technologyreview MOBILE TECH
distribution environment. For one thing, the vibration
caused by travel over uneven concrete surfaces—or the jarring that occurs when lift trucks are driven from docks into
trailers—would likely damage their delicate electronics. For another, if the trucks
encounter wide variations in temperature—say, when moving in and out of
coolers or air-conditioned buildings on a
hot summer day—the resulting condensation is liable to cause the unit to fog up or
stop working entirely.
That’s why in applications like these, an
industrial unit would be a more suitable
choice. There are forklift-mounted
“ruggedized” tablets on the market that
are designed specifically to work where
they’ll be exposed to potentially damaging conditions. Most can withstand not
just vibration but also drops from at least
six feet. They are also sealed against
humidity and moisture, eliminating the
risk of condensation.
These industrial units have other advan-
tages as well. Many tablets are built to be
hot-dockable, meaning that the worker can remove the
device from the truck and carry it over to the product for
scanning or data entry. The tablet can then be snapped back
into place on the lift truck.
CALL ME MAYBE
So what about smartphones? Like tablet
devices, today’s smartphones boast a large
amount of computing capability. Most
consumer smartphones compare in form
factor with established handheld warehouse devices like
bar-code readers, and they can even be outfitted with add-on scanners. But when it comes to their suitability for use
Tablets find a home in receiving
Chemical management company Haas Group is convinced the third time will be the charm, at least where
its receiving technology is concerned. The West Chester,
Pa.-based company, which specializes in the handling,
storage, and delivery of hazardous and other chemicals
on a just-in-time basis, has long struggled with the question of how best to collect data on incoming items at its
DCs. The various chemicals have different handling and
storage requirements, and receiving must “qualify” the
products as they come in, making data collection a time-consuming process, explains Stephen Skidmore, business
systems manager at Haas.
Over the years, Haas has experimented with different
methods of data collection. Initially, workers recorded
the necessary information with pen and paper, but that
proved cumbersome and slow. Then, the company shifted to PCs on carts, but these got dirty and failed. Now,
the company is about to go mobile. Next month, it will
begin piloting the use of ruggedized tablet computers
for critical receiving tasks.
The new units are enterprise-ready Motorola ET1
tablets that run on a souped-up Android platform.
Unlike the PCs, the new tablets do not have a keyboard
to get dirty and no carts are required. Their portability is
an added plus, according to Skidmore. “Our workers will
now be able to take the tablet to the work instead of
leaving the work to go to a PC and back,” he says.
