If you’re an IT or operations director in warehousing and logistics, wouldn’t time savings more than 80% when conducting stock checks, or 90% when receiving pallets be a great achievement when looking back on 2022?, says Steve Mulroy, Warehousing and Logistics Specialist, EMEA at Zebra Technologies. What about giving your front-line workers a renewed sense of their value, elevating their roles by investing in tools enabling them to perform better?
These are actual results from warehousing and logistics organisations who can now build on these in the coming months and years.
Technology partners should start by listening, to understand your challenges so they deliver the desired outcomes you want. These outcomes result from receiving the right advice and deploying the right solutions and services. Turn your challenges into measurable outcomes
Hiring, training, and retaining front-line workers is a constant issue, while tracking assets, inventory, keeping pace with orders and returns are all needed for today’s on-demand economy. Automating workflows, augmenting front-line workers, securing your customer base and future growth planning are some key outcomes your technology investments need to support.
A recent survey found employer investment in technology is making jobs easier and boosting job satisfaction. For retail and warehouse employers and recruiters, the findings highlight the positive impact the right technology investments can have on labour hiring, training, retention and elevating the role of workers at a time of increased challenges facing these industries. Over half (62%) of survey respondents said their employers are investing in technology to help them do their jobs. Fifty-five percent say technology is making their day-to-day jobs easier, and 44% report increased job satisfaction.
With increased global digitisation, many technologies and services have emerged to support these needs, enabling companies to remain competitive. Here are some examples of successful outcomes.
German logistics provider Hasenauer+Koch ships more than one million cubic metres of volume yearly for customers. It uses 110 lorries for distribution and 8,000m² of storage space. However, its drivers were using multiple devices to process, load and deliver packages as well as needing to maintain technology upgrades.
Collaborating with Zebra and its partner Technische Informationssysteme, each driver now uses a single handheld computer with software that has improved package scanning and loading workflows and supports 5G and Bluetooth 5.0 BLE connectivity which optimises delivery and signing for drivers and customers.
In the defence sector, Zebra and its partner Nuffield Technologies recently delivered a global deployment to digitalise a military organisation’s warehouse and logistics operations that needed exceptional security levels and reliable connectivity.
Nuffield mapped the organisation’s warehouse and logistics operations into a new mobile app accessible on Zebra’s TC72 Android™ Touch Computer, creating a unique security layer for its Android operating system. Leveraging both Android enterprise features and Zebra’s Mobility DNA suite, the solution enables secure device operation and hardening, file transfer and remote updates.
This project achieved an 83% time reduction in daily equipment account checks at each site across hundreds of locations, and a 93% reduction in time to receipt pallets. Additionally, operating system changes to lock down the device have seen battery life in the field last up to eight weeks.
As these use cases highlight, the right solution and support adds financial value. With LifeGuard providing Zebra device lifecycle updates, organisations can see return on their investment over the long term which further reduces the cost of ownership by guaranteeing future compatibility with accessories. If customers upgrade to new devices, they can use existing charging cables and docks, thereby reducing costs and electronic waste.
A measured approach to change
Things have progressed since the internet of things (IoT) delivered us sensors and mountains of data. Today, IT directors and their teams need to move beyond capturing data from sensors to joining the dots between devices, front-line workers, assets, inventory, and workflows. This information needs to be incorporated in a useable way into operational decision making and actions on the warehouse floor and logistics planning. It’s about incremental changes, such as reducing seconds and minutes from tasks resulting in time savings of hours and days and optimising specific workflows.
These examples demonstrate why organisations collaborate with specialists who have the knowledge and industry experience to address your challenges and develop technology solutions that deliver the outcomes needed. With Zebra’s services expertise, organisations achieve the design, implementation and integration projects needed with minimal risk and higher user adoption, accelerating the return on investment while delivering better customer satisfaction.
Starting with challenges and desired outcomes is the right way forward. What could you achieve with the right advice, solutions, and services?
Give your warehouse and logistics operations the ‘new year, new me’ treatment and take a measured step towards solutions and services that can deliver needed outcomes for your organisation, customers, and workers. Let’s talk.
Zebra
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