Zebra Technologies yesterday announced its new WMS (warehouse management system) offering, which increases worker productivity by 24% by enabling a single worker simultaneously picks multiple orders, allowing businesses to dramatically increase order fulfillment times.
Called FulfillmentEdge, the new solution transforms existing WMS by enabling real-time dynamic workflows and routing mobile workers for picking, packing and put-away — without costly and risky upgrades or backend changes.
“The on-demand economy is placing pressure on warehouse operations to quickly fulfill more orders than ever before, requiring a highly productive and efficient workforce,” said Joe White, senior vice president of Enterprise Mobile Computing, Zebra Technologies.
FulfillmentEdge integrates existing real-time WMS data with real-time location information, providing visibility into the location of workers, inventory and material handling assets. The solution then analyses the information and creates real-time workflows delivered as electronic tasks that can contain visual directions to the next pick location and photos of the item to ensure picking accuracy.
Zebra Technologies is optimistic that the new solutions caters to an urgent market demand.
According to the company’s recent 2024 Warehousing Vision Study, IT and operational decision makers are already taking steps to upgrade their facilities and WMS platforms. Findings show that 54% of surveyed organisations plan to implement full-featured WMS and mobile worker execution systems by 2024.
Upgrading wearables
Together with the new WMS offer, Zebra Technologies also introduced the new single-finger RS5100 wireless ring scanner, providing mobile workers with an ultra-light hands-free scanning option for increased productivity in industrial environments.
The rugged, single-finger RS5100 Bluetooth ring scanner improves worker productivity by freeing up workers’ hands for inventory management, picking, packing and sorting applications in industrial environments.
Zebra Technologies’ smallest and lightest ring scanner offers a long battery life and features a single-sided- or double-trigger to enable workers to use gloves or bare hands for all-day comfort. It also supports NFC tap-to-pair with most Zebra enterprise-class Bluetooth-enabled mobile devices and offers high-performance 1D/2D omnidirectional scanning to maximize worker productivity.
The company is similarly confident that this new wearable will find its niche in companies’ WMS solution pipeline based on the 2024 Warehousing Vision Study. The study showed that 62% of companies plan to add or upgrade to wearable computers, such as smart watches, smart glasses or hip-mounted devices.
Zebra Technologies’ first enterprise-class, head-mounted display is lightweight for hands-free and heads-up, directed-action workflows that increase task efficiency and accuracy by overlaying contextual information such as shelf location and layout, pick quantity, remaining picks and bin sorting information within each worker’s field of vision.
The rugged, monocular HD4000 head-mounted display is an optional accessory for select mobile computers capable of running the FulfillmentEdge solution. It tethers via USB, providing all-day power and increased productivity to warehouse, manufacturing and field service workers who can benefit from hands-free, directed-action workflows.
“Our intuitive FulfillmentEdge software and optional HD4000 head-mounted display provide mobile workers with clear, step-by-step instructions that reduce training time by 90% to allow near-instant onboarding while decision makers benefit from the real-time insights and analytics that enable better data-driven decisions,” said White.
