RFID at Ford Motor Company

Ford Motor Company is the third largest car producer in the world with approximately 325,000 staff members worldwide. Headquartered in Cologne, Ford has 30,000 people currently working in Germany.

Ford Cologne plant produces 1,950 units of the Fiesta and Fusion every day. The solution was implemented in car distribution, in order to pick and monitor the correct delivery option – train, ship or truck.

The previous system was operated in a mode that occupied almost all available UHF channels so it was impossible to implement additional components or new RFID solutions in a wider range. A change to a new operation mode, the so-called dense-reader mode was needed. As the existing hardware components were not supportive, they had to be changed for the latest RFID reader generation of EB.

The Challenge

• Solution must be compliant with world-wide standards and the regulations of RFID
• No interferences among the RFID solutions on the site
• Solution must guarantee extension, scalability and compatibility with regards to future RFID solutions

The Solution

• Spectrum analysis
• Re-engineering of the project: Replacing hardware and RFID software components according to the new regulations and standards
• Integration with existing middleware and backend system, integration of monitoring and alarm modules and a failover solution
• Guaranteed scalability of future projects by implementing Dense Reader Mode

The Benefits

• The Performance of the EOL system regarding response time, reading performance, reliability and quality of vehicle delivery has been boosted
• The solution is now scalable due to the standardized software modules