Sustainable Supply Chain

Digitising Warehouses And Supply Chains - A Chat With Zebra Technologies' James Pemberton

September 02, 2022 Tom Raftery / James Pemberton Season 1 Episode 250
Sustainable Supply Chain
Digitising Warehouses And Supply Chains - A Chat With Zebra Technologies' James Pemberton
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Show Notes Transcript

Supply chains are becoming more digital every day. Even warehouses, which have been slower to change are too becoming more digital, and more efficient as a result.

One of the companies helping in this space is Zebra Technologies. I invited James Pemberton from Zebra to come on the podcast to tell me more. 

We had a fascinating conversation covering barcodes vs RFID, how robots are becoming far more prevalent in warehouses, and the use of smart glasses/AR for picking operations, among other topics.

I learned loads, I hope you do too...

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James Pemberton:

In the warehouse environment, supply chain, we feel that sort of secondary display to augment the operation actually is most effective. And we found that really effective for the training part, as well. Users can just pick up and go with it. They can be up and running in, in 30 minutes, whereas training you on how to use a dedicated warehouse device out of the box can take days, literally like days as a comparison

Tom Raftery:

Good morning, good afternoon, or good evening, wherever you are in the world. This is the digital supply chain podcast. The number one podcast, focusing on the digitization of supply chain. And I'm your host global vice-president at SAP Tom Raftery. Hi, everyone. Welcome to the digital supply chain podcast. My name is Tom Raftery with SAP and with me on the show today, I have my special guest James. James, welcome to the podcast. Would you like to introduce yourself?

James Pemberton:

Thanks, Tom. It's great to be here. Yes, my name's James Pemberton. I'm based in the UK, but I'm part of the Zebra Technologies global channel organization. Which is based outta Chicago. And I'm very happy to be here and talk about our collaboration in the supply chain, particularly with SAP.

Tom Raftery:

Fantastic. And James, for people who might be unaware, can you give us some background on Zebra? Who are Zebra and what is it, you guys do?

James Pemberton:

Yes. absolutely Zebra Technology is a name which may be familiar to some people in the supply chain because Zebra themselves has been around over 50 years and has a heritage in printing technologies, printing of barcodes, essentially. So that name may be familiar to people, but what a lot of people don't realize is that over the last sort of 5 to 10 years, Zebra has acquired a number of other businesses in the supply chain, particularly Symbol Technologies, which is a brand which other people will recognize because it's associated with the first origination of barcode technology. Barcoding in supermarkets was where Symbol started some also 40 plus years ago. And then became part of Motorola solutions, which is another name, which people may recognize. Zebra now has a very wide portfolio of essentially the auto ID printing and creation of barcodes scanning R F I D technology, and now increasing the other areas such as automation. So, definitely a market player. If you like, and a market leader in the digital supply chain space.

Tom Raftery:

Okay. And are barcodes on the way out, they've been around for a long time now. The big change I've seen happen in barcodes over the last two years in particular, I guess, is the rise of the QR code, which, you know, wasn't really going anywhere for a long time. It's been around for 12 or 20, nearly 20 years, I think QR codes have been around for, but it's only in the last two years with the rise of COVID that people started using them in restaurants, for example, and, you know, phone manufacturers built in the QR into the camera app itself. You didn't have to have a separate app. And suddenly you saw the rise of, so that I think that's the main change I've seen happen in barcodes. But RFIDs are now starting to become vastly cheaper and more widely used. So are barcodes on the way out are RFID going to take over? Is it an either or what? What's all that looking like?

James Pemberton:

Yes. It's a fascinating area because, I think R F I D technology was hailed as you know, this is the revolutionary technology. You can embed so much more data in an R F I D tag. That's essentially the difference. And you can write to the tag in some, you know, obviously depending on the technology. So that gives you huge advantages, but comes, as you said, at a cost, not only the cost of the tag, but the cost of the infrastructure to read it. Reading a barcode, as you said, can be done on, you know, through camera technology. We use 2d images in our devices too, which are much higher performance in terms of scanning because scanning a barcode, if it's partially obscured, it's damaged actually in the real world of scanning barcodes. You a mobile phone can't cope with all those situations particularly at distance, you know, scanning a barcode at the top of a rack in a warehouse. You're not gonna be able to do that with a mobile phone. So there are certain nuances of scanning barcodes, which still make a difference if you like. But the R F I D technology has certainly evolved. I think it's a case of horses for courses. If you're familiar with that expression. There are use cases where it makes absolute perfect sense to use of R F I D and the economics make sense and the practicalities make sense, but there are still plenty of cases where a basic printed barcode, which obviously is printed as part of the packaging or whatever, or as a simple label is so cheap and so easy to do and therefore can be ubiquitous that it makes more sense to use that. You mentioned QR codes, but we've been using 2d barcodes, which are sort of the generic term for QR code is one particular format, but 2d barcodes can themselves hold a lot more information than a simple line, of black and white stripes. And they can already hold more product information that you can in a simple linear barcode, and that can achieve many of those use cases where R F I D probably isn't still required. So I think it is a case of use case drives the right technology choice in those cases.

Tom Raftery:

And I guess as well, it's not always an either or right, because you know, lots of even. Books in bookshops have RFID tags in them to, I suppose most of it is to prevent theft, but they also have barcode printed in the back of them as well, right?

James Pemberton:

Absolutely. So you can obviously print a barcode label, which has a tag embedded in it, but a barcode on the surface. You mentioned security. I mean, there are now use cases where the R F I D tag replaces the security tag on items in shops, which was again, a different technology used by those gates at the exit. Now R F I D is finding a usability in those situations as well.

Tom Raftery:

Okay. Okay. And you mentioned camera phones. I mean, I know there are applications out there now for mobile phones, which allows them to be used as barcode scanners. And we've seen how these phones are getting better and better over time. And the cameras are certainly getting better and better over time. Are we looking at an arc where they eventually replace dedicated barcode scanners?

James Pemberton:

I guess we saw a sort of potential for that happening a few years ago with the, you know, the emergence of the iPhone and Android devices and the ubiquity of smartphones with it, with all of us. You start to think, well, actually, I, why do I need a dedicated, rugged device when a smartphone apparently seems to do the job? I think what, happens if you look a little bit deeper into the enterprise use cases where these are being implemented is that actually there's more to it than simply the, let's say the cost of the initial outlay, the cost of the device. And of course, when you get a consumer smartphone yourself, you're typically subsidizing it within with air time contract. If you're not using an air time contract and you have to buy that device outright, it's gonna cost you, anything towards a thousand dollars, right. Or for a phone then you've got all the considerations of how it's actually being used. So the environment, are you having to use it with gloves? What if it's raining, if you're using it outside, are you going up telegraph poles down, manhole covers all these sort of situations, that arise in an enterprise case. So, yes, there are situations and environments, even in the enterprise space where a consumer device can do the job. The question then becomes, is it still the right choice from an it management perspective because it's it that have to manage those devices if they're issued to the workers, managing not only the device itself, but the security, the ability to lock it down. The control of the updates that come on the operating system. Do you actually, you want to be able to control that because if there's an OS update that happens and you have no control over it, and it stops the app working because the app wasn't ready for that OS update and your operation stops that cost obviously can be huge for an operation compared to any advantage of having a consumer device in the first place. So there are a lot of considerations about the total cost of ownership.

Tom Raftery:

Okay. Okay. Warehousing for example is a good example of this where we're seeing a huge rise in the level of automation and we're seeing cobots or little automated robots running around the place. And they're in most cases, helping people in the warehouse out. And that's fantastic because a lot of warehouses are finding it difficult to get employees, but are we looking at a point in time where people in general are going to be no longer necessary in in the likes of warehouses and places like that? Are the robots gonna take over?

James Pemberton:

Yeah, that's the feared scenario, isn't it? I think robots have a place to play. They're already finding that automation in general is happening in our lives. Right? I think we're gonna see the emergence of that technology and it will find its home where it makes sense. There are certain purposes uses of that automation technology in a warehouse where it makes much more sense for a robot to do it because it's so repetitive, it's easy to predict. And so on that it makes sense. And actually, although a human can do it, it's not the most interesting job in the world. It's not gonna be a highly paid job. It's not gonna be high satisfaction. There can be environmental considerations as well. You know, the noise and the environment that you're in. And obviously robots don't care about that. So there are certain use cases, which it makes much more sense to use a robot. And as you said, There are situations where robots can assist humans so they can do part of the task and make the humans actually much more efficient because they can do the high value tasks and do them more efficiently because the, perhaps the goods are being brought to them at the right time, in the right place. And they can just get on with doing that task rather than having to spend time going from A, to B to collect something, to come back to their workstation, to do the tasks that they're, you know, really good at and really valued for.

Tom Raftery:

And I'm guessing as well in that kind of a scenario where they're doing less repetitive work, but more high value work. It's a more rewarding experience for the employee as well. Right? So there's more job satisfaction, higher retention rates.

James Pemberton:

Absolutely. And you mentioned it before, but, staff retention and the rotation of staffing warehouses in general is definitely an issue. So the ability to retain staff and also to, obviously the training times involved and so on will become part of the whole cost of the operation. So not only automation, but actually the use of other technologies, such as, augmented reality heads up displays to help the picking operations , in the warehouse, we find those actually make it easier to train staff compared to using the specialized device and following step by step instructions. So there are other technologies besides automation, which can help actually retain and speed up the training of staff in the warehouse environment.

Tom Raftery:

Okay, dig into that a little more, James, if you don't mind the use of AR and glasses, because is something that, for example, to go back to our earlier conversation, is that something that's going to take over from held handheld scanners or is it a different use case or what are we talking about?

James Pemberton:

Yes. So smart glasses, have been around again for a while and you've got, sort of the full augmented experience type ones, immersive experience type solutions. Whereas actually our approach in the enterprise spaces, again, trying to get the right use of the technology that's appropriate. And we found that actually using a set of glasses, that actually is just an extension of the main display from the device. So like a third display, like a different monitor, if you like.

Tom Raftery:

But , just one that you wear in your face.

James Pemberton:

Exactly. So you then refer to that when you need to, and it can take most of the operation and allow you to be hands free and you can get prompts, not only prompt for where to go next, pick the next thing, but a visual clue as to okay. The shelf you're looking for is the top left. And it's a visual indication. You look at it, you scan the item using your scanner, typically a finger scanner or ring scanner. And then it will confirm on the screen green. Yes. You pick the right item and you've put it, scanned it into the right tote. So it's speeding up the operation. It's not replacing, it's augmenting the mobile computer in that case it's like an accessory if you like, but also that means it's not a full computer on your head. It's, just the visual part, which means it's not heating up, it's lightweight all of those kind of consideration because if you're wearing something all day, It needs to be comfortable. if you're just using it for half an hour for a specific task, you can get away with a computer on the head kind of approach. So again, in the warehouse environment, supply chain, we feel that sort of secondary display to augment the operation actually is most effective. And we found that really effective for the training part, as well. As I mentioned users can just pick up and go with it. They can be up and running in, in 30 minutes, whereas training you on how to use a dedicated warehouse device out of the box can take days, literally like days as a comparison.

Tom Raftery:

Wow. Wow. Those smart glasses sound like something outta science fiction. Really? Don't they? But they've learned the local environment and they can tell exactly where things are and to your point, when you pick the wrong thing, it shows up red or pick the right thing. It shows up green. So it contributes to the accuracy of what workers are doing as well. So, wow

James Pemberton:

But actually it's the intelligence is not, doesn't have to be in the glasses in the terms of, they need spatial awareness because actually you've got other clues. As soon as you scan the shelf that you are at the system knows where you are. Right. And it can say, okay, the shelf you actually need is three to the left. So you just give an indicator saying, go three shelves to the left. Scan again, and we'll tell you if you're in the right location to start picking. So again, it's kind of appropriate use of automation and technology. You don't have to have everything to be sort of super aware of your exact position to be able to do it. You can use other clues such as scanning a barcode.

Tom Raftery:

And enterprise warehouse applications have, you know, typically been, green screen, you know, and you see the same thing in airlines as well. You go to the counter even today at an airport. And when you're trying to change your seat, the person behind the desk typically has a green screen as well. And you're thinking we're in 2022. What are we doing? Still using green screens, which is technology from like the seventies and eighties. Is that something that's changing as

James Pemberton:

well? That has been prevalent in the warehouse, as you say for forever, if you like, and the reason is because it works so efficiently, it's so lightweight. The users that use it are very fast because they know how to use it. The issue we've got, as I mentioned is training someone new on that. It's like so alien to them, they think, wow, I've stepped into the ark here. Whereas, they're used to, everyone's used to their own mobile phone, right. And swiping and so on. You don't swipe on those devices, they've got hard keyboards and so on. So what we've found actually is the move is now to use modern Android or modern UI apps on the device. But you still, there are some instances where you still need a keyboard. So we still have devices that have a keyboard, but have an Android screen as well. So you kind of get the best of both, if you like. You get the usability of an Android app running on the device, but actually you've still got the functionality you've got of a device when you need it for certain operations in a warehouse. So the trend is definitely to move to Android apps. Obviously warehouses are all about efficiency and they sweat the assets forever. They sweat the hardware assets, the software assets. So actually there's a sort of drag. If you like on moving to modern technology, you have to really have a very strong ROI to do that. So moving from the green screen to a modern UI is a, is an overhead in itself an investment that's needed. So there are sort of interim solutions if you like, solutions, which sort of replace the screen or sort of screen scrape. If you like to make it look a more modern UI. Without actually changing the underlying technology and then you've got the full hog of going. Okay. We're actually gonna have an Android app running on the device and it's gonna be replacing the TE, the terminal elimination, green screen completely. So you've kind of got two options for upgrading that technology depending on the appetite for change. And the change in a warehouse is definitely something which comes slowly, that's what we've definitely seen.

Tom Raftery:

So James we've talked a lot about various use cases for your technologies. And it's fascinating stuff that you're doing. I love the smart glasses for example, and what they're doing and and getting rid of the green screens for, helping people learn technologies more quickly in the warehouse and increasing recruitment and retention. What about though, other use cases? What about, for example, when you need to figure out not where something is, but. Something is so, you know, for example, if it's something like a medication, has it gone out of temperature tolerance or things like that? Have you got things like that you can help customers with?

James Pemberton:

Yes, of course. The big use case that's evolved for all of us over the last, couple years is the COVID vaccines, especially the first vaccines which came out, had to be stored at a very specific, very low temperature throughout their supply chain journey. Otherwise they could potentially not be valid. We have a technology through an acquisition called temp time which essentially is a monitoring technology built into a tag. So it sits on the goods and it monitors the temperature of the goods throughout their journey. And it will have an indicator. If it's exceeded a certain band in terms of temperature band throughout its journey. And therefore, you know, that it's no longer usable, so it can be used for fresh goods. Certainly can be used for vaccines medicines of all shapes and sizes. That's really the technology and it was already being used in certain environments, but the vaccine kind of case brought it to before. If you like.

Tom Raftery:

Right. Right. Very good. Super, super we're coming to the end of the podcast. Now, James, is there any question I haven't asked that you wish I had, or any aspect of this, we've not touched on that you think it's important for people to be aware of?

James Pemberton:

I mean, we didn't talk so much about consumer devices actually in those sort of scenarios where consumer devices is applicable. Has Zebra got an answer for that? Because actually, you know, we are known for having the heavy duty rugged devices for those of people that know us, but actually over the recent years, we've come out with essentially rugged smartphone devices. We just launched a device called the TC 15, which when you first pick it up, you would think it was a smartphone. It has very high resolution display. It's got six and a half inch, display. It's got a 13 megapixel camera on the back. So it's lightweight. But what you don't realize necessarily is when you look a little bit closer, that it's actually got a very high capacity battery that can last a full shift. That is actually removable. It's got an integrated scan engine in the end of the device, so it can use a camera, but it also has a dedicated scanner. What we've essentially to address that consumerization, if you like is to come out with a sort of enterprise consumeresque hybrid device that has all the benefits and the advantages of a consumer device, when it's in the hands of the user. But it's still designed for enterprise. It's manageable from an IT perspective, all those management and control that the it team needs as well. So there is now a sort of intersection of those technologies, I suppose.

Tom Raftery:

Fascinating. James has been a really interesting episode. If people want to know more about yourself, James Pemberton, or about Zebra or any of the topics we discussed in the podcast today, where would you have me direct them?

James Pemberton:

Well, anything to do with Zebra technology yourselves, just go to Zebra.com. The website is pretty rich in terms of the solutions that we serve the markets and the, obviously the products. If you wanna reach out to me look to me on LinkedIn, James Pemberton.

Tom Raftery:

Super James. That's been great. Thanks a million for coming on the podcast today.

James Pemberton:

I'm very happy to be here. Thanks for the opportunity, Tom.

Tom Raftery:

Okay, we've come to the end of the show. Thanks everyone for listening. If you'd like to know more about digital supply chains, head on over to sap.com/digital supply chain, or, or simply drop me an email to Tom dot Raftery @sap.com. If you like the show, please, don't forget to subscribe to it in your podcast application at choice to get new episodes, as soon as they are published. Also, please don't forget to rate and review the podcast. It really does help new people to find the show. Thanks, catch you all next time.

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