What We Built

In the high pressure environment of a production floor, finding the right tools can be a daunting challenge. Well, that was till we devised a solution with NFC tags.

GE Digital Services approached us with a need to optimize how tools were tracked on their shop floor, and we developed SmartCrib.

SmartCrib is an intelligent solution that allows floor managers to manage and track the real-time position of tools used in CNC machines and the location of all carts on the production line.

Our team added NFC tags to the tools and drills used in the CNC machines and placed NFC readers on the tools receptacle on the crib and the cart. The data from the NFC tags were fed back to the central system via a Raspberry Pi.

The Raspberry Pi setup also reads signal strengths from Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) Beacons placed alongside each machine bay.

Using this, we visualized the tool position and its contents through a web app built on Golang and React.