- Companies are piloting a solution from software company ProGlove to track how efficiently goods are being stocked and picked from the warehouse each time workers scan a barcode on their glove.
- The system offers a more deliberate approach to tracking than RFID which automatically knows where goods are.
Warehouses and distribution centers have access to a wide variety of tools—both hardware and software—including some that work together. Since 2014, ProGlove has sold barcode-scanning devices including gloves for workers to identify the materials and equipment they are working with.
Recently the company released a software-based tool it calls Warehouse 360 that brings an automated view into what is happening at a granular level, for the purpose of warehouse-wide, efficiency analysis.
In fact, the company has several customers piloting ProGlove Warehouse 360 to capture each barcode interaction between a warehouse worker and the material they are handling, to understand analytics based data. “The goal is to gain deeper insights into how the work is getting down, over time,” said Patrick Blitz, ProGlove’s principal product manager for device management & analytics.
ProGlove Pivot
Now after a decade of making the barcode scanning gloves used on worksites, ProGlove has pivoted to software. “We’ve been very good at the tools themselves, the scanners were really developed from being at the customer [site] and seeing what problems they are facing,” said Blitz.
This past January it launched the software system that employs data from those barcode scans to identify how fast material is being handled, moved and where. The company will release the system commercially in March.
Approximately 10 companies are piloting the system. The company said the majority are in Europe but includes a large-scale company in North America. They fall in categories such as automakers, manufacturing companies and retailer warehouses.
Although RFID tags are commonly found on products in warehouses today, ProGlove deliberately opted for a system that required a barcode scan. “We obviously see barcode as a great fit where things are stationary,” he said, to prevent the risk of stray reads that could occur with RFID tags that respond automatically from a distance of meters, rather than centimeters in the case of barcodes.
How it Works
A worker keeps the ProGlove on their nondominant hand. When they find the item they intend to move, they hold their scanner to the barcode and press the scan button. The scanner built into the glove captures the barcode of that item. A screen in the glove illuminates alerts in green and red LED lights to indicate that the right item is being selected.
As goods arrive at the warehouse waiting to be put away, users can scan the items at the dock door, load them in a forklift or trolley cart and transport them to a dedicated portion of the warehouse and scan the barcode again as they put it away.
When picking goods for delivery according to an order, they will go up to a shelf in a storage location and then scan the item or carton that the item is in. If they place that item in a tote, they could also scan a barcode on the tote, linking them in the software.
“Basically, every movement is [tracked] with the barcode scan.” Blitz said.
A View of the Full Site
The software stores a map of the work site and where goods are located. Based on barcode scans, the system can then pinpoint where the pickers are as they go about their work, and how quickly each job gets done. The software knows where specific goods should be located, so it can determine if people are excessively crossing long distances in the warehouse, or if they are clustered in one area.
The system can determine where there are gaps in the picking and packing process and then provide analytics about how the goods could be better stored to prevent such gaps. The software also can follow movement of each scanner to understand how workers are going about their tasks.
“We’re not tracking individuals we’re tracking devices,” said Blitz. “We basically give you another layer of visibility into your operations” as the system draws data from the warehouse management software but is not integrated with it. For the workers it’s completely seamless.”
In many cases, users of Warehouse 360 will already be using the ProGlove, so they are not introducing new processes—for management, it provides a way for performance and process optimization.
Five Percent Efficiency Boost
Some of the companies that have been testing the technology have reported an approximate five percent boost in efficiency due to having the information needed to better optimize the warehouse and its layout, and by following those recommendations.
The system aims to provide analytics rather than real-time location details about an order. “It’s really not exactly about ‘where’s my individual order?’” Blitz said. “We get the information after the task is completed then you could theoretically go look in and how was that order processed.”
Blitz offered that companies testing the system have gained a better understanding of their space usage and by rearranging accordingly, bumping up the times speed at which tasks are getting accomplished.