If there’s one thing that differentiates business today from legacy operations, it’s data. This is true in virtually every vertical, including manufacturing and logistics operations that today have potential for more access to information—and the improved decision-making that information can drive—than similar businesses had even as little as five or ten years ago.
That’s because smart machines and systems have rapidly evolved from theoretical opportunities into real-world solutions. Instead of ideas on a drawing board, smart technologies are working their way into a wide range of devices and workflows, and data is turning into actionable knowledge.
If you and your competitors haven’t seen the impact of smart machines yet, you will soon.
To illustrate the value of “smart” machines, let’s consider a simple system that most of us rely on every day. Imagine we’re driving a car—one that still runs on gasoline. Now try to imagine the experience if we have no idea how much fuel was in the tank—with no gas gauge. The possibility we’ll soon run out of gas would lead most of us to make frequent stops for fuel. Or, if we misjudge our fuel status, we’ll eventually be left stranded on the side of the road. Neither situation is optimal.
If we could get a steady stream of reliable data that kept us apprised of our fuel status, we could make much more efficient decisions about when it was necessary to fill the tank. Thankfully, the fuel delivery system in just about every car is “smart,” with a simple sensor that monitors the amount of fuel in the tank and a gauge on the dashboard that provides a real-time status report. Process that data effectively, and you’ll never run out of gas.
It can be helpful to think of smart machines in the same way: adding a sensor and reporting tool to a system in order to get the data you need for more efficient operation and better decision making.
In manufacturing or logistics operations, fixed industrial scanners and machine vision smart cameras offer one of the easiest ways to introduce smart machines into your business. That’s because they are tools that you can deploy to capture more data and make smarter decisions without initiating a complete overhaul of a production line or shipping system.
Another simple analogy will help us understand how this might play out in a real-world setting.
Imagine a manufacturing workflow that includes a manual barcode scan as one of the key steps. With a traditional handheld scanner, that process is going to continue until the scanner begins to fail, perhaps because the operator forgot to clean it. At that point, scanning rates decline, the need to rescan objects slows productivity, and production eventually grinds to a halt.
Replace the manual handheld scanner with a fixed industrial scanner, however, and you can tap into tools that allow you to monitor the performance of the scanner in real time. Now, instead of relying on users to make observations, you can gather data that advises you of the scanner’s status and gives you the insight you need to intervene before the scanner fails. It’s not ground-breaking information that will shift the course of history, but now, instead of waiting for errors in the process to mount until somebody intervenes, the smart device gives you proactive intelligence that you can use to avoid unproductive downtime.
The workflow has become “smart,” productivity increases, and you save time and money.
Why Fixed Industrial Scanners Are a Smart Way to Get Started
When it comes to “smart” machines and “smart” operations, we often focus on fixed industrial scanners because they offer quick wins for many organizations. They can be integrated into many workflows without a lot of overhead or complex integration efforts, so they enable an incremental move into automation and smart machines. You can start with a single camera to add intelligence to one machine or one process and grow from there.
When our customers are looking for an easy way to introduce smart machines into their workflows, we’re big fans of the fixed industrial scanners and machine vision smart cameras offered by Zebra Technologies. Their portfolio runs on a single unified software platform that makes it easy to set up, deploy, and run right out of the box, so it’s perfect as a first step toward a smart machine solution.
Plus, as you would expect from the global leader in data capture technology, Zebra’s fixed scanning portfolio offers a wide range of exclusive features. For example, Zebra’s devices use ImagePerfect+ to capture 16 different images from a single trigger event to optimize read rates. Zebra’s platform is also easily scalable as your business and workflows evolve, allowing you to implement one smart machine solution today with a clear upgrade path that makes it easy to support additional smart machines in the future.
Ready to Learn More About Smart Machines?
If you would like help understanding how smart machines and Zebra’s fixed industrial scanning tools can improve your business, contact Revere Electric Supply today. We can show you how to use the latest technologies to tie your business together for maximum performance and results.