But that’s changing.

It turns out, you don’t need to be a tech giant to know exactly when a product comes off the manufacturing line, where it’s located along the demand chain (even within a store), or when a consumer tries, purchases, and takes it home.

Today, every company along the demand chain can gain real-time insight into how products are transported, maintained, used, consumed, re-used, and even recycled. It takes digital intelligence, integrated seamlessly and cost-effectively into products, packaging, processes, and more. Plus, a digital infrastructure on the scale of Amazon—an infrastructure that already exists.

Intelligence for the Everyday

Digital intelligence comes in the form of tiny, wireless, digital stickers, affixed to consumer packaged goods, shipping containers, pharmaceuticals—almost anything. If that sounds like the Internet of Things (IoT), it’s because it is, although this IoT is much more expansive than the IoT that over-promised and under-delivered for decades.

The old-school IoT was more like an Internet of Expensive Things because the infrastructure it required—RFID tags, fixed readers, scanners, etc.—took extensive capital investment, not to mention frequent human intervention by people carrying around RFID scanners, aiming them at products, and initiating the kind of demand chain intelligence that should, in fact, be autonomous.

The new Internet of Everyday Things, if you will, comprising trillions of goods (versus the mere billions traversing the old-school IoT), is made possible through those disposable, near-zero-cost, mass-produced, self-powering digital stickers—IoT pixels, we call them—plus a network communications infrastructure with infinite scale.

IoT pixels speak Bluetooth, the now-ubiquitous wireless communications standard. And they communicate to a cloud-based sensing platform information such as location, condition, and temperature. Transporting perishables? The new IoT pixels can determine the temperature of each item—or the container they’re shipped in—and relay that information to manufacturers, distributors, or retailers to help minimize waste and maximize customer satisfaction.

The Infrastructure Exists

The infrastructure needed to collect, process, and analyze this intelligence is all the wireless access points—most of which now include Bluetooth—that businesses have spent years installing. (Not to mention all the Bluetooth radios people carry around in their smartphones.)

If you’re a logistics company that has installed WiFi in its facilities, or a CPG company with WiFi in its distribution centers, you’ve already created the necessary wireless infrastructure for the Internet of Everyday Things. The same goes for retailers and others along the demand chain. Imagine continuous real-time inventory and products that re-order themselves, creating opportunities for predictable, recurring revenue.

And that’s the tip of the iceberg. Leading IoT companies are using data to deliver innovative solutions to the supply chain—reinventing the way goods are made, distributed, sold, used, reused, and recycled. When there’s intelligence built into everything, digital information—secure, private information—is accessible to everyone. Leveling the playing field this way requires fresh thinking by partners along the demand chain. But it does not require a massive buildout. The Internet of Everyday Things is already all around us.

Tony Small is chief business officer at Wiliot, a Sensing-as-a-Service platform company that envisions a world where everything—all products, packaging, and supply chains—have intelligence.

Managers in these industries are following the lead of their e-commerce peers and looking at ways to streamline their receiving and warehouse processes. One of the smartest places to start is also one of the simplest—barcode label printing.

SMB warehouses still running on 10-year-old labeling technology (and there are many) must first realize that getting the labeling process under control is the first step to efficiency. Newer barcode solutions that deliver immediate efficiency improvements, plus quick ROI, are proving to be well worth the investment.

Upgrading to newer barcode solutions that speak the language of today’s supply chain saves time and helps ensure accurate information at every key warehouse station, including:

• Receiving: Applying barcode labels as soon as inbound items arrive ensures they can be accurately unloaded, checked-in, put away, or handled by automated applications.
• Picking: Generating labels for each item picked allows them to be scanned in a staging or packing area where they are easily sorted for shipment.




• Packaging: Creating new labels is vital for identifying finished goods that you have kitted, assembled, or packaged.
• Shipping and returns: Ship-to order applications can incorporate customer-specific labeling, scanning to fulfill orders, and generating return shipping labels and paperwork that include time-saving credit and put-away location data.
• Cross-docking: Ideal for time-sensitive or fast-moving goods, cross-docking sends inbound items out again without their spending time in your facility. Warehouse workers with mobile printers and scanners can hop inside inbound trucks at the dock and start relabeling cartons for store or customer delivery, increasing the efficiency of that important last-mile delivery.

Select the right barcode printer.

To print crisp, scannable labels at strikingly high speeds, all day or night, industrial tabletop models like the new Brother Titan Industrial Printer Series are optimal. And Brother takes it a step further by offering seamless integration to existing WMS systems, best-in-class warranties, and unparalleled lifetime-of-product support.

For more compact 4-inch printing, a high-performance industrial desktop label printer is best. The Brother TD-4 series delivers market-leading performance, connectivity, ease of use, and very competitive pricing. This format is ideally suited for the SMB warehouse.

For truly mobile printing from forklifts and pallet jacks, to carts, to wearable mobility—lightweight yet rugged printers like the RuggedJet 4 Series from Brother enable mobile printing on the go, anywhere inside or outside the four walls.

In today’s competitive environment, there’s no room for failure. To achieve 100% scannable labels, opt for reliable, quality label printers with the right technology for your application.

Visit Brothermobilesolutions.com for more information.

Warehousing technology has evolved to meet these challenges, helping employees better track inventory through the receiving and put-away processes. While these advancements address concerns within individual warehouses, they don’t provide a solution for tracking inventory throughout the supply chain. Manufacturers needed a standard system to guarantee they’d have complete visibility into shipments as they arrived.

That’s why manufacturers in industries such as food and beverage turned to GS1 standards. GS1 is a not-for-profit organization that maintains standards for business communication.

GS1’s leadership in barcode innovation stretches back more than 40 years, but we’ve yet to achieve universal adoption of GS1 standards. Even some warehouses that work with GS1 standards maintain redundant barcoding processes.

Greater adoption of GS1 standards could transform the way we work with barcodes and help warehouse managers achieve maximum efficiency.

Barcodes: A step forward—but how extensive?

It wasn’t long ago that most warehouses relied on manual inventory processes. Trucks would arrive, workers would take stock using pencils and paper, and items would be placed on the shelf. For managers, however, these processes were headache-inducing: If one employee recorded a wrong number while receiving stock, the consequences would ripple across the warehouse.

RF scanners erased much of the manual burden—staff could scan a barcode rather than relying on a physical record. By adding an extra set of “eyes” to the receiving and putaway processes, warehouse operators were able to achieve higher levels of inventory validity.

Still, because these barcodes contained little information beyond item listing, it was entirely possible employees could miss inventory or count it incorrectly. Supply chain innovators have introduced various solutions for the issue; for instance, advanced shipping notices provide recipients with critical inventory information, giving their team greater visibility into what stock, and how much, should arrive.

However, GS1 standards deliver the same information—and because some of the world’s largest industries follow these guidelines, greater GS1 standard adoption is a natural solution.

GS1 labels: A standard for excellence

Companies that utilize GS1 labels comply with standards for what information is kept on barcodes—such as the weight of each case, or the quantity of cases. When you scan a GS1 barcode, you’ll know which, what kind, and how many of each product is located on the pallet. GS1 also provides standards for every step in the shipping process, including label placement and barcode color.

The challenge isn’t convincing warehouse operators to ship using GS1 labels—in fact, many warehouses receive shipments with GS1 tags on inventory, and many must place GS1 tags on items before they’re shipped.

Errors are likely to occur when warehouses place their own label on an item while it’s in inventory. This process not only wastes paper, but it also risks data loss or duplication. Because GS1 tags come with a unique identifier for the product and a unique serial number for each case that will never be duplicated, there’s no need for an internal barcoding system.

By adhering to GS1 standards, warehouses also improve traceability—a hot topic among supply chain innovators. Take, for instance, food manufacturers. Technology allows food and beverage suppliers to track every location a raw material has been during production. If there were to be an outbreak of food-related illness in a concentrated area, GS1 standards would provide manufacturers a common language to research and determine the contaminant.

Technology for a better supply chain

Today’s supply chain demands efficiency. As warehouses do more with less, demand rises for solutions that streamline operations. If you receive GS1-labeled inventory but maintain an internal barcoding system, it’s time to consider dropping the redundant process. If you don’t currently work with GS1 barcodes, consider moving to a system that helps improve inventory validity and traceability across your supply chain.

The small size of their typical order means that consolidation warehouses usually do not have the leverage over their suppliers that would enable them to enforce a requirement for labeling consistency.

So the packages typically arrive in many sizes and shapes with labels in many sizes and styles that may be affixed in different sides of the package, in different locations, and different orientations. It’s important that these labels be scanned with very high read rates because each read failure typically requires manual handling and the high volume of packages means that even a fairly high read rate can generate considerable manual handling expenses.

For example, assume that a high-volume distribution center handles 126,760 packages per day and that each no-read requires only 1.5 minutes of work on the part of an operator making $15 per hour. Then even a 99 percent read rate will generate 1,268 no-reads per day or 443,800 per year (assuming that the warehouse is open 350 days per year) for an annual rework cost of approximately $166,425.

In the typical consolidation warehouse, this challenge is addressed with a scanning tunnel at every dock door. Each scanning tunnel typically consists of an array of six code readers configured to read the top, bottom, two sides, front, and back of each package as it slides down a conveyor. This approach eliminates the need for the operators that unload the trucks to position each package in exactly the right orientation for it to read by a single scanner.

Tunnel Vision

But scanning tunnels by themselves do not resolve the issue of codes that are difficult to read because they are small, positioned at odd angles, or degraded. Another challenge is that reading the front and back of the box as it moves down the conveyor requires a scanner that is positioned at an odd angle to the package, a situation where perspective distortion further increases scanning difficulty.

The ID readers market has been dominated by laser scanners that are simple, inexpensive, and easy to use. But laser scanners see only a single scan line at a time so they have difficulty reading codes in a degraded condition, at varying angles, and in different positions. Laser scanners typically have read rates of 2 to 5 percent in tunnel scanning applications, resulting in high manual handling costs.

Some warehouses have addressed this challenge by using image-based line scanners that acquire a complete image of the side of the package one line at a time. Once the image is acquired, the scanner uses sophisticated software algorithms to decode the label, normally providing read rates far above laser scanners. The limitation of line scan image readers is that they are quite expensive, involving a large capital investment for a consolidation warehouse with 10 or more docks that would require five or six readers for each dock.

Another limitation of line scanners is that they require constant velocity motion. So if, for example, the package bumps the side of the conveyor, the barcode is likely to be unreadable. On the other hand, line scan readers offer the highest possible level of resolution so they are well suited for specialized tasks, such as reading handwritten or typewritten text on a label, which are typically required in only one or a few locations.

Area scanning

A third type of ID reader used in tunnel scanning, image-based area scanners, fit somewhere in the middle between laser scanners and line scanners. Area scanners differ from line scanners in that they capture an image of the complete field of view instantaneously. Area scanners also use sophisticated algorithms to process the image, which in most cases makes it possible to read labels of any size or orientation or in a degraded condition. A key advantage of area scanners is that their cost is a fraction of that of line scanners so they are much better suited to applications like tunnel scanning that require large numbers of scanners.

Recently new algorithms have been introduced for area scanners that are 20 times faster than traditional methodologies. The increase in speed provides more time for decoding, which in turn makes it possible to read barcodes that are highly damaged. The end result in typical applications is read rates of 99.9 percent, which can reduce handling costs by 90 percent in the example mentioned above to only $16,689.

This dynamic and data-driven approach, which allows businesses to react to evolving customer, regional, and regulatory requirements, empowers business users to quickly and efficiently design and maintain barcode labels. It also ensures consistency across a global supply chain, enabling companies to meet performance and scalability requirements with the power and flexibility to support complex, global, and high-volume labeling requirements.

This smarter and more efficient way of doing business provides standardization, allowing companies to achieve consistency and flexibility to support changing labeling requirements. It also provides a platform that is scalable and easily supported and maintained. The following outlines the essentials of this approach for managing labeling across a global enterprise.

Connecting labeling with business processes: Providing the opportunity to work with existing business processes and vital data sources allows companies to standardize and offer consistency throughout their operations. This approach allows shippers to save time and money by maximizing existing investments and eliminating the need to retrain users.

Enabling integrated, automated labeling: Certified integration capabilities allow companies to automate labeling processes, directly leverage sources of truth for label data, and avoid mislabeling issues which can cost businesses time and money.

Allowing rapid change via data-driven labeling: Companies faced with evolving customer and business requirements can streamline label changes with advanced business logic. This enables label formatting and content to change dynamically to support a myriad of different label combinations with a minimum number of label designs. Users can quickly and easily configure business logic to support a wide range of regional, language, customer, and regulatory requirements, while enabling the automatic routing of print requests. This removes a significant burden from IT, eliminating the need to maintain custom code or manage a staggering number of label designs.

Empowering business users to manage label design: Allowing centralized control and consistency and enabling users across an organization to access and update label templates, these solutions offer business users the flexibility to design labels that meet evolving requirements without needing IT. This eliminates resource bottlenecks and speeds the process. Also, browser-based capabilities make deploying design capabilities and managing usage easier than ever.

Supporting high-volume global printing: For global organizations it’s critical to be able to print to a diverse set of printer makes and models with the speed and performance needed to support your operations. Enterprise labeling solutions allow companies to optimize speed and network efficiency by communicating with printers in their native language, with the ability to design labels independent of the printer make/model.

Extending labeling for business partners: Empowering suppliers and business partners to execute label printing enables immediate deployment of label changes, while ensuring accuracy and adherence to standards. Browser-based, on-demand print capabilities enable central control of label designs while providing flexibility to print anywhere across the global supply chain. This increases supply chain efficiency, while decreasing the risk and associated costs of mislabeling.

Providing simplified maintenance and deployment: Offering the ability to standardize and deploy labeling solutions on a centralized basis provides great flexibility. Enterprise labeling provides complete control over how capabilities are deployed across their global landscape, from design to print, to integration. This approach also provides a standard for labeling which allows businesses to maintain consistency and provide another level of scalability and reliability to support a global network of printers. This is essential when allowing users to manage outages and connectivity issues, while providing high availability, failover, and disaster recovery capabilities.

Leveraging best practices and domain experience: Enterprise labeling solutions stress the importance of domain expertise in labeling. This approach focuses on understanding the unique regulations, business processes, and regional nuances that are pervasive in each industry.

Dimensioning and weighing systems are transforming the transport and logistics industry and driving growth in the businesses using this technology. Gone are the days of paperwork and tedious manual processes as shippers are turning to these systems to streamline processes and manage data. Here’s a look at why this tool is garnering attention for its cost-saving ability in the transport industry.

Profiling With Dimensioning and Weighing Systems

Dimensioning, weighing, and barcode scanning can verify the accuracy of invoices. The systems can also simply and inexpensively provide companies with the information they need to make better business decisions.

By dimensioning pallets, freight companies can better plan their routes and profile their customers to make sure their business relationships are profitable. To do that, a freight company should measure all of its customers’ freight for a few months to get an idea of the real costs to service that customer. Using that profile, they could create a contract with the customer that is both fair and profitable.

This data-driven insight allows LTL carriers to create a profile of what the customer is typically shipping and what to expect from them on future shipments. These systems can provide a long-term return on investment.

Cameras to Control Quality

Quality control is getting a boost with cameras. For a minimal additional expense, automated-camera technology is gaining traction because it offers constant visual information. Cameras let companies know if damage occurred, when, and possibly how it happened. This information can aid immensely with damage claims. When businesses use a dimensioner, scale, barcode reader, and camera with the right software to manage all the data, they can have all of the information about a single shipment at their fingertips.

Dimensioning Goes Mobile

“Mobile” dimensioning is quickly advancing in the industry because of the flexibility it allows. Imagine a tape measure that quickly and accurately provides dimensions and PRO numbers of pallets on the spot. New mobile dimensioning devices are small enough to fit in the palm of your hand and can be used to measure freight at any stage of operation.

Weighing and Research (W&R) or Weighing and Inspection (W&I) personnel can use the technology to quickly audit freight. Some freight companies are even providing this technology to their truck drivers to obtain the dimensions of a pallet immediately when it is picked up.

For quickly measuring freight at the point of pick-up, for reclassifying pallets, and for low-volume operations, mobile dimensioning is a low-cost game-changer that can help eliminate paper, verify measurements, and ensure accurate invoicing.

A: Traditionally, 3PL providers offered a specialized set of services focused around warehousing, order fulfillment, transportation and supply chain logistics. Today, several factors have driven 3PLs to non-traditional services that spread their influence further into the supply chain.

Non-traditional supply chain services include various solutions, such as:

• Labeling and barcoding
• Product packaging and packaging postponement
• Point of purchase display kitting
• Reverse packaging
• Customer call centers
• Foreign Trade Zone (FTZ) services

Q: How does offering non-traditional services affect the supply chain?

A: Value-added services that fall outside the realm of traditional supply chain solutions can save millions of dollars and create mutually beneficial, collaborative relationships. By adapting to customers’ needs and identifying solutions, 3PLs can cement their relationships in an extremely competitive marketplace while offering value in the following areas:

Flexibility—Many non-traditional supply chain services evolve from urgent market-driven projects that require immediate solutions. Because of their expertise in logistics and eye toward the bottom line, 3PL providers can integrate these projects into the existing supply chain and grow them into long-term, value-added services.

Scalability—Services are contingent on demands that can either fluctuate or be completely unpredictable, such as a manufacturer’s promotions or recalls. 3PLs can scale and repurpose labor when developing individualized solutions to address the time-sensitive needs of an individual project.

Responsiveness—3PLs provide a ready and available workforce that can be flexed and scaled to meet a customer’s needs in a timely manner. Constant management oversight and collaboration streamlines these non-traditional services and keeps them responsive to changing needs.

Cost-effectiveness—Outsourcing to external vendors that specialize in non-traditional services or handling these projects in-house can result in high labor, equipment and transportation costs. 3PL providers have trained staffs that specialize in non-traditional services, thus mitigating mistakes and maximizing cost-effectiveness.

Trust—An existing partnership between a 3PL and its customer is a trusted relationship that can expand to include non-traditional services. Working with a trusted 3PL provider to solve problems and develop solutions is a reliable path, especially in times of urgency.

Resourcefulness—3PL providers have a flexible infrastructure that allows them to manage labor and handle additional needs, such as specialized equipment or packaging.

Today, 3PLs must be able to handle many projects outside the scope of traditional services. From packaging postponement to customer call centers, these non-traditional services allow the 3PL provider to positively impact various steps in the supply chain. It is also a value-add for customers that are seeking an enriching relationship that can evolve over time.

Know Your Goals

After tying the new system to business goals and objectives, clearly identify both short- and long-term goals and requirements. This includes its impact on day-to-day business operations. Consider the purpose of the bar code system. Increased production speeds? Tracking inventory? Recording activity? Based on your needs, weigh the necessity of installing automated equipment, like conveyors, as well as how many types of bar codes need to be supported.

Next, evaluate issues that stand to be improved. Determine what processes can be streamlined to reduce cost, such as receiving, put-away, movement, picking, packing and shipping. Specifically, consider task-oriented outcomes, such as gaining accuracy over manual processes. A company’s ability to take orders and fulfill them can be affected without accurate inventory data.

Once the decision has been made, identify the materials bar codes will be printed on, as well as types of bar codes that need to be scanned – one-dimensional (1D), two-dimensional (2D) or both. Common 1D barcodes include Code 39 and Code 128, while common 2D symbologies include Datamatrix, PDF417, Aztec and QR code. Evaluate scanners that support either type even if both are not currently needed, in case of future system expansion. Also consider whether the system needs to accommodate any internally generated bar codes, externally generated bar codes, or both – such as vendor UPCs, location labels, and supplier receiving documents.

After determining what bar codes to use, decide whether or not to print your own bar codes, including item labels, location labels, packing labels, picking labels, and shipping labels. Particularly, identify the volume of labels needed and how often (daily, weekly, monthly, annually), the types of printers required (direct thermal, thermal transfer, color), and media types, sizes, materials, adhesive types, and compliance requirements.

Then assemble a team of key users to evaluate areas of the organization where bar code scanning is necessary. That team should identify fit, form, and functional requirements, such as weight, size, keyboard, mobile, and vehicle mount; determine scanning requirements, such as distance and symbology; and identify environmental factors, such as water, dust, temperature, and light. The team should also determine necessary scan distances for all users, and take into account how material handling equipment factors into the scanning process.

Decision-makers should also verify whether their network – wired or wireless – can support the required bandwidth of a new or upgraded bar coding system. Adding a system where there wasn’t one before requires a wired network capable of increased traffic. If adding a mobile scanning solution, the company must implement a wireless infrastructure. Physical environment can also be key – mezzanines, production equipment, and building configurations can all impact wireless networks. Organizations should conduct a site survey to ensure adequate coverage.

Finally, ensure a low total cost of ownership and high return on investment by planning for long-term maintenance and support. Be sure purchased equipment has comprehensive support and maintenance plans, and have a clear understanding of maintenance turnaround times and on-site versus depot service.

What’s the Plan?

Treat the selection and implementation of a bar coding system as you would any significant enterprise-level purchase. Take the time to conduct all necessary research and form an implementation plan that is unique to your particular requirements. A well thought-out plan that considers all the necessary factors will result in a bar coding system that contributes to an organization’s long-term profitability.

Warehouse managers have had to adapt their operations to accommodate significant changes in the supply chain.

"Customer demand for personalization is driving an increase in the number of stockkeeping units, leading to intensified need for inventory visibility, accuracy, and efficiency," states From Cost Center to Growth Center: Warehousing 2018, a new report from Motorola. "Meanwhile, regulations call for more accurate product tracking and tracing, while growth of omni-channel transactions creates the need for increased inventory control; flexibility; and faster, more accurate fulfillment."

Mobile devices and applications such as rugged tablets, bar-code scanners, picking systems, and improved Wi-Fi capabilities specifically designed for the warehouse environment are helping warehouse managers and logistics personnel better meet such challenges. These devices and applications enable companies to track assets and shipments, boost picking and packing productivity and accuracy, execute transactions and processes, collaborate with internal and external partners, and improve supply chain functionality, productivity, and efficiency overall.

"Automated mobile tools in the warehouse are becoming essential for logistics, supply chain, and transportation management," notes Steve Wimsatt, director of business development and vertical markets at Sunnyvale, Calif.-based Ruckus Wireless Inc., a Wi-Fi networking equipment manufacturer.

E-commerce growth is a significant contributor to the demand for more speed and efficiency in the warehouse. The online retail market grew 17 percent globally over the past five years, and shows no sign of slowing down, according to consulting firm A.T. Kearney’s 2013 Global Retail e-Commerce Index Report. Meanwhile, market research company eMarketer’s latest forecasts predict worldwide business-to-consumer e-commerce sales will increase by 20 percent in 2014 to reach $1.5 trillion.

Managing Complexity

As consumers grow more comfortable ordering products on their laptops and mobile devices, warehouse operations become more complex. Instead of shipping one large pallet to a retail store, for example, a warehouse may now be tasked with shipping hundreds of small orders to individuals located all over the country—or even the world. At the same time, consumers are demanding faster delivery speeds.

Over the past few years, Brentwood, Tenn.-based third-party logistics (3PL) company OHL has experienced significant growth across all verticals, but specifically within the e-commerce sector, says Rob Thyen, OHL’s vice president of engineering. OHL serves a broad range of customers, and occupies 33 million square feet in more than 130 warehouses across the United States and Canada.

"E-fulfillment represents about 30 percent of our contract logistics business today, and it is our fastest growing segment," says Thyen. "It also presents unique challenges, such as high order and SKU counts. Those challenges push us to drive productivity and better manage our labor force to minimize errors."

In most of its warehouses, OHL uses Motorola handheld scanners for picking and putaway tasks. The 3PL also recently began testing new voice-driven software from South Jordan, Utah-based technology provider Wavelink Speakeasy. The device-based, multi-modal solution requires no middleware component or voice-specific hardware.

"The technology is resident on the Motorola scanners, so it has no interface, which eliminates the upkeep, support, and maintenance other information technologies require," says Thyen.

Using the voice-driven system has helped OHL increase picking productivity and accuracy. "The system verbally directs users to each new location, aisle, or bay, leaving little room for error," Thyen explains.

The technology is also proving beneficial when onboarding new personnel. "In one pilot, it took new employees three to four weeks of onboarding before they achieved the picking level of the rest of the workforce," says Dave Hauptman, OHL’s vice president of product management and marketing. "With the voice technology overlay, that time dropped to five to seven days."

Faster onboarding will be a significant boon to OHL’s operations, especially during the busy holiday season. "If we can perform faster, we benefit our end customers and save them money," says Hauptman.

OHL is currently testing the voice technology in a limited number of warehouses, but Thyen foresees widespread use in the future.

OHL also plans to pilot new rugged tablets to provide greater visibility into its labor management system.

Wi-Fi can help make warehouse processes more efficient by allowing universal access to real-time inventory information, and reducing counting and picking errors. But because warehouses are often filled with metal structures, RF obstacles, competing handheld Wi-Fi devices, and limited Ethernet cabling, they can be hostile environments for Wi-Fi networks. Maintaining consistent, high-speed Wi-Fi connections is an ongoing challenge.

"Warehouses have to overcome all the interference, reflections, and other obstacles to RF connectivity to ensure they maintain strong connections," Wimsatt explains.

Oh GIve me a HOme

Another challenge is roaming. In a large warehouse, objects tend to move quickly and cover a lot of ground. "The Wi-Fi connection has to smoothly hand off from one point to the next," says Wimsatt. "If workers lose connectivity, they have to stop, and it becomes a productivity sink."

Lincoln, Neb.-based Kawasaki Motors Manufacturing Corporation, a subsidiary of Kawasaki Heavy Industries Ltd., produces popular consumer recreation and utility machines. But the company’s vast warehousing operations were struggling with radio frequency and data capacity issues, and continuous disconnections.

"We view Wi-Fi as a strategic tool for optimizing operations as part of our continuous improvement practice, because we use it daily to run our manufacturing operations," says Paul Kramer, IT manager for Kawasaki Motors.

Kawasaki Motors needed a dependable Wi-Fi infrastructure to support a variety of applications that utilize handheld mobile devices, including Apple iPads and bar-code scanners mounted on forklifts. Workers use these devices to feed inventory data into the company’s enterprise resource planning system.

The facility installed a new high-speed Smart Wi-Fi system from Ruckus Wireless in 2013. "Coverage and connectivity immediately improved, with higher data rates than we had previously experienced, and fewer access points deployed," says Kramer. "Ultimately, the Smart Wi-Fi system allowed us to lower the cost of our supply chain management processes while speeding our production environment."

Through the use of dual-polarized directional antennas, Ruckus Wi-Fi access points are also capable of transmitting and receiving Wi-Fi signals at different angles. This is important to users of low-powered handheld devices, who are continuously changing the orientation of these tools, notes Wimsatt.

Antwerp, Belgium-based Katoen Natie recently began using Ruckus Smart Wi-Fi products to support its in-house warehouse management system (WMS). The international logistics service provider and port operator for clients ranging from consumer goods and industrial manufacturers to chemical companies was relying on a legacy Wi-Fi system that delivered spotty coverage, and suffered from erratic performance, dropped connections, and problems adapting to obstacles and interference.

"Conventional Wi-Fi technology was simply unable to adapt to our constantly changing RF environments," says Ian De Winter, telecom director for Katoen Natie. "In today’s warehousing environments, a reliable wireless system is no longer negotiable."

Today, Ruckus access points support Katoen Natie’s workers using Wi-Fi handheld scanners to unload, pick, pack, and ship products.

"Our WMS requires Wi-Fi, and during peak season, when we have thousands of workers in the facility, the connection simply cannot fail," says De Winter. "Having thousands of people doing nothing for 10 minutes when the connection drops costs us a lot of money."

Full Steam Ahead

As e-commerce continues to grow, the pressure to improve warehouse efficiency will likely intensify. Today’s consumers have little tolerance for errors or long delivery times.

"We have all had the experience of shopping online and receiving the wrong item," says Wheeler. "This is how retailers lose customers—errors are just not acceptable. Companies looking to operate more productively need tools to enable efficiency. Generally, that means ergonomic, task-oriented technology such as wearable scanning or voice-directed interaction tools."

The pressure to improve warehouse operations can also present an opportunity. Warehouse operators are adopting a forward-looking view of their facilities, according to From Cost Center to Growth Center: Warehousing 2018, which surveyed warehouse IT and operational personnel in the manufacturing, retail, wholesale, and 3PL market segments.

"Instead of seeing it as a pure cost center in which operational focus is placed almost exclusively on wringing out inefficiencies and inaccuracies in order picking, companies increasingly view the warehouse as a powerful asset that can drive profitable growth for the business with a heightened focus on improving inbound, storage, and outbound materials handling," the report states.

Mobile technologies can go a long way in driving companies toward that goal. They can also enable flexibility, which is key in today’s unsettled supply chain environment.

"The retail and e-commerce fulfillment landscape is changing," says Hauptman. "Today, when a company makes a strategic decision, it moves fast. Mobile technology is vital because it enables businesses to operate warehouse facilities that can react quickly to that changing landscape."

"Carrying wheels is a major source of wear-and-tear on the teams’ race haulers," says Todd Carpenter, general manager at Champion. "Also, if teams manage their own wheels, they need space to store the equipment when they aren’t racing, and they have to handle tire mounting and dismounting. It’s easier to outsource these tasks so they can focus on racing."

In addition to transporting bare wheels to the racetracks, where Goodyear mounts the tires, Champion hauls the mounted assemblies back to Charlotte, where it dismounts the used tires and sends them to recycling. Then workers clean and restock the wheels so they are ready to ship to the next racetrack.

Rolling On Through

Each team that contracts with Champion owns its wheels—typically about 260 wheels per team, consisting of both single- and double-stem versions of the 15-inch steel wheels NASCAR regulations dictate. Champion paints each team’s identification mark on the wheels, and tracks them in its automated system. Teams can log into the system to check the status of their wheels, and identify which ones are going to which races.

In all, Champion houses approximately 20,000 wheels in its secure, climate-controlled facility. The company built its business on understanding race teams’ needs, and by using the principals’ engineering background to automate handling the wheels in a way that ensures optimal performance.

For example, rather than stacking or bouncing the wheels, Champion moves them through its facility on a conveyor system, which is less likely to cause damage. In addition, the company applies bar codes to each wheel, then scans it every time it moves in and out of the facility, creating a complete history of that wheel. And as each wheel comes back from a race, it undergoes a thorough inspection process.

This inspection process prevents damaged wheels from being returned to stock. "If a wheel doesn’t meet specifications, our bar-code systems won’t allow the racing team that owns it to check it out of the facility," Carpenter explains.

In the past, Champion read the wheels’ bar codes by positioning a scanner on the conveyor line at the point where workers had dismounted the tires and washed the wheels, but just before the wheels reached the inspection station. The scanner had an 80-percent read rate.

When the scanner couldn’t read a bar code, the wheel was kicked over to an inspection line for manual reading with a scan gun. Because Champion handles nearly 1,000 wheels daily, workers had to read 200 wheels manually each day.

Once More Through the Line

Typically, operators would run the problem wheels through the line repeatedly to try to get a scanner reading. If that was unsuccessful, workers would have to use a scan gun to manually read those codes. This process took an extra 20 to 30 minutes per day, and the scan gun data wasn’t entered into the system. Also, those wheels missed part of the inspection process.

A demonstration at a trade show convinced Carpenter to replace the laser scanner with an image-based bar-code reader, which more effectively captures hard-to-read bar codes.

Image-based readers capture an image, then use a series of algorithms to process it and make it easier to read. One algorithm searches the entire image for the code, and identifies its position and orientation. Other algorithms handle degradations in code quality.

Champion installed a DataMan 302L image-based bar-code reader from machine vision systems manufacturer Cognex, based in Natick, Mass. The DataMan 302L is part of the Cognex DataMan 300 series, developed to handle the most difficult-to-read codes. The 302L is a fixed-mount device with a high-resolution sensor for reading very small codes in a large field of view, as well as codes placed on small components.

In addition, the 302L delivers maximum depth-of-field flexibility through its use of a liquid lens module. The key advantage of the liquid lens is that it keeps the code in focus even when the distance from the camera to the code is changing, which happens because the bar codes can be located anywhere on the wheels.

Other advantages of the liquid lens are its ruggedness—it includes no moving parts—fast response times, good optical quality, low power consumption, and compact size.

Champion Takes a Victory Lap

Today, instead of 200 wheels per day being kicked out to the inspection line, only 30 need special handling.

"We replace the labels now if the DataMan can’t read them," Carpenter notes. That saves time and eliminates the hassle of trying multiple times to get the kicked-out wheels to go through the scanner.

More importantly, using the DataMan ensures that all wheels are entered into Champion’s system when they return from a race, and every wheel receives a full inspection.

"Our company’s focus is on giving race teams confidence that their wheels are handled appropriately and inspected thoroughly so they perform optimally on the track," concludes Carpenter. "The DataMan reader plays an important role in enabling us to do that."

The efficiency and accuracy gains Champion achieved with the Cognex scanner makes the solution a wheel winner.