Wearable Computers How Can Wearable

Wearable Computers

How can wearable computers improve the efficiency of logistics?

Across both services and manufacturing industry sectors, the use of wearable computers to improve logistics at the Distribution Center (DC) level and further across an entire supply chain shows significant potential. Starting at the services level, specifically in the area of air and sea cargo, freight forwarding and third-party logistics providers (3PLs) the use of wearable computers for scanning both bar codes and getting a more accurate read of Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) tags is critical. Of these two automated marking technologies, bar codes are by far the most mature and proven, while RFID is being piloted by retailers including Wal-Mart and actively used by freight services companies including FedEx and UPS according to Weston and Garf (1). What has been a major limitation of RFID specifically in the services arena are the relatively low levels of accuracy when it comes to getting an actual read on the RFID chip itself. Wearable computers could overcome this issue quickly by having the RFID sensors' data collected as warehouse workers walked through a warehouse.

In the freight services area wearable computers are actively used today by both FedEx and UPS employees to scan and route packages in real-time. Wearable computers with the ability to transmit and receive information on packages could take the efficiency of these customer service representatives to a new level of responsiveness by providing real-time feedback on if a given package is part of a larger shipment, and what specifically needs to be done with the package being tagged and loaded at that moment. The ability to create a more responsive level of service at the support representative level is also possible when wearable computers are used. The ability to quickly answer customer queries in real-time would be possible with wearable computers with WiFi access. Today many of the wearable computers used specifically in the freight and forwarding industries are for initiating package tagging and shipment. The ability to query and find the status of an entire set of package would deliver an entirely new level of service at the individual employee level, which in turn would result in greater levels of customer satisfaction.

In terms of the manufacturing industries, wearable computers could revolutionize many sourcing, incoming inspection, production scheduling, manufacturing, and fulfillment and service functions. In short the entire value chain of how and when products are sourcing and used in production to the finished product being shipped and serviced could be revolutionized through the use of wearable computers. Beginning with incoming product inspection, quality assurance specialists and managers could scan products and then complete a statistical sampling, checking their quality according to Aimi (1).

Wearable computers could complete the audit analysis and failure mode testing, especially in the case of electronic products, within minutes. There would be no need to take the components into another department, or worse, another building, and unpack then analyze them. Instead, the entire quality assurance and incoming inspection process could be done in a matter of minutes instead of days, all completed in the incoming product area.

As products are moved from incoming inspection to initial assembly in the manufacturing area for creation of subassemblies eventually used to create the final product, wearable computers could test components working together to see if they are functioning correctly, in an integrated subassembly. Of all industries of manufacturing where this would be of the most benefit, discrete and high tech manufacturing when specifically get the most value from this use of wearable computers. The next step in the production process of actual assembly of the final product, wearable computers can communicate available inventory in real-time, alleviating the need for reporting inventory in a batch-oriented status once a month. This is one of the more fascinating areas of the use of wearable computers in the manufacturing industry, as there is always the need to keep customers informed of their orders, especially for those products that are custom made. Consider the implications of wearable computers being able to give a customer the status on over 1,000 PCs being built to be rolled out through their retail locations. As any roll-out of new technology takes a high level of collaboration and synchronization across an enterprise, having the most critical information of all - when the systems will be ready for configuring and shipping to the 1,000 sites they have been built for - is critical. From a logistics standpoint the coordination of all the other systems, processes, support staffs and delivery services to get the 1,000 systems delivered and installed in 1,000 different store locations, for example, would only be possible with the level of immediate information captured, analyzed and delivered with wearable computers. In this context of major new systems rollout the use of wearable computers could spell the difference between meeting the deadlines for producing the systems in the first place, and most critically, making sure the delivery providers get enough notice to have their trucks at the manufacturing center to deliver the systems in time. The entire logistics process of creating these systems, coordinating with the transportation companies to get them delivered, and synchronizing with services companies to get them installed and up in running, is all made more accurate and efficient using wearable computers. The real-time access to information that wearable computers could provide throughout this major project workflow would spell the difference between deadlines being met or not and the systems being installed and up and running.