new products are
received, an operator makes a storage assignment decision depending on his
memory and experience, and folk carriers carry them to the appointed place
•
When a delivering task arrives, an operator makes a retrieval assignment
decision depending on his memory and experience. Then, folk carriers carry
these products to the delivering space
•
At the exit, two operators take charge of scanning the corresponding
barcode one by one when the products pass through the door

17. Optimal solution –
17
•
There may be some mistakes happening when scanning so, there is a need
for one person to stay at the front of the computer, so as to monitor the results
and make sure that the obtained barcode information is correct
•
Every day after all operations are finished, the operators should make an
inventory of the products in the warehouse by manual checking
•
So, after the process analysis researcher identified some of the core business
processes that could be improved –
1. Storage process
2. Delivering process
3. Scanning barcode process
4. And, inventory management process

18. 18
Requirements analysis –
Requirements for RFID-DWMS.
Stakeholders
Requirements for RFID-DWMS
• Warehouse manager
-Using racks to increase warehouse capacity
-Using RFID tag to store the barcode information and
improve operation procedure
- To maintain operator records
-Provide a visual view of the entire warehouse inventory
information
-Record the inventory in and out situations
-Provide inventory reports
• Warehouse operators
-Provide an automatic decision for storage/retrieval
assignment
- Provide a guide map for storage/retrieval operations
- Provide a reminder and alert of the inaccurate
operations

19. Warehouse layout design
19

20. Receiving Space
20
•Products to be stored are palletised onto digital pallets
•Tag writing & data collection is done by Barcode Scanner & RFID reader
simultaneously
Shipping Space ( Info of Delivered Products)
•Designed for delivery operations
•UHF RFID Reader 2 scannes product in real time when Forklift passes at certain
distance.
•Forklift has touch screen computer installed FGS.
Temporary Storage Space
•Consists of Database server
-Specific databases like inventory information, human resources,
storage/retrieval rules and RFID information.

21.  System design
21
RFID-DWMS architecture, divide system into six subsystems based on
functionality:
• Human resources subsystem
• Stock in subsystem
• Stock out subsystem,
• Digital shelf management subsystem
• Forklift guided subsystem
• Rules management subsystem

22. Stock in subsystem
22
This subsystem has four main functions.
1. Provides an automatic storage assignment function for the incoming
products.
Storage assignment decisions depends on the storage rules specified in
the rule base.
2. Operators can use this subsystem to generate the corresponding
storage commands,
And dispatch to the forklift guided subsystem for drivers to execute
them.
3. Helps the operator to compress the corresponding barcodes into a new
data format, and drives the reader to write it into the RFID tags
4. Finally, after it receives the confirmation from FGS, (e.g., inventory
information, commands status or shelves status) is updated by this
subsystem.

23. Human resources management subsystem
23
Maintain the operator record information, including personal
information, training arrangement, checking attendance and appraisal
evaluation.
Stock out subsystem
•Designed for stock out procedures.
•Helps to generate the retrieval commands, dispatches them to
FGS and updates then information.
•When the RFID scanner detects the transported digital pallets, this
subsystem also helps to decompress the barcodes from the RFID tags.
Digital shelf management subsystem
• Visual view of the entire warehouse inventory
• Provide a precise inventory statistical report
• The report contains the beginning inventory data, store in and out
quantities, specifications of products
• Provides a shelf adjustment function to assist monitoring the racks
situation.

24. 24
Forklift guided subsystem
•A touch screen computer is fixed with forklift for executing commands
•Provides a guide map to assist in executing the operation commands
•Communicate with other subsystems via a wireless network, including receiving
commands, returning command status, updating inventory information
Rules Management Subsystem
•Designed to provide a rules maintenance platform for users to add, modify
and delete rules in the rulebase.

25.  System Implementation :
Barcode 1
Barcode 2
Barcode 3
.
.
.
.
Barcode N
Common
data
+
Serial num 1
Serial num 2
Serial num 3
.
.
.
.
Serial num N
Exist 3 potential problems :
Compressing the barcode data ?
Procedures of storage ?
Procedures of retrievals ?
25
+Checksum
Compress
Barcode set

26. 1. Compressing Barcodes :
26
Capacity of digital pallet = 30 boxes
Barcode data of each box = 32 digit number
19 digits
A common
number, which has :
Company name
Production area, date
and specification
+
13 digits
A serial number to
identify each box
uniquely
In order to save storage space of RFID tag and enhance communication
efficiency, the barcodes are compressed in to “Barcode-set” as
“common data + SN 1+SN 2 + SN 3 +….+SN N+ checksum”
** cheksum is a certain no. of check bits, determines agreement with the
barcode data

27. 2. The innovative procedures of storage operations :
27
** Year in 2004

28. 3. The innovative procedures of retrieval operations :
28
Separate, If it
needs to deliver
only part of it, not
whole pallet
** Year in 2004

29.  Performance with and without RFID-DWMS :
29
By implementing RFID-DWMS, operating performance of distribution
centre has improved by following points• Inventory visualised management
• Automatic storage/ retrieval assignment
• Forklift automated guided
• Loading time is reduced
Capacity of warehouse- Increased by 52.5 %
Manpower- Reduced by half
Loading Time- Reduced by 64%
Loading Ratio- Dropped to 60%
Inventory Accuracy- increased to 99%

30.  Comparison of Inventory Accuracy :
Reasons• Storage/ Retrieval
assignment was based on
operators memory and
experience
• Similar appearance of
the products
30
Reason• Transaction errors were mostly
generated by misreading of
RFID readers

31. 31
Thanks…