mobile and wireless warehouse Archives

The Challenge: Meeting Changing Demands in Warehousing and Logistics

The role of the warehouse is changing. No longer just a big space to store inventory, today’s warehouse operation is fast-paced and often decentralized. Inventory turns faster than ever as retailers and manufacturers try to keep up with consumer and business customer expectations in a ‘need it now’ culture. Operating across multiple channels — retail, catalog, and Internet — creates a new set of logistical challenges. Customers expect to be able to place an order through any one of those channels and either receive overnight or prompt delivery to their home or business, or pick the order up at their local store or the warehousing facility as early as the next day. Even with freight and material shipments with longer lead times, the demand for order accuracy, faster delivery, traceability, and real-time tracking is pushing warehousing and logistics operations to improve productivity and processes. Warehouse operations are under increasing pressure to be incredibly agile and efficient to ensure customer satisfaction and grow their business.

The New Mobile and Wireless Warehouse
Warehousing and Logistics Solutions streamline the workday and improve the productivity of all your warehouse workers. You can choose from voice-directed solutions to improve picking speed with hands-free voice-picking, screen-directed data solutions for handheld scanning and mobile computing, or voice-guided solutions that give you the best of both worlds—the speed of voice, the accuracy of scanning, and the ability to handle exceptions on the fly with data input.

Benefits in the Warehouse and Beyond
The value from time-savings and error-proofing that mobility provides in the warehouse extends far beyond the loading docks, warehouse aisles, and holding shelves. The benefits of real-time inventory visibility ripple throughout the enterprise, improving efficiency in the yard, on the production line, and in dispatch, delivery, sales, and service functions. Now, the same information that improves warehouse efficiency can also help you achieve key strategic business objectives, including:

A reduction in inventory stocking levels—as well as the associated capital and space requirements
A reduction in out-of-stocks—delivering a potential increase of 15 percent or greater in sales
The ability to utilize warehouse space that is no longer required in the business area where it will provide the most value—for example, to expand the production line to add a new product line or increase capacity
A reduction in transportation costs through tighter scheduling and management of shipments

The ability to support new manufacturing applications that improve profitability and customer service, such as vendor managed inventory (VMI) and raw materials sequencing
A faster invoicing and payment cycle, made possible through real-time visibility into shipping
The ability to provide customers with real-time order status, improving customer satisfaction and retention
A reduction in field-sales cycle-times by enabling nearly immediate picks for faster order fulfillment

A Return on Investment in Just Months
When you invest in AB&R®’s Warehouse Mobility Solutions, the benefits combine to provide a return on investment that can often be measured in months instead of years:

Warehouse operating costs are reduced.
Overall cost of doing business is reduced.
Customer service quality is increased.
Uptime is maximized—with rugged and field-proven mobile devices and a ‘no questions asked you’re covered’ support plan.
Warehouse mobility solution lifecycle is maximized through:

Support for future standards and devices
Easy integration with your existing technology systems—from your telephony infrastructure to backend applications
Support for Technologies’

RhoMobile Suite, an HTML5 operating-system agnostic application development platform that enables the creation of a single version of an application that can run on third-party mobile devices with a wide range of operating systems—including enterprise operating systems such as Windows® Embedded Handheld, Windows® CE, Google Android™, BlackBerry® OS, Apple® iOS, and Windows® Phone 7.
As a result, enterprises have the freedom to choose the right device for each type of worker as well as support bring-your-own-device (BYOD) initiatives.

Ready to Start Transforming Your Warehouse?
At AB&R® (American Barcode and RFID), we deliver the latest technology solutions and insights to help companies maximize their operational efficiency, performance, and profitability. We provide systems design, installation,services, and support, and have proven ourselves to be a trusted partner for leading companies, including Boeing, Intel, and Costco. We help our clients meet rapidly increasing demands for efficiency, accuracy, real-time visibility, and cost-effectiveness by leveraging the power of wireless mobility and automation. As part of our mission, we are offering free expert consultation to evaluate your critical business needs and recommend the right solutions to create lean, real-time processes as well as increase productivity and accuracy throughout your company.

Download the full story – AB&R® Creating a Lean, Real-Time Warehouse