The Ruggedized Computing Blog

Preparing orders for shipment is a complex operation. As such, the potential for order inaccuracies is great. This is especially true if your company still relies on a traditional, paper-based inventory management system for tracking and monitoring orders. In an ideal scenario, your employees are always spot-on in their handling of inventory and are always selecting products in a manner that optimizes order efficiency. The reality of the situation, however, is that outdated management systems often lead to warehouse employees (by no fault of their own) haphazardly preparing orders. And a result of this disorganization, worker productivity suffers.

For many businesses, high-value assets are not limited to one location within an office building. Your company may have heavy equipment in the field, a fleet of vehicles that are always on the move, or expensive shipments that you need to track closely. If this is the case, your field service technicians need the appropriate tools to do their jobs effectively and efficiently. No matter what high-value assets your business has, both you and your insurance provider have an interest in protecting them.

The first step to protecting high-value assets is understanding your needs. Depending on the type of business and the assets to be monitored, your field service technicians may need systems that do one or more of the following:

From MODEX website: MODEX 2012 (February 6-9, 2012) is the industry's newest expo for the manufacturing, distribution and supply chain industries. MODEX 2012 will feature the best solutions and innovations the industry has to offer. By attending you will meet over 500 of the leading providers and see their solutions in person, in action. You can also connect and network with industry peers and learn the latest trends and technologies from leading experts in three keynotes, 70 show floor educational seminars and several collocated education partner events.

In today's world, consumers and business partners expect businesses to meet high levels of customer service and performance. Customers demand high performance and companies who consistently deliver high quality goods and services get rewarded. A company's perfect order metrics contributes greatly to overall business quality. Today, we'll talk about the basic components of the perfect order and how to use a rugged tablet PC and other technology solutions to improve your overall perfect order percentage.

The Perfect Order
Perfect order metrics are a set of systems and standards to identify how well you get your product or service to the client. Does the process flow smoothly from order to delivery with the end result of your customers receiving what they expected? When they do, that is a perfect order. The better your perfect order percentage, the better your profits and return on assets. How you measure your perfect orders becomes your perfect order metric.

The Standards
The Warehouse Education and Research Council (WERC) defines the four components of a perfect order as:

As a MobileDemand authorized partner, Barcoding will sell the xTablet T7000, T8700 and C1200 rugged mobile computers and accessories along with its own integration and other professional support services.

Whether it be a natural disaster, a large public event, or a military operation the need for a mobile command post is nearly universal within the public safety and military sectors.  Frequently a dedicated building or truck is either not available or not feasible due to limited resources.  What 21st century technology has afforded is the ability to enhance basic communications with mission-critical computing and offer true mobility in a command post via the tablet PC.  

A tablet PC mobile command post can offer today's emergency response personnel with fully distributed peer-to-peer framework that allows collaboration between responders.  Such vital information as the locations and current status of critical resources, orientating multiple agencies and response scenarios on digital maps, and real time field condition information can make an incident commander much more effective.  Tracking assets such as generators, construction equipment, and even personnel can also be accomplished utilizing rugged tablet PC technology while allowing responders to do their jobs and save lives.

From a military perspective a ruggedized tablet PC can offer the added mobility and versatility of allowing field personnel the complex computing functionality previously only available at forward operations hubs.  Much like their civilian counterparts, this allows real-time secure data communication to be exchanged between personnel and commanding officers.  Additionally, medical information can be shared with field medics to enhance treatment of soldiers.  Improvements for military applications also include:

More than ever, a transportation management system (TMS) can be operated with software to generate significant cost savings. The appeal of this solution has been significantly boosted by the advent of hosted software licensing and innovative hardware such as ruggedized tablet PCs.

On January 24^th through 26^th, the utility industry’s leading smart grid conference and expo, DistribuTECH, will take place in the Henry B. Gonzalez Convention Center in San Antonio, Texas. This event will showcase products and services in the areas of automation and control systems, energy efficiency, demand response, renewable energy integration, advanced metering, T&D system operation and reliability, power delivery equipment and water utility technology.

It used to be that the only tablets found at a lumberyard were for heartburn, and scanners were used solely to take care of mounds of paperwork. That's not so any more at Sanford & Hawley.

Connecticut based lumberyard Sanford & Hawley recently implemented a rugged tablet PC systems to serve as a point-of-sale device at their Unionville location. The tablet PCs allow for the customer to be in and out of the lumberyard quicker and have their items for purchase processed more accurately and efficiently.