Wherenet Corporation

Mark A Wrubel

Walter S Johnson

Huong M Hang

Thomas M Bacon

An elapsed time clock is incorporated into a part call tag for requesting replenishment of components used by workstations of a manufacturing facility. One or more transmission readers spatially distributed around the manufacturing facility detect a part call signal transmitted from the part call tag. A reader output processing subsystem processes part call signals detected by at least one of the tag transmission readers to recover information contained in the part call signal. A management processor associates the recovered information with a respective workstation, and what component is to be replenished. The elapsed time clock is reset when the part call tag is operated to transmit a part call signal, and thereby serves as a call tag 'stop watch'&mdash;informing workstation personnel of the length of time that has elapsed since the last part call transmission from that tag.

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Detroit, MI, United States of America

Mark A Wrubel