Looking for ways to make your team more productive without incurring more costs? You’re not alone: 70% of manufacturers are feeling the pressure to cut costs and improve productivity, even while 83% report that increasing operational complexity is making that task more difficult than ever.
Today’s fastest-growing manufacturing and warehousing organizations rely on cutting-edge mobility technology to keep pace with market demands. Even if your organization doesn’t live on the bleeding edge, mobile technology is critical to increase production and reduce errors.
Unfortunately, finding time to assess your mobility strategy can be difficult. That’s why Zebra created the Mobility Use Case Asset Inventory. The Asset Inventory is a simple PDF worksheet designed to help you record how your team uses mobile devices and assess the impact each device has on your business.
Microsoft has announced their plan to end service for several of their widely-used mobile operating systems. Here’s the timeline:
What about Windows 10 Mobile, the versatile OS that supports ruggedized mobile devices for many organizations? Since Windows 10 follows the Windows as a Service lifecycle, it depends on the version of your device. That means your devices may end support on 1/9/2018, or may be supported until 12/10/2019.
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When it comes to field service, ensuring ROI is no easy task. Outside of your building, unpredictable factors like traffic, weather, and unfamiliar locations make it more difficult to feel certain that you’ve chosen the right strategy.
Fortunately, there are things you can do to improve your confidence in your field mobility strategy. Zebra’s blog highlights three driving forces behind effective field mobility strategy. By familiarizing yourself with these important principles, you ensure that your technology investment meets the needs of your field service team and empowers them to serve your customers and perform effectively.
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Technologies like barcode scanners, RFID tags, and other data collection tools are increasingly deployed in factories and warehouses around the world. As it turns out, taking these technologies outside the four walls of your facility can help your business too.
With more than 7 of every ten field service workers expected to use mobile technology devices by 2018[i], the power of these systems isn’t a secret anymore. More and more organizations are realizing the power of data collection technology to help their field service workflow run smoothly. So can you.
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Where will your warehousing operation be in five years? Research suggests that the answer to that question depends on how well your team is able to accomplish three important goals:
The last of these is perhaps the most important. Improving your inventory accuracy, even by only 1%, has tremendous business impact, influencing your pick-to-ship cycle time and reducing the money you spend on expediting orders.
These essential goals are challenged by the fact that warehousing operations are expected to grow in complexity over the next five years, with an average increase of 60% in SKUS expected by 2020.
When these questions are successfully answered, the results are tremendous. Fast, efficient pick/pack functions delight customers (which leads to more sales) and save money for the whole company.
As Zebra’s recent blog explains, if you’re a tier 2 automotive supplier, you are expected to walk a tightrope. Your customers demand just-in-time delivery without sacrificing consistency, traceability, or packaging/labeling standards. Anything less than that, and you’re going to run into chargebacks and other penalties.
More value, less waste. The goal of lean manufacturing is simple, but the process of getting there can be complex. In this blog, we’ll take a look at the helpful principles of lean thinking and highlight a few rising data collection technologies that manufacturers are using to put them into practice.
For the automotive industry, the latest reports reveal a profusion of new consumer demands: automated driving, fuel efficiency, and custom-built vehicles, to name a few. For manufacturers, these trends demand new technologies, new processes, and new capabilities.
As the industry revolution rolls on, manufacturers with the ability to collect, analyze, and apply data will find themselves flourishing. Without data-driven insights, manufacturers will struggle to find the right path to take operations to the next level.
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