FactoryOS - RFID Cylinder Tracking & Operations Platform

The problem

An industrial-gas distributor moves tens of thousands of returnable cylinders between branches, customers, vendors, and delivery vehicles. When that movement lives on paper and spreadsheets, cylinders go missing, invoices trail dispatch by days, and nobody can say with confidence which customer is holding which asset.

The challenge

I led the build of a platform that keeps pace with a busy loading gate. A scan had to register instantly on a handheld reader, survive duplicate reads and patchy connectivity, and still leave a ledger the finance team could trust. Orders needed to split across vehicles, invoices had to be raised the moment dispatch was confirmed and never change afterwards, and each branch needed its own view without seeing data it should not. Alongside the platform, the launch site had to make twelve operating blocks read as one continuous factory rather than a feature grid.

System Design

Generic system view: handheld RFID scans and branch apps call one API that fronts the asset registry, orders and dispatch, GST invoicing, and branch transfers, with background jobs, documents, and integrations underneath.

FactoryOS runs as a FastAPI service on MongoDB, deployed as a replica set so multi-step changes such as branch transfers commit in a single transaction. Celery workers on Redis handle imports, PDF generation, archiving, and outbound integrations, so a slow external call never blocks a scan. Operators use a React 19 progressive web app on rugged UHF RFID handhelds, and each scan is stored as an idempotent movement event: a repeated read or a retried request cannot create a second record. Invoice and order numbers come from atomic per-branch counters, issued invoices are immutable, and role-based access with per-branch scope is checked on every request. E-invoicing, payment links, and messaging are built behind configuration flags and switch on per deployment. The launch site is a dependency-light scroll film served by Express, and every enquiry is written to encrypted S3 storage before Amazon SES sends email.

Results

FactoryOS is deployed to production for the gas operation it was built around. Cylinders are registered by RFID tag, tracked through gate, dispatch, delivery, return, and maintenance, and flagged when they come back from an unexpected customer. Dispatch confirmation raises a GST invoice with the correct tax split, and the finance side covers receipts, credit notes, deposits, and a GST summary. Backend tests run against a real MongoDB replica set, the end-to-end suite drives a live backend with no mocks, and the launch site still carries the product story for prospective buyers.

Live Demos