The ability to track the location of goods throughout an agile manufacturing environment can provide for the mass production of customized products. When an agile manufacturing system controller knows where a particular product is within its manufacturing cycle, and what further operations are required for customization, it can make smart decisions as to how this product can be re-routed. Customization should not impair the production rate of any of the part assemblies in the agile manufacturing environment. This paper outlines the development of a Radio Frequency (RF) node based tracking system. It details information on a RF tag that is attached to a product. The product is tracked through the manufacturing cycle so that customized operations can be carried out using a mass customization manufacturing process. This paper further discusses the part routing and scheduling system used in the manufacturing cell.
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