When searching for ways to reduce costs and improve efficiencies in the supply and distribution chains, many warehouses look to new hardware, software, and processes. But there’s a lot to be said for taking a second look at the labels that you use. A label is pretty much affixed to and used on everything that comes in and out of a warehouse. So poorly designed labels or the processes involving creating them can lead to bottlenecks or inefficiencies.

Fortunately, tech has entered the label arena, and Zebra Technologies has a multitude of solutions for warehouse environments and processes. Here is how your warehouse can leverage Zebra Technology solutions to maximize labeling accuracy and help you gain efficiencies in your warehouse operations.

This week we’d like to dive into some industry data from the annual “Industry Outlook Report” that is published every year by Logistics Management and Modern Materials Handling. It’s a comprehensive survey of decision makers with purchasing authority for materiel handling solutions, and it’s often a useful way to validate some of the trends and challenges we see in our own client base as well as learn about others that may have been out of our purview.

Defining “Modernization”

Modernization is, to pardon the pun, a somewhat old phrase. Derived from French in about 1770, there really is nothing new about it! In your professional experience, you might be thinking you’ve been modernizing for your entire career. But in the context of modern logistics and DC processes, it refers to a specific “trend,” if you will, of not just updating specific systems with new equipment and software, but a more significant step of evolving from a set of legacy technologies to an entirely new type of system.

Our March to The Fully Mobile Workplace

“Mobile” is a ubiquitous word in our society today, driven mainly by the advancements in digital technology that gave us our smartphones (formerly known as “mobile phones”) as well as many new advancements in business and the world of commerce.

While we have focused on our expertise and solutions in RFID, “mobile” infers a long list of things that are now deployed in distribution centers, including but not limited to:

These days, it seems like technology is permeating all aspects of our daily lives. Nowhere is this more evident than with mobile devices. Twenty years ago, it would have seemed impossible to do things remotely such as take credit cards, enter customer information, and process payments without being connected to a hard line. However, even with the abundance of consumer-grade technology in this area, it’s still important for companies to operate with higher quality gear.