Full material traceability ensures process reliability in production and it is a major building block for the economic success of manufacturing companies. To optimise production management, automated identification systems with tags which have barcodes printed on them are now increasingly used in production facilities and warehouses. This ensures full control from the receipt of raw materials to the finishing of the products and shipping.The steel industry in particular, is a difficult environment and the labels and tags that ensure full material traceability have to withstand extreme conditions. Raw materials and products have rough surfaces. In addition, the data carriers are exposed to enormous heat and heavy soiling. And last but not least, the whole identification process always has to be carried out under time pressure.

Kennametal's high quality drill bits along with their associated aluminium trays where they are arranged go through a thorough cleaning process involving ultrasound, damp and vacuum cleaning processes after machining is performed. Before entering this washing facility, the order documents and the tray are separated and then re-allocated after cleaning. A work step that involves a risk as analyses have shown that, on occasion, trays and order documents were allocated incorrectly after cleaning. Drills went through coating processes that were supposed to be used for a different order. Hence, there was a need to eliminate mix-ups altogether.