Using Mobile Solutions to Drive CONTENTS. Efficiency and Innovation in Manufacturing. Infuse mobility into all operations

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1 Using Mobile Solutions to Drive Efficiency and Innovation in Manufacturing CONTENTS INFUSE MOBILITY INTO ALL OPERATIONS MANAGE INVENTORY THROUGHOUT THE SUPPLY CHAIN DRIVE EFFICIENCIES THROUGH M2M MOBILITY SOLUTIONS INTEGRATE MOBILITY INTO EXISTING ENVIRONMENTS INCORPORATE THE CUSTOMER CHOOSE AN ENTERPRISE-PROVEN MOBILE PLATFORM Mobility is bringing change to manufacturing, and the impact is affecting industries all around the world. Innovative companies are using mobile devices to improve worker productivity, better manage inventory, and utilize their data to drive additional revenue from savvy, informed consumers. Research firm Gartner Inc. predicts that mobile adoption will grow 33% within manufacturing through 2015, noting that a smart mobile strategy with a tablet implementation can lead to a more productive, more empowered, and more informed workforce. 1 It s not just about the workforce, however. It s also about improving all of the processes, procedures, and initiatives within manufacturing, including managing inventory, processing orders, shipping products, ensuring quality, and keeping track of order progress. To reduce costs, improve agility, and enable the business to be more responsive to the needs of employees, partners, and customers, manufacturing IT leaders need a comprehensive mobile approach that links mobile applications and devices to all other aspects of the business in an integrated and holistic manner. How are mobile applications bringing dramatic change to manufacturing? Here are some of the ways innovative companies are deploying mobile solutions throughout their operations, along with guidance for forward-looking companies seeking to gain competitive advantage and thrive in this new era in manufacturing. Infuse mobility into all operations Organizations can reduce costs, improve productivity, and achieve dramatic breakthroughs in inventory management by equipping workers with mobile devices at all stages of the manufacturing process and using mobile applications to simplify and automate many critical functions via automated data capture and machine-tomachine (M2M) connectivity. 1 Can tablets save manufacturing? TabTimes, April 23, 2013

2 For example, workers using handheld mobile devices equipped with scanners can read barcodes of materials that arrive at the factory floor so each item can be tracked from receipt through every phase of the manufacturing, warehousing, and shipping processes. Additionally, performance of production machines can be monitored by supervisors using mobile devices that take advantage of M2M integration. Mobileequipped supervisors can then recognize potential breakdown indicators and instigate preventative maintenance action, thereby minimizing downtime and increasing productivity. One company that has embraced mobility is Womble Company Inc., a leading supplier of specialty coating systems for steel pipes, serving the oil and gas, construction, and industrial manufacturing industries. The company has approximately 165 acres of open-air yards and takes in about 155,000 linear feet of pipe per day. The company now serializes and barcodes each pipe as it enters its facilities. This allows it to track its customers products from receipt through shipping, using a series of simple barcode scans. Since implementing the system, Womble has successfully coated and tracked more than 57,000 miles of pipe without losing a single piece. The impact on the business has been significant: customer service has reached unprecedented levels, productivity has improved dramatically, and the company is able to collect on customer accounts faster. Manage inventory throughout the supply chain Mobility is also changing the paradigm in inventory management. Organizations are starting to think in terms of a virtual warehouse, or perpetual inventory, whereby inventory is managed using real-time information collected through mobile devices at every step of the supply chain, including at the point of sale. When materials are tracked, they remain visible throughout the supply chain, and they can be replenished at a specific point in time defined by the organizational rules using an automated process. Equipping warehouse workers with mobile devices also drives major efficiencies in inventory management. For example, Trek Bicycle Corp., the largest bicycle manufacturer in the U.S., has equipped workers in its warehouses with mobile devices so they can use real-time information to fulfill orders more quickly and efficiently, while also improving productivity on other processes, such as put-away and replenishment. By putting real-time information in the hands of warehouse personnel, Trek has improved customer service and increased productivity by more than 20%. Caterpillar Underground Mining, a Tasmania-based manufacturer of heavy-duty equipment for the mining industry, is another company that has achieved significant benefits in inventory management by incorporating mobility into its supply chain. The company uses mobile solutions to automate the tracking of all items through its spare-parts warehouse, as well as mobile applications for receipt routing, inventory transfer, inventory issues, barcoding, and stock counting. With the mobile solution in place, Caterpillar Underground Mining instantaneously captures, enters, and validates locations, part numbers, lot numbers, and quantities for each cycle count. Accurate tracking of the components allows the company to reduce losses and maintain inventory levels so that customer requirements can be quickly met. In addition, the company is not carrying an excess of expensive parts. Since deploying a mobile solution, Caterpillar Underground Mining has reduced the time required for regular cycle counts by 50%. 2

3 Drive efficiencies through M2M mobility solutions Mobile solutions are an important driver in the next wave of M2M adoption, according to various market experts. 2 Mobility-enabled M2M solutions are being used in the following ways, among many others: Companies are leveraging supply chain and logistics applications for asset tracking of pallets and containers during global transport, as well as to monitor the temperature on products that have a short shelf life and special storage conditions. Phibro Animal Health Corp. is a global leader in the medicated feed additives business. The company is using a mobile M2M solution to link its JD Edwards EnterpriseOne enterprise resource planning (ERP) software with a material blending/mixing solution provided by Marcotte Systems, Ltd. The mobile solution transfers data between the two systems and reports work-order production results from the Marcotte system to the EnterpriseOne system upon completion of mixing and blending activities. On the shop floor, wireless M2M technologies are being paired with ruggedized handheld devices to support a variety of performance monitoring and diagnostic applications, as well as remote troubleshooting and preemptive maintenance, for assets and equipment. 2 Mobility fuels the next wave of M2M adoption, TechTarget, July

4 A leading consumer goods warehouse operation is using mobile applications in conjunction with its conveyer control software to seamlessly enable zone picking. An order is received on a mobile device, and the carton for that order is placed on a conveyer. The carton moves around the conveyer until everything for the order in that zone is placed in the carton. When the carton is complete, the mobile application tells the conveyer to release it from that zone, and it either goes to another zone or to the shipping dock. A large manufacturer of food products is using a mobile M2M solution to monitor and facilitate integration between its warehouse management system and its conveyer/palletizer system. Inventory is automatically adjusted based on data from the conveyer/palletizer system, and the system automatically creates downstream pick suggestions based on valid stock availability. The automated mobile solution has improved inventory accuracy and picking efficiency, resulting in lower costs and improved productivity. Integrate mobility into existing environments When deploying mobile solutions in manufacturing, it is critical to ensure that the mobile applications and platforms can be easily integrated with existing back office and shop floor systems. Mobility should be an enhancement, not a replacement, and the organization shouldn t have to rip and replace infrastructure or abandon expensive enterprise software investments in order to enable mobile capabilities that will extend and increase the value of these investments. Batesville Casket Co., a leading producer and distributor of high-quality caskets and memorial products, required a comprehensive mobile solution that would maximize its investment in its enterprise software as well as its own proprietary finished goods and storage system, called Triax. The company produces approximately 700,000 units annually, with 16,000 delivery locations daily and 24-hour order fulfillment guaranteed. By deploying mobile capabilities throughout its supply chain and in seamless cohesion with its existing software Batesville Casket is now able to record inventory movements in real time and track the status of in-transit items and products on hold. The result: inventory accuracy has increased to more than 99.9%. In addition, the company has used its mobile platform to automate production scheduling and now every order automatically triggers replenishment. Embracing mobility has not only helped Batesville Casket Co. save money and improve customer service, but also has led to the company being recognized as one of IndustryWeek s Top 10 Manufacturing Plants in North America. Chivas Brothers, the global leader in luxury Scotch whiskey, is another company that needed to seamlessly integrate mobile capabilities with existing enterprise software in order to facilitate secure, real-time updates between mobile devices used on the shop floor and its back-end systems. The company has 1,600 employees across 32 sites, with 300 bonded warehouses containing nearly 6 million casks. Since deploying its mobile platform, shipments at Chivas Brothers have been 100% accurate, whereas previously, accuracy could fluctuate between 70% one week and 96% the next. In addition, Chivas Brothers has optimized product traceability for millions of production units across all of its locations and enabled real-time visibility of enterprise data. Incorporate the customer Using mobile applications to capture information from customers, and to deliver information to customers, is an essential part of any mobile enterprise and can be used to great effect in manufacturing to manage inventory, communicate continuous updates to customers, track deliveries, and monitor customer satisfaction, among 4

5 other uses. With the right mobile applications in place, customers can also register feedback at any time, from any location, using any device. By incorporating mobility throughout the supply chain, manufacturing companies can utilize real-time information from sales and customer service personnel, while also delivering real-time information to those same functions to improve customer service and responsiveness. Companies can monitor demand in real time, identify hot products, and determine if there are quality issues with products in the field. Many manufacturing companies are also beginning to incorporate information from social media, along with big data analytics, to gather even more useful, actionable information on customers interests and buying patterns. With the deployment of an enterprise-wide, mobileenabling platform, organizations can more readily create new applications and services that incorporate these expanded capabilities. For example, a food manufacturer used a social app to gather consumer data that helped generate a new gluten-free formulation of their product that drove a 30% increase in sales. Choose an enterprise-proven mobile platform Mobility is clearly the next big thing in manufacturing. An IDC report shows nearly 40% of manufacturers have a head start, as half or more of their new applications developed in 2012 were for mobile platforms. But IDC also points out that manufacturers need to make some important decisions about future mobile implementations: Considerations around platform and device support, mobile security, governance, and compliance all must come into play. Companies need to seriously consider their overarching mobile strategy and select enterprise-strength technologies to support their efforts. 3 In this article, we have looked at eight manufacturing companies that are using mobile solutions innovatively throughout their supply chains to drive efficiency and agility: Womble, Trek Bicycle, Caterpillar Underground Mining, Batesville Casket, Chivas Brothers, Phibro Animal Health, and three other companies in the consumer goods and food industries. Each of these companies has improved efficiencies and gained competitive advantage through mobile solutions. Each has chosen a comprehensive, enterprise-ready mobile platform that incorporates industry-leading security and agile application development capabilities. Each has also chosen an enterprise mobile platform that supports integration with legacy environments and M2M technology, enabling the development of mobile applications quickly and seamlessly across the entire supply chain. One more important thing these market-leading companies have in common: they are all users of the DSI Mobile Enterprise Platform. To learn why, visit DSI at Contact DSI 3 Mobility in Manufacturing Putting a Finger on the Pulse, IDC Insights, Feb. 15,