The factory floor’s handheld future

As industries go, manufacturing tends not to be an early adopter of emerging technologies, retailing and financial services are usually quicker off the mark, for instance. It's not difficult to see why, of course. With their eyes firmly focused on the bottom line, and being naturally conservative, manufacturing industry's IT directors prefer to let others blaze the trail, only shelling out on new technologies when the bugs have been fully understood and ironed out. But there's one area where the manufacturing industry seems to be ahead of the pack, observes Jonathan Orme, sales and marketing manager at Exel Computer Systems, the company behind the popular EFACS E/8 ERP system – namely, the rollout of handheld devices and portable terminals to operatives on the factory floor. "The companies that we see doing this are getting huge benefits," notes Orme. "Quite simply, it delivers a huge boost to the quality of the data that they can give to, and get from, the factory floor." In one sense, he explains, it's the continuation of a trend that began over 30 years ago, when RS-232 Teletype and LA36 Decwriters began to appear in supervisors' offices and at data entry points, replacing physical job cards that formerly had to be taken back to the safe and controlled environment of production control offices, for batch-mode data-entry on a daily or weekly basis. "Real time data entry, direct from the factory floor, was a huge step forward, and a real 'game-changer'," explains Orme. "That was the revolution: ruggedised PCs, fixed-point touch screens and SCADA terminals provided a more robust form factor, but the technology, and the benefits it delivered, was pretty much the same. And of course, so were the limitations." Chief among which, of course, was that fixed-point data-entry devices are hardwired into the network: operators have to physically move to them in order to update the ERP system with jobs that have been completed, and receive instructions for new jobs to undertake. Hence the attraction of issuing operators with their own low-cost mobile devices, which eliminated the need to travel to a terminal, and possibly queue for access on arrival. "Clearly, a low-cost mobile device offers an immediate improvement in productivity: there's no time wasted in moving to the terminal, as the terminal is always with the operator," says Orme. "But while that might be the most easily quantified part of the ROI, it's almost certainly not the most significant part of the ROI." And for that, he explains, you have to look at what's actually been happening in terms of mobile device adoption. Simply put, manufacturers have been moving away from specialised devices intended for an industrial environment, and have instead been rolling out low-cost tablet computers – tablets and smartphones powered by Android, iOS, and Windows. "Once you give people portable devices with high-resolution screens, and devices with cameras, the art of the possible changes enormously," stresses Orme. "The focus moves from simple data entry to a much more two-way, multimedia style of interaction. The power is incredible, once you see it in action, and the benefits extend far beyond just operator productivity." In terms of getting multimedia content to the factory floor, for instance, it becomes possible to serve drawings, photographs and other documents to operators, aiding them in their work and helping to ensure quality standards are met. Standard operating instructions and 'how to' documentation can be brought to life with sound and video, rather than being pure text, or text with static photography. And that rich multimedia content can also travel from the factory floor, emphasises Orme. It becomes possible for operators to photograph quality issues or damage, for example, and upload the images to quality and other relevant systems. Barcodes can be read, helping to perform cycle counting and perpetual inventory processes, as well as providing highly granular insights into works order progress. And video of production problems can be captured in real time, as those problems occur, helping to inform continuous improvement and Six Sigma activities. That said, he adds, there's more to it than simply issuing employees with low-cost mobile devices: the business's enterprise systems need to be capable of both serving and receiving rich data from mobile devices. Exel itself, notes Orme, has invested in building and extending specific modules so as to best leverage the potential of mobile devices on the factory floor. "In those factories where our customers have really embraced the power of these low-cost mobile devices, there's been a real transformation in the granularity of the information flowing to and from the factory floor," he says. "It's really opened people's eyes as to the art of the possible, and the push now is to extend this same flow of information into other areas of the business." Mirroring a broader society trend And here, he adds, what's happening on factory floors is mirroring a broader trend within society generally. "As consumers, people are expecting far more information, and that's being reflected in the world of business. Our customers tell us that they are being pushed to provide ever more information, through websites, portals and other electronic business-to-business communications media. And the power of mobile devices on the factory floor is that they act as the 'eyes' of the business, helping to populate that information flow with up-to-the minute data."