techwatch
Smart phones are taking care
of business
SMART PHONES ARE ALL THE RAGE WITH CONSUMERS, BUT
is there a place for the technology in supply chain operations? Yes,
according to a recent study by the ARC Advisory Group. Nearly 70
percent of the 60 high-level supply chain executives surveyed said
they were using smart phones like BlackBerrys and iPhones in their
daily operations.
That surprised even the analysts who conducted the study. “Overall,
the adoption among managers has been much, much faster than I
would have expected,” says ARC analyst Steve Banker, who co-wrote
the study, Mobile Technologies Used in SCM Today, with colleague
Adrian Gonzalez.
In fact, the survey indicated that in the upper echelons of supply
chain management at least, smart phones are fast
becoming the technology of choice, edging out
older, better established technologies. When survey
takers were asked to identify the mobile technologies
they were using in their logistics and supply chain
operations, smart phones were mentioned by 69
percent of the respondents—supply chain vice presidents and directors working for companies with
annual revenues of over $1 billion. Handhelds and
cellular data/voice networks came in a distant second (both cited by 54 percent of the respondents),
followed by mobile bar-code scanners ( 47 percent).
As for what supply chain folks are doing with
these smart phones, scanning bar codes ( 22 percent) and taking and transmitting photos of delivered goods (also 22 percent) garnered the most
mentions. The popularity of scanning was a striking finding, considering that software developers only recently began introducing apps
that allow smart phones to double as bar-code scanners (see “Apple
innovation could make scanning more affordable,” TechWatch,
December 2010, www.dcvelocity.com).
Banker cautions against reading too much into that finding, however. There was nothing in the results to indicate that managers are
using their phones for high-volume scanning applications on the DC
floor, he says. He adds that it’s also possible managers are simply
“experimenting” with the technology.
The third most common response to the question on how respon-
dents are using smart phones may come as something of a surprise:
21 percent said they used their phones “to access social media sites
like LinkedIn, Twitter, and Facebook.” That’s not to say they’re play-
ing FarmVille during business hours. As Banker
points out, a likelier explanation is that they’re
using social media for networking and keeping
up with market developments. “LinkedIn can be
a valuable resource for connecting to other logis-
tics professionals and for keeping your eye on
what your competitors are doing—like new hires
and departures,” he says.
