In order to improve the efficiency of the NedTrain maintenance workshops, Engels has made 85 custom-made cabinets.
NedTrain is specialized in maintenance and service, cleaning and overhaul of rolling stock for more than 150 years. The Dutch Railways is NedTrain's largest customer. Maintenance of trains takes place in "workshops" of 200 meters covered tracks. The walking distance from the workplace to the warehouse is thus an average of more than 100 meters. To improve the efficiency of the NedTrain maintenance workshops, the top 50 most used parts are delivered to the train by material series.
As soon as the train is ready, the Logistics department picks up the material cabinets, charge the used parts, complement the cabinet and reschedule for the next train coming in for maintenance. In order to expand the efficiency in the future, an exploratory investigation has been made of the possibilities for the application of RFID. This development ensures that the entire cabinet with contents is "scanned" when leaving the spare magazine. When the cabinet returns to the warehouse, the contents are scanned again. This information is not only used to automatically complement the cabinet, but also for billing the customer.
Plastic cabinets do not interfere with the RFID signal!!
A hard requirement to be prepared for the implementation of RFID was that the tailor made cabinets should be completely plastic, with a minimum of metal components. Metal interferes with the RFID signal and therefore the scan accuracy.Â
The entire product is made in the assembly department of Engels
As a base, 3 plastic pallet boxes with a base size of 1200x800 mm are welded together to a height of 1,700 mm. The two wide side walls are removed for optimum accessibility from both sides. The customized cabinets are then fitted with 6 adjustable shelves with variable compartments. A number of cabinets are even made with two lockable plastic rolling doors. The top of the cabinets are fitted with fixed-mounted covers.
The cabinet is placed on a roller platform with a capacity of 1,200kg, and a coupling system that can move the cabinets like a train! This allows one vehicle (electrotractor, forklift truck) to transport multiple cabinets from the warehouse to the workplaces.
