As much as I love success stories, this one offers a twist I should have seen coming a mile away.
Zebra Technologies is an industry leader in Real-Time Locating Systems (RTLS), but what is an industry leader to do when faced with its own RTLS challenges? Zebra operates a 72,000-square foot distribution facility in Vernon Hills, Illinois, from which it processes orders for more than 16,000 products per day, serving customers throughout both North America and Latin America and facing the same logistical challenges its customers buy Zebra products to solve. It was a case of “Physician, heal thyself,” and “Which came first, the chicken or the egg?” all rolled into one mind-bending conundrum!
Zebra’s refinement of its operations was aided by the deployment of Oracle to connect disparate stand-alone systems and better identify operational efficiencies, but what was still lacking was real-time visibility of actions within the warehouse. Deficiency revealed itself most clearly when consolidating multiple items picked from various areas of the warehouse to fill a single order.
The warehouse was already equipped with Zebra’s WhereNet ISO/24730-2 and Ultra-Wideband (UWB) infrastructure, so Zebra also added its WhereCall call and messaging tags to facilitate the special handling required in its reconfiguration and kitting staging areas. When a completed order is ready for shipment, the system notifies the appropriate material handlers via a pager. If the order isn’t cleared within a predetermined time, an escalation message is sent to a supervisor to ensure prompt response. Once the item is delivered for shipping, the material handler simply turns the WhereCall tag off.it deployed its Dart UWB RTLS hardware and Visibility Server software, assigning a DartTag to each order and placing that tag in a strategic staging area specified by Oracle. The various pickers assigned to filling an order are now directed to deliver their items to the assigned staging areas by large stationary monitors or by handheld devices. When the pending order is complete, the DartTag is sent to the zone assigned to the next order, and the process is repeated. Because the system identifies the location of the DartTag to within one foot, no steps are wasted hunting for it.
The components of Zebra’s Vernon Hills RTLS solution include its: Zebra’s deployment of its own RTLS solutions has resulted in a 40% reduction in the space required to process orders, greatly increasing the capacity of the warehouse. The new dynamic staging system has not only expedited processing of customer orders, it has also saved more than 400man hours per month within the warehouse operation. If knowing where things are can save 400 man hours of steps per month in Zebra’s own Vernon Hills warehouse, what can its RTLS solutions do for you?
More information on the project, including a short video, is available in the report, Zebra Expedites Orders with Its Own Real-Time Locating Technology.