Wearable technology for warehousing

October 31, 2019 iWMS Australasia

“Supply chain operations are under pressure to adopt new business models and technologies to excel in an increasingly complex and volatile world.

Supply chain leaders must identify where to innovate and invest in new processes and technologies to help their companies remain relevant in their markets.” - C. Dwight Klappich, Vice President Analyst - Gartner

In today’s fast-paced world, paper-based processes are simply not keeping up with consumers’ expectations. In order to remain competitive, you need to take a holistic approach to optimising your operations. The key is to select the right innovations that will fulfil your business’ needs.

Technology is the greatest change agent around. Consider how integrated your life is with technology through smart TVs, phones and watches or virtual assistants. You probably use wearable and voice-activated devices every day without thinking anything of it (hey Siri and Alexa!).

Unsurprisingly, wearable technology is becoming increasingly sophisticated and expanding its applications to a variety of industries. For supply chain, this technology has the potential of creating greater efficiency and inter-connectivity while reducing the risks associated with human error.

Driving accuracy, efficiency and productivity

Access to information is the driving force of business today. Wearable devices help users to capture information more accurately by allowing workers to focus on high-level tasks, instead of manual data entry. This information is interpreted and used by a Warehouse Management System (WMS - more about this later) to detect and report on errors, anomalies and inefficiencies. The result is your company’s ability to promptly locate the source of quality issues and efficiently respond to them.

Wearables will also allow you to monitor employee’ performance. You can measure workers' pace and efficiency and capture errors. This will help you acknowledge and reward outstanding performance as well as offer training where skill gaps exist. Likewise, wearable technology will provide workers with immediate access to the information they need to make better decisions driving higher productivity.

Finally, faster fulfilment and higher accuracy mean a significant reduction of costly shipping delays, backorders and returns that jeopardize valuable customer relationships.

Available types of wearables

Voice Recognition

Voice recognition is the ability of a machine or program to receive and interpret spoken language. In a warehousing context, it creates a direct dialogue between the WMS and floor staff through plain language commands.

Voice technology uses a small wireless mobile device to deliver spoken instructions to users through a headset and captures their responses using a microphone. This eliminates the need for floor staff to constantly stop, look at an RF unit screen and key in information. By allowing floor staff access to the information needed to drive key processes hands-free, eyes-free, and wirelessly, this technology can greatly increase productivity.

The device is effective in even the noisiest of environments, and can tune out forklift beeps, pallet drops, freezer fans, and other miscellaneous noises, ensuring your workers have a flawless user experience.

While it was initially created to optimize picking, the success of the solution has resulted in a growing number of use cases including receiving, put-away, replenishment, cycle counting, produce traceability and more.

Smart Glasses

Smart glasses also give users access to real-time information, while freeing them completely from handheld RF devices. They provide visual and voice cues to guide workers and have navigation features that can sense the worker’s positioning in the warehouse.

Essentially, there is a visual display of order information and target location that ensures complete error-free picking. This improves productivity, accuracy and leads to a faster fulfilment rate. It automatically tracks lots and serial numbers continuously enhancing quality control. Image capturing ensures accuracy, so users don’t need to take any additional steps.

Additionally, vision picking is easy to learn and operate, thus it can significantly reduce employee on-boarding time.

Fitness bands

The pedometer technology in the fitness bands can measure efficiency and ergonomics by tracking the steps required to execute particular operations. This data can then be used in simulation software to further optimize the storage locations of tools and parts in order to minimize movement, similar to how you once videotaped changeovers to reduce setup times.

The GPS functionality in these devices may prove increasingly useful from a safety point of view as location-based applications can automatically shut down robots or machines when employees are in danger. For example, stopping a forklift that is rounding a blind corner.

Managers can also use these devices to measure and monitor the health of their workers. Employee biometrics can help with identifying processes that cause excessive exertion or predict and prevent possible injuries.

Smart Watches

Smart watches allow managers to access real-time information and track key performance indicators without interrupting important board meetings. They can also view and respond to critical emails or messages regardless of whether they are in the office.

Warehouse control systems can be programmed into a smartwatch to boost productivity and support data capture and analytics.

Additionally, some smart watches can display product information and read QR and barcodes improving efficiency, productivity and work ergonomics.

Glove or ring scanners

Hand mounted, ergonomic scanning is useful for mobile workers that need to scan barcodes while also keeping both hands free – for example, to scan and move boxes in the warehouse. Most devices available are in the form of a glove or ring with a mounted support for a small barcode scanner.

Exoskeletons

Exoskeletons provide back support to help reduce the physical strain of heavy lifting. It’s designed to transfer the energy of the wearer’s movement more effectively using carbon-fibre trusses and motors. Workers can manipulate heavy objects using a fraction of the typical energy.

Conclusion

Today’s consumer has ever-higher expectations for purchasing convenience, delivery speed, choice and adaptability. More options for consumers spell greater complexity for the supply chain. Consequently, managers are tasked with keeping up with the technologies that are reinventing the industry.

Wearable technologies are driving efficiency and productivity in the supply chain by leveraging the power of IoT. Research firm Tractica forecasted that 430 million wearables should permeate the workplace by 2022.

Wearable devices can serve as staff augmenting tools increasing accuracy, speed and productivity in a range of task-driven processes. It also has the potential to significantly enhance health and safety through the continuous measurement of employees’ key biometrics.

However, without the right solution to make sense of it, all the data your employees are inputting is useless.

Warehouse Management System

A warehouse management system (WMS) is a software solution designed to automate and enhance operational processes. It offers the ability to visualize, manage and report on inventory in real-time across all channels. The WMS also helps you manage and analyse large volumes of data. Therefore, this solution will allow you to reap all of the benefits your wearables offer!

iWMS Australasia utilizes HighJump technology, a solution that can be scaled and tailored to meet any business needs. The core software architecture can be easily adapted in a fraction of the time of conventional systems, and at a fraction of the cost! And because all changes are external to the core software, upgrades and support are not compromised. This guarantees low total cost of system ownership.