HIGH-STAKES DECISION
As for what makes the process so
complicated, a number of factors
come into play. Part of the answer
lies in the sheer ubiquity of these
devices in today’s warehouse operations, according to Marco Nielsen,
vice president of managed mobility services at Stratix, a Peachtree
Corners, Georgia-based managed
mobile services provider. As companies scramble to keep up with
demands for faster, more accurate shipments, they’ve become
extremely reliant on automated
devices, he noted in a paper titled
Mobile Tech in the Supply Chain:
How technology enables supply chain
innovation. “It’s not easy to find
a warehouse today that doesn’t
depend heavily on the wearable
computers, bar-code scanners, and
forklift-mounted terminals used for most aspects of inventory control, shipping, and handling,” he wrote.
Another part of the answer lies in the interconnectedness
of today’s DC operations. “The same device that enables
a picker to select the right merchandise for a store or an
individual customer can instantaneously contribute to
another task such as inventory control,” Nielsen noted in
his paper. In this type of highly integrated environment, a
change-out of something as simple as a handheld will also
affect a broad range of connected technologies throughout
the DC, according to a white paper from Barcoding Inc.
and Samsung titled Manufacturing Modernization: How to
Get There.
Still another complication for companies looking to
upgrade their mobile devices concerns the wireless networks that keep them connected. A handheld computer
is only as good as the data it can share, and networks are
changing fast.
The second-generation (2G) and third-generation (3G)
networks that have long supported our basic cellphones
will soon be set aside in favor of far faster 4G and
5G networks, according to Robert Puric, senior director,
field mobility – enterprise mobile computing, at Zebra
Technologies.
The major wireless carriers have already announced
they will no longer support 3G devices on their networks
by the end of 2020, so mobile computer vendors such as
Lincolnshire, Illinois-based Zebra have started adding
updated chipsets and radios to their latest product lines,
Puric says.
The change will affect transportation and logistics companies as well as retail users, but it won’t happen overnight.
Some major cities now support 5G networks, but the system won’t cover the entire U.S. for three or four more years,
Puric says. In the meantime, 4G is expected to be the de
facto wireless standard well into the late 2020s.
DON’T BE AN OSTRICH
With Microsoft’s end-of-support date looming, many
companies are responding in one of two ways, says Shane
Snyder, president of Barcoding Inc., which is a Baltimore-based provider of data-capture and supply chain analytics
solutions.
Some are behaving like an ostrich with its head in the
sand, asking “If it still works, why do we need to replace
it?” While continuing to use legacy devices might be the
simplest solution, it’s also a risky one given the threat of
cyberattacks and security breaches, Snyder says.
Others plan to simply replace each of their Windows-based devices with an Android device, integrating them
into their operations with no other changes. That might be
quick and easy, but it’s also a missed opportunity to make
improvements to business and labor processes, Snyder says.
By doing a simple one-to-one replacement, companies lose
out on a chance to reassess how they’re using those mobile
devices, whether they’re using too many, and if they could
be using them in a more optimal way.
Instead, Barcoding recommends that companies conduct
a complete inventory of their existing mobile devices and
then check with their operations teams to make sure all of
the units are actually being deployed. It’s not unusual for
businesses to discover that some of their devices are going
unused and therefore won’t have to be replaced, Snyder
says.
The data-capture company further urges DC leaders to
collaborate with the end-users in the selection and implementation process, including soliciting their opinions on
what they would change and having them test out the new
devices before a full-blown rollout.
With processes, people, and the broader technology
ecosystem to consider, swapping out the humble handheld
isn’t as simple as it might seem. But in today’s interconnect-ed environment, taking the time to do it right can have beneficial effects on nearly every aspect of a DC’s operation.
