submitted by Intermec
The challenges of today’s retail warehouse operating environment are pretty self evident. Time to make decisions has evaporated, pressures on cost containment abound, and customer satisfaction measures are paramount to retention during the roughest of times. These challenges bring to mind the definition of “an athlete” from my favorite childhood coach, “run fast, jumps high."
When thinking of retail warehouse operations this is a pretty close to reality. Truly great operations need to emulate a top athlete. And that extends equally to the solutions employed to help every associate run fast and jump high. Before the economic storm hit, it was common to find more businesses deploying a specific technology solution to solve one problem. Often this was done without the ability to expand or be scalable to meet a business’s changing landscape.
The economy has transformed the way businesses evaluate technology. Instead of one device per problem, they are looking for dependable multi-modal devices that can deliver maximum utilization on every shift, have a low TCO and deliver timely ROI. And because labor is still a very important cost component, being able to move people to any point of activity with the right tool at any time needed is the other important side of the asset utilization coin. Having a simple training regimen built around one tool that can deliver a variety of work task capabilities creates associate confidence and productivity.
In terms of rugged mobile computers in the retail warehouse, their capabilities continue to evolve to help businesses meet their requirements. Computers like the Intermec CK3 take advantage of technology convergence offering comprehensive feature sets that include wide area and local area wireless data, RFID, scanning, imaging, voice and mobile printing all within a single solution offering.
To see Intermec solutions in action visit, www.youtube.com/intermec.
