Courtesy: ThinkableStudios at flickr.com)
Wearable products are becoming the rage in consumer electronics. These devices include watches that measure heartbeat as the wearer jogs; devices that help parents track the location of their children or assist people with better posture, etc.
Wearables have been used for decades to assist warehouse personnel receive and pass on information. These devices include ring scanners, arm-mount gadgets, voice headsets, and terminals. As these gadgets have become common in the day-to-day operation they have also evolved to perform better and provide even more efficient operation. That is due to the increased use of Android operating systems. The software has made wearables more flexible and that is assisting with productivity.
Not only are the traditional devices evolving, new gadgets are being offered including smart glasses and smart watches. More and more workers involved in warehouse-related activity including picking, replenishing and packing are more productive because they don’t have to stop working to use the devices. Workflow continues.
ABI Research, a business analyst and consulting firm, with offices in New York, Arizona, and Texas in the United States and in the United Kingdom and Singapore, has performed a study on wearables and concluded that their use will grow at a 35% compound annual rate through 2021 and that 151 million units will be shipped in that year. That’s up from about 35 million units shipped this year.
The consulting firm also noted that warehousing and manufacturing will be two of the more important markets for wearables.
One company that is supplying smart glasses to warehouses is Vuzix. It has partnered with SAP, who has created a smart glass app called SAP AR Warehouse Picker specifically for warehouse applications. It is expected that the use of smart glasses in warehouse operations will boom once warehouse integration firms that make warehouse-related software also begin to create their own apps for
(Courtesy: Vuzix)
smart glasses.
The use of smart glasses in warehouses should also improve with the enhancement of real-time location technology including Bluetooth beacons. These devices communicate with gadgets that support Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE), such as smart glasses and wearable computers. Warehouses now use Wi-Fi to communicate.
One company that offers a viable alternative to Wi-Fi for communication purposes is Accuware. The company is offering a visual positioning system that finds mobile device locations in three dimensions. The technology uses bar codes or beacons as markers that a camera can read to reveal the location of wearables like smart glasses. Forklifts and mobile picking robots could use this technology as it improves.
It is evident that wearable technology continues to improve, which means more efficiency and productivity for warehouses in the not to distant future.