While Wi-Fi connectivity is generally ubiquitous throughout the workplace, our homes and even in most public spaces where we dine or travel, wireless technology evolved from warehouse and distribution centers. Given the origins of wireless networking, providing reliable wireless connectivity in this environment is not entirely mastered by many businesses in the same way it is in the front offices.

Large open facilities like warehouses, distribution centers and their adjacent yards pose specific challenges coming from the building materials, the distances (and height), interior equipment and infrastructure and the types of wireless devices in use.

Order fulfillment continues to become more efficient as warehouse automation technology evolves. Voice collection is one of the most recent technological advances to disrupt the order fulfillment status quo. Vocollect is a hands-free order fulfillment solution that tackles the problems traditionally encountered in complex order fulfillment to offer a simple, user-friendly solution. The result is a comprehensive lineup of organizational benefits across varying use case scenarios that increase profitability, employee retention, and customer satisfaction.

Coming out of Zebra’s annual kick-off meetings with Resellers, we wanted to share highlights of new products and product refreshes for 2019 spanning multiple verticals. As a Zebra reseller, we have insight into some of the year’s most anticipated applications in grocery, quick service restaurant, healthcare, warehousing, and manufacturing verticals.

Like most use case applications, there is an intention that aims to increase efficiency, reduce errors, and improve communications with an ever-evolving suite of products to meet today’s and tomorrow’s challenges. This year’s new handheld devices, printers, and other new technologies are components of increasingly innovative solutions.

Just as the holiday season got underway just over a month ago, NASA’s InSight Mars Lander became the latest successful attempt by we earthlings to explore our universe a bit more. The scenes of the landing and the operation of the Lander itself were inspiring. And the mission – dedicated to investigating the deep interior of Mars – is ambitious, even though just getting there may have seemed ambitious enough. But have you ever thought about one of the unsung hero details of this operation? There are actual LABELS on Mars now!

While it is easy for those of us in the industry to convey the impression that RFID has already taken over the world when it was (and of course, still IS) fighting its way into the mainstream of management visibility, it’s nice to see the evolution of the last decade finally get the attention of the boardroom with headlines like this:

We want to share this in case you are in the midst of a potential purchase or upgrade of Zebra equipment. In line with other manufacturers, there will be significant price increases for some products from January 7th, 2019, due in part to the onset of tariffs imposed by the United States on some Chinese manufactured products. 

IMPORTANT DEADLINE:

If you are planning to acquire more equipment including any of the items impacted below, please contact us today. Orders for 2019 generally need to placed no later than Monday, December 3rd, 2018.

How New Printer Technologies Will Expand Your Capabilities and Cut Costs

Even the best reader technology and tags won’t always let you see what’s going on in your facility. While “readability issues” was once a reason not to deploy RFID, there are not many areas left where this is still an issue that hasn’t been solved. Here are a few of the innovations that have changed the degree in which readability still factors as an issue.

A 2012 Report by the Institute of Medicine estimated that the US Healthcare system wastes approximately $750 BILLION per year. While the biggest part of that is “Unnecessary services,” other factors such as “Fraud,” “Inefficient Care Delivery” and “Excess Administrative Costs” are all equally alarming regarding the potential harm they could do to both individual patients and trust in the systems we rely on as well.

RFID has found its way into nearly every industry and every part of the supply chain. But common misperceptions about its extensibility continue to persist, as imaginations for its use have not kept pace with some of the capabilities and it's steadily decreasing the cost to implement. But as the cost and variety of tags get more diverse every day, so do the potential applications.