Auto ID & Data Capture

In today’s distribution centers, forklifts are becoming sophisticated information technology hubs.

Five crucial questions to ask and answer as you prepare your industrial environments to take full advantage of today’s rapidly expanding wireless communications opportunities.

How does your IT team today determine your company’s current industrial wireless system needs and assess whether they are being met? When was the last time the wireless network at your industrial sites was upgraded or refreshed – does it lag behind the deployment of new mobile devices or applications?

With suppliers jumping on the RFID bandwagon and more deployments looming on the horizon, the future of RFID remains promising. Here are the market drivers that continue to push ADC/RFID adoption and examples of facilities that are putting it to work.

Sales associates in Lord & Taylor's flagship New York Fifth Avenue store now use RFID to automatically improve display sample inventory processes and visibility, and can attribute a 4% increase in sales to more complete floor displays.

The RFID chatter is getting louder. After conducting successful pilots of item-level RFID initiatives, Walmart, then American Apparel, and now Macy’s, Bloomingdales, Dillards and JCPenney have all announced plans to roll out EPC (electronic product code)-enabled, RFID technology at the item level in their stores this year.

Last year, the market for data capture solutions used in factories, warehouses and logistics applications notched $11.066 billion in sales, according to Massachusetts-based VDC Research Group. While that’s a modest increase over 2010’s estimate of $10.6 billion, the outlook going forward is positive, even in a choppy economy, according to Michael Liard, VDC’s vice president of AutoID.

Lord & Taylor faced an all-too-common retail problem: you can’t sell what you don’t show. In the fast-changing, high-turnover arena of fashion, hot items fly off the shelves – and unless the display floor is quickly and properly stocked, the next potential sales opportunity can fly away, too.

American Apparel was looking for a smarter way to meet their goals and, from what they had learned, item-level RFID looked like precisely the solution they wanted. Given the control the company has over its own manufacturing, distribution and retail operations, the plan was to reap the benefits of RFID not only on the retail floor, but throughout its closed loop supply chain.

Zebra’s WhereNet provided Associated Food Stores (AFS) with wireless, real-time applications for optimizing, locating, tracking, and managing assets across its 600-plus acre distribution center in Farr West, Utah.

At its main manufacturing facility in Eldersburg, Maryland, London Fog faced the challenge of upgrading its inventory and shipping/receiving hardware and applications to accommodate greater wireless flexibility and allow for future technology developments.

Cognex vision technology helps companies improve their manufacturing quality and performance by eliminating defects, verifying assembly and tracking and capturing information at every stage of the production process.

Cognex has added two new models to the DataMan® 50 series of compact barcode readers and a new DataMan 60 series with three models that offer Ethernet connectivity. These new products round out Cognex’s line of high-performance, low-cost barcode reading applications typically handled by single-line or raster laser scanners.

This Expert Guide, we will help you understand the difference between grayscale and color vision technology, which applications are best solved with color vision systems and which types of color tools are used for which applications.

See how Android Industries, a sub-assembler and sequencer of complex modules for automotive OEMs, uses Honeywell's VX8 and VX9 computers and Zebra's Material Flow Replenishment Solution to be more competitive and to eliminate safety concerns on its factory floors.

Having a professional site survey performed is the first step, and is possibly the most critical. It truly is the foundation of an entire system, and this is the step that is most frequently overlooked. In this White Paper we cover the 3 major steps necessary for optimum performance from a wireless network.

Honeywell Scanning & Mobility introduces the Dolphin 70e Black. Sporting sublime styling and engineered to survive, this new enterprise hybrid device brings peace to the dissenters - and productivity to your bottom line.

Datalogic means business with launch of cutting edge new Website with a single route into the company’s plethora of business solutions for the Automatic Identification industry and its markets.

Supply Chain Services is a full service provider of barcode data collection solutions. Supply Chain Services delivers barcode scanning and barcode printing equipment, as well as support services to warehousing, manufacturing, and distribution organizations.

American Apparel tested and deployed an item level RFID-based system that allowed store managers to track the movement of clothing items from ASN receiving, to back room put away, through restock staging and retail sales floor cycle counts and on to the point-of-sale execution. By leveraging this advanced RFID solution from Xterprise, American Apparel reduced both labor costs and out-of-stocks, while driving improve sales and same-store performance.