The states vary between pre-completion and post-raw material. For companies, knowing their WIP inventory is essential because it is considered an asset as it is an item not for sale. Production costs include raw materials, the labor to make the goods, and allocated overhead. IoT technology can help make WIP more efficient, reduce costs, and improve the safety of workers.
Manufacturing supply chains and visibility of floor operations are improved using IoT technologies and help to innovate the way production systems are built and run. Quality control can improve the production of goods which can be carried out in 2 ways. The first way is by inspecting a WIP as it moves through the production cycles and the second is by monitoring and calibrating the machines producing the goods. Companies use IoT applications in WIP to fix machines before they break which would reduce the cost of machinery. This reduces the downtime of machines which would boost efficiency and decrease the overall cost of maintenance. IoT applications also reduce the chances of human error during the manual inspections of the WIPs.
The safety of workers is also important in WIP because work is spread between machinery and manual labor. IoT applications such as RFID tags are given to workers to ensure their safety and maximize efficiency. With an RFID tag, workers' locations are analyzed to find the most efficient location for them to be at. It reduces workplace traffic, finds the most efficient route, and finds any unusual and dangerous behaviors. In fields like mining, oil, and gas, sensors are given to workers to monitor vital signs to ensure they work safely throughout the workday. The data gathered from these sensors are information such as a worker's heart rate, and skin temperature, there should also be sensors to monitor Co2 levels to ensure workers can keep working without any hazardous health issues.
Inventory management and industrial asset tracking are 2 very important things in WIP. Both take advantage of IoT technologies by using sensors to help track their work. RFID tags used with IoT devices keep track of the physical inventory. This technology eliminates the need of scanning barcodes and labels which makes inventory management a lot more efficient. The best part is everything is done in real-time, thus making calculations easier.
