Keeping track of production

Aircraft manufacturers are making greater use of RFID and bar code technology, while also using new software that helps them keep production lines running smoothly.

Just-in-time and lean manufacturing techniques may improve efficiency, but managing the many components that must come together day after day has posed quite a challenge to many industries, including aerospace.

At a high level, a number of software tools can help manage data, track changes, eliminate redundancies, and update files. At a piece-part level, RF identification (RFID) tags are expected to see low costs and a huge infrastructure of tools and services as suppliers race to get some of the huge volumes by users as diverse as the U.S. Department of Defense and Wal-Mart. RFID tags both augment and replace bar codes, giving users a faster way to track the movement of parts, tools, and materials.