Don’t Overlook the Condition of Handhelds

By monitoring your smaller devices, you have an opportunity to boost productivity.
Although there is significant automation available to the warehousing environment—and as much good as it can do—the reality is that most warehouse materials handling operations remain largely manual. It is estimated that 80 percent of warehouses often work in a largely manual approach, usually augmented by wearable computing, such as tablets, scanners, printers, and handheld/mobile computers. As of today, it is estimated only about 15 percent are automated warehouses.
With larger physical types of automation, such as conveyors or robotics, it’s common to rely on condition monitoring for electromechanical components. Condition monitoring can cut trouble off at the pass by measuring vibrations and temperatures, among other things. So, what about all those handheld devices in manual warehouses?
Handheld devices are also sophisticated and efficient forms of technology, however, are often overlooked when it comes to condition monitoring programs. When compared with materials handling automation, handheld devices perform different functions together with human users and thereby present unique condition monitoring opportunities. Handheld devices are small and easily lost or damaged. Their lifecycle is shorter than large automation and handheld device functionality depends on the latest software, connectivity, and reliable portable power.
So how can you mitigate the costs associated with your handheld devices? It comes down to your IT department monitoring a variety of enterprise asset metrics. Such metrics include battery usage, lost devices, connectivity, device resource utilization, and ensuring current updates are pushed through. Specific to handheld devices, condition monitoring can extend asset life, avoid unplanned downtime, and maintain productivity levels.
Proper condition monitoring programs are particularly impactful to large operations, where handheld devices are prevalent throughout the floor. For example, employees may often accidentally take the devices home, drop them and damage them, or even accidentally ship them. Up to 10 percent of a population of devices may be misplaced annually, but with condition monitoring, lost devices can be tracked and recovered. Condition monitoring solutions for handheld devices could be configured to notify employees of lost devices, display instructions to return them, or help use last known location and audible alarms to locate devices.
IT departments can also monitor weak spots in connectivity throughout the facility and look for ways to improve them. Condition monitoring helps to prevent interruptions to communications. Additionally, IT can keep a close watch on battery life. In some cases, devices batteries might not be healthy enough to make it through a shift. Condition Monitoring can prompt employees to proactively provide replacements.
Condition Monitoring can also provide insights and reporting of handheld device resources. IT teams using a condition monitoring solution can identify and prioritize underperforming devices or locate symptoms of software/application errors. As a result of condition monitoring, in some instances, IT could achieve up to 25 percent greater efficiency in their troubleshooting processes.
An unexpected advantage of condition monitoring for handheld devices is that you might also gain insights about employee health, safety, & productivity. Handheld devices are closest to the user. This proximity allows for collective performance benchmarks from teams, thereby enabling analysis of task progress and detect errors to unlock labor efficiencies. Handheld devices could be triggered or used for urgent communications in the event of any sudden impact or drop of the user’s assigned device.
Handheld devices are intelligent and provide many opportunities for condition monitoring. Use to your advantage to better improve continuity of service and yield fewer lost or damaged devices.
For more information about the Solutions Community: mhi.org/solutionscommunity
For further articles from the Solutions Community:
Integrating New Automation- Part 1
Implementing a Warehouse Control System (WCS)
Is it the Right Time to Automate Your DC?
Condition Monitoring is Expanding
Warehouse Execution Software Implementation