Enzo Capobianco, strategic & HGR marketing manager, EMEAI, Honeywell Scanning and Mobility details on enhancing the supply chain by using the right equipment |
The challenges within the manufacturing industry are obvious:Increase production of the same or improve products at a low cost. But the key question is how? The answer lies in information. In order to improve your manufacturing process you need to understand theen tire supply chain.
To improve efficiency, manufacturers need to increase the levels of transparency and visibility. This can be done by feeding existing business intelligence tools with accurate real time data,captured at the point of interaction. Seconding, Capobianco asserts, “This creates a collaborative model where suppliers have advance information for their product forecasting and the manufacturer can plan the production process with accurate data from suppliers. Key areas like material management,production management and production workflow provide huge amounts of data that can then be analysed to improve efficiency.”
Creating this collaborative model requires companies to think beyond the fixed workstation. With employees constantly on the move, they need the right tools for the job in order to achieve optimum efficiency.Automatic data collection devices provide accurate, precise information on what is happening and where. Mobile devices allow users to collect information through means such as scanning without having to move the product directly in front of there ader.
The data collected at the point of interaction then records the placement of the product and the location of the worker to the system. For example, if a worker uses a mobile device to locate products within the warehouse, with the device, the worker can confirm they are in the right location by scanning a label.
“Also, another label attached to the boxes lets the worker know that they can pick 9 SKU’s rather than 10 due to an error in inventory or in warehouse mapping, for example,” informs Capobianco. The system will recognise this error and give the worker a new location to pick the one remaining SKU. “In the same warehouse another worker can report a damaged package found in another location. All of these processes can be done using voice, leaving the worker hands free for picking products or driving a forklift.”
The information captured from mobile devices within the warehouse provides accurate data to business intelligence applications to help with materials management such as forecasting and planning,procurement, purchase ordering, goods reception, material handling and billing.
The data also assists decisions made within production workflow, work order assign nation, material management, identification and workflow status.Capobianco agrees, “By using the data collected from the warehouse, managers are able to see if the results are correct and see the workflow status in green lights. The data can also be used to flag areas that need further action. It is collected,analysed and the managers will decide if the point of interaction is okay to carry on operations. This is the key to product andprocess planning.”
The device used depends on the work environment too. “Light weight, ergonomic portable devices with integrated scanning capabilities and powered by battery is the key for industries such as healthcare,” suggests Capobianco.Devices with full screens ready to be mounted on a forklift powered by gas of electrical source work would be more suited for warehouses and other rugged industries.
“Again this depends on the type of industry, the degree of freedom needed,distance to product, read and write capabilities. Managers can choose from scanning a bar code, read and write through Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) or send/receive voice instructions. Usually a combination of several solutions gives the most effective results,” he says.
When goods arrive at the warehouse,picked for manufacturing, mounted for finished product lines and everything in between they are tracked. “This continuous stream of data collected allows managers complete visibility across the entire supply chain. It also gives the manager the opportunity to share this information with the customer,” asserts Capobianco.The benefits of using mobile devices,however, are only possible when the devices are connected online with ERP or MRP so that the data can be sent/received.
This gives online access to the workers to interact with each other, but what about interacting with products or the devices/machines interacting alone? Capobianco answers, “The future will bring more interaction, more communication between workers and devices. By using RFID tags on the products the data captured is automatically uploaded into the supply chain. MRP can make decisions based on this fact, for instance, push forward an urgent work order to manufacturing,assign a team to this task and communicate to the customer when the order is scheduled to be shipped.