Case Study - Falken Secure Networks

Case Study: Real-Time Work-In-Process Visibility for Global
High-Tech Manufacturing
Edge Intelligence increases operational efficiencies, cash flow and customer satisfaction
Customer
Endwave Defense Systems designs and manufactures RF modules that enable the transmission, reception
and processing of high-frequency signals in next generation wireless telecommunications networks, defense
electronics and homeland security systems.
Solution
System – OMNITROL Application Network Appliance, OMNITROL Edge Application Services Engine
(EASE) software.
Software - OMNITROL WIP visibility Edgelet and reporting tools.
Device Hardware – OMNITROL Smart Shelf with Motorola AR400 and XR400, OMNITROL Mobile WIP
with Motorola MC 9090 handheld, Motorola Barcode reader LS-2208, Zebra R110Xi RFID printer.
Overview
Leverage a secure, flexible, world-class manufacturing facility
Endwave Defense and Security products operate from 1-100 GHz and include high-frequency integrated
transceivers, amplifiers, synthesizers, oscillators, up-and-down converters, frequency multipliers, microwave
switch arrays, and other multi-function assemblies. Endwave Defense Systems' premier 22,000 square foot,
state-of-the-art manufacturing facility is located in Diamond Springs, CA, approximately 30 miles east of
Sacramento. Endwave uses lean manufacturing principles to streamline production, improve efficiencies,
minimize waste, and ensure impeccable quality consistent with MIL specifications. In addition to production
of custom-designed Endwave solutions, the company also offers its highly-automated, world-class factory
for build-to-print contract manufacturing projects. The secure manufacturing facility is SCIF, and ISO-9001-
2000 certified. The facility is also qualified for the more stringent aerospace AS9100 certification.
Situation – The Need
Endwave’s Defense and Security business unit is a supplier to both the defense electronics and homeland
security industries. As such, their products are under intense scrutiny as they are components of missioncritical
systems that are essential to safety and success. Furthermore, key defense contractors and the
Department of Defense are starting to request real-time visibility on order status to improve the performance
of their own lean manufacturing process. The project focused on automating work-in-process visibility on the
assembly line to report progress and needs to customers, management, and suppliers, while also reducing
waste and delays in the manufacturing process.
Though observing best practices in their manufacturing line, Endwave management had limited visibility on
the progress of individual work orders through the assembly process, and was unable to detect bottlenecks,
or systemic production “ hold ups” in a timely manner. As with many manufacturers, existing processes
required the production managers to walk the floor to visually locate a work order to find out when it would
be completed per customer request, or to flag a particular work order for priority treatment.

Solution
The environment – cell-based lean manufacturing
Endwave has adopted cellular-based production flow. In an assembly line, all the equipment and personnel
that work on a particular part are in sequence (the cells), so that, as soon as one process is finished, the
part can be moved to the next operation. By keeping the product moving, Endwave maintains LEAN flow
and allows for early detection of quality problems. Endwave organizes piece parts in bins representing
specific customer work orders. The bins are placed on shelves in key locations along the assembly line.
Figure 1 Assembly Line
Adding real-time visibility to lean manufacturing
The solution was deployed by adding real-time sensing capabilities to the existing assembly cells. Fixed and
mobile RFID readers, antenna, printers, sensors and information displays were added and integrated with
the existing shelving infrastructure. Individual RFID tags were added to the work-order bins and employee
badges to seamlessly track movements along the assembly line without changing any existing processes.
The integration of RFID-based hardware and software enables transparent visibility and traceability on the
work floor. The new “smart” assembly cells are viewed as a chain of multiple cells on which work orders are
tracked as they move towards the end of the assembly line.
The integration of the new OMNITROL Smart Assembly Cell eliminates risks with no impact to the existing
business process. The integrated OMNITROL Smart Assembly Cell delivers complete visibility and
traceability across the entire manufacturing process. The deployed solution included Omnitrol Networks’
Work-In-Process application software running on the Edge Application Services Engine (EASE TM ) on the
OMNITROL appliance. It also included a complete database to keep track of work-order pedigree, sales
orders, RMAs, products, materials, shipping and pricing information. The current deployment did not require
integration with other ERP applications to be fully operational. This approach helped Endwave lower the
investment required to deploy a fully operational solution. If future requirements necessitate integration with
back-end applications, the Work-In-Process (WIP) appliance allows for such integration.
Quick deployment, immediate visibility, instant ROI
The complete project took less than a month of planning, training, deployment and testing at the Diamond
Springs facility. The Manufacturing Operations Department provided the manufacturing process information
and selected key choke points where to position the smart shelves.
Immediately after installing the solution, the production managers could view the status of work orders over
web-based interfaces. They were able to quickly identify bottlenecks by noting any manufacturing cells with
longer-than-expected production cycles. Each order could be tracked by component and production
employee (pedigree), allowing the company to maintain records on components per product built.
With only a small investment and no significant change to their manufacturing processes, Endwave has
been able to obtain a contact-less WIP visibility environment that can conceivably be pushed across their
entire production line.
The implementation of the real-time Work-In-Process Visibility solution is expected to generate cost
reductions comparable to at least one or more full-time-employees per assembly line, corresponding to
saving people’s time used to track work orders and RMAs, and identify and fix bottleneck situations.

Software as an appliance
The brains of the solution are provided by the OMNITROL appliance, which is the industry's first all-in-one,
telco-grade, RFID application network appliance that securely integrates business process intelligence with
real-time sense-and-respond devices at the edge.
As a fully integrated solution, the OMNITROL appliance completely encapsulates RFID readers (fixed or
mobile) complexity and securely deploys the readers across the network. The solution is completely nonintrusive
to end-users and, therefore, does not disrupt existing business processes. The OMNITROL
appliance collects and automatically reconciles work orders, asset movements and location data without any
complex and expensive back-end customization.
Once deployed, the OMNITROL appliance communicates with inventory management solutions in the
Network Operations Center (NOC) to automatically maintain inventory data. It can easily and rapidly be
customized for customer specific business processes and rules to trigger appropriate alerts, sensors and
surveillance systems using the advanced EASE workflow engine.
Real-time Work-In-Process visibility powered by Edgelets
The OMNITROL appliance implements the Edge Application and Services Environment (EASE) which is a
powerful application and services delivery engine developed to simplify and rapidly develop business
workflow solutions integrating intelligent edge devices. EASE provides a very powerful state-driven Service
Description Language (SDL) which is an easy way to understand English-like service definition and state
modeling language. OMNITROL’s SDL development tool enables rapid creation of intelligent distributed and
federated real-time process engines, or edge application services called Edgelets. Services developed
with EASE inherently include a high-integrity federated peer-to-peer real-time database for end-to-end
service data management.
According to David Hall, SVP and General Manager of Endwave’s Defense and Security Products Division:
“Omnitrol Networks’ web-based in-production dashboard provides us with a unique Work-In-Process
solution that is expected to deliver the next level of process innovation and change order management.”
Summary
Innovation at the Edge
The award-winning OMNITROL WIP Appliance tracks work orders but also provides real-time dashboards to
operations managers, offering direct insights into the assembly operations to assess performance, and
report production bottlenecks and inefficiencies. By simply providing RFID tags for work-order bins and
employees, the OMNITROL WIP visibility solution operates without any manual intervention from the
production staff. The innovative intelligent edge-based deployment of the solution offers real-time senseand-response
interaction without the complexity and cost of middleware and back-end integration.
Return On Investment
With only a small investment in training and no significant change to their manufacturing processes,
Endwave Defense Systems has been able to obtain a contact-less WIP visibility environment across an
entire production line. From the first day of deployment, production managers have been able to
communicate precise work-order status to senior management and customers.
By using RFID in a closed loop application, Endwave has been able to generate immediate benefits
compared to the previous manual process. For a minimum investment per manufacturing cell, the RFID
integration they performed does not require any complex and expensive development or customization
which would have prevented them from deploying the overall system.
Endwave expects that the ROI will increase further when they connect to their customers and suppliers who
are deploying similar standards-based solutions, thereby producing a network effect.

Beyond the manufacturing shop-floor
The WIP Visibility solution was designed to provide real-time visibility on work orders as they progress
through each stage of production. Additionally, the customer has the option to open up some or all of the
real-time work-order visibility data to its customers through the standards-based EPCIS interface.
The added capabilities of the OMNITROL Appliance EPCIS interface allow the aerospace and Department
of Defense supply chains to become directly and automatically connected to their manufacturing process.