Methods of monitoring items or material from manufacturing processes

A method for tracking semi-finished goods, byproducts of the manufacturing process, or waste from a manufacturing process, comprising the steps of:

• providing a first manufacturing process for manufacturing a first finished good, wherein the manufacturing process includes a plurality of stations for receiving semi-finished goods, byproducts, or waste generated from the manufacturing process, wherein each station includes, a radio frequency identification (“RFID”) reader associated with the station;
• providing a plurality of RFID tagged containers, wherein each container has an associated RFID tag;
• locating at least one of the RFID tagged containers at least at one of the stations;
• filling at least a portion of the RFID tagged container with at least a semi-finished good, byproduct, or waste generated from the manufacturing process at the station;
• interrogating the RFID tagged container with the RFID reader at the stations;
• in response to interrogating the RFID tagged container, obtaining information about the goods, byproducts or waste in the RFID tagged container;
• and
• based on the obtained information, deciding what action to perform with the semi-finished goods, byproducts, or waste in the RFID tagged containers.

A method of monitoring items and/or materials from a manufacturing process, comprising the steps of:

• providing a manufacturing process, wherein the manufacturing process includes a plurality of stations associated with different portions of the manufacturing process, wherein each station includes a radio frequency identification (“RFID”) reader associated with the station;
• providing a plurality of RFID tagged containers, wherein each container has an associated RFID tag;
• locating, at least one of the RFID tagged containers at least at one of the stations;
• filling at least a portion of the RFID tagged container with items and/or materials generated from the manufacturing process at the station;
• interrogating the RFID tagged container with the RFID reader associated with the station to at least record the location of the station where the RFID tagged container is located, and recording the time of the interrogation;
• in response to interrogating the RFID tagged container, obtaining information about the items and/or materials that were placed in the RFID tagged container at the station;
• repeating the interrogating and obtaining steps multiple times to gather data over a length of time;
• and
• using the data to optimize or improve the manufacturing process.

A method comprising:

• performing a plurality of processes, wherein each process is performed by one of a plurality of processing stations, and wherein at least one of the processing stations includes a radio frequency identification (RFID) reader;
• placing output of at least one of the processing stations into a container that includes an RFID tag, wherein the output is at least one of a byproduct or waste;
• interrogating the RFID tag of the container with the RFID reader to record the location of the station where the container is located and the time of the interrogation;
• in response to interrogating the RFID tagged container, obtaining information about the output that was placed in the container;
• and
• based on the obtained information, determining an action to perform with the output, wherein the action is not disposal.