Supply chain systems need wireless tracking at their heart

“It doesn’t matter if you have the latest and greatest in ERP, or a stable legacy system: if you’re not using bar code scanners [and] print-on-demand labels, and collecting real time information via wireless systems, chances are your company is losing money. In the e-commerce world, your company will be losing business.” So says Girish Rishi, vice president of operations in EMEA at wireless and barcoding technologies company Symbol. Launching the firm’s latest initiative to highlight the value of its technology, Rishi says wireless is about to “snowball” as manufacturers get wise to this fact. “It will be similar to what happened in the in the retail industry a few years ago,” he says – and he cites recent Symbol contracts with Scots Distilleries, Dell Computers, Nestle, Ocean Spray and GM as examples of growing uptake. “GM says ‘anything that comes into our factories should have a standard barcode’ … that tells GM the supplier, who shipped it the bill of lading and so on,” he says. And he believes that as standards emerge and computing and communications technologies converge, adoption like this must grow rapidly. Certainly, it is happening by degrees. IEEE 802.11 is becoming the standard for wireless networking. Higher data rates up to 11Mbps offer increased throughput for shopfloor control, supervisory and other functions. As for wireless Internet appliances, mobile computers with voice (telephony) and data transaction capability now use industry standard networking protocols to interface with ERP systems and/or to the Internet. Recent products include wearable computers, palm-based rugged mobile form factor devices featuring wide area wireless communications – ideal for manufacturing and supply chain systems. And there are similar improvements in printing and identification technologies. “The benefits are already there,” he says – quoting from a recent report from analyst Gartner which states that firms that deploy ERP with automated data collection experience 50% faster ROI (return on investment). “The gains come from improvements in shipping/receiving accuracy, shopfloor controls, inventory management, quality and finished goods tracking.”