by Chelsea Williams | Apr 23, 2017 | Uncategorized
Managing a fleet requires quick thinking and action. Every mile, every package, and every delivery comes at a cost to your business. If you don’t maximize the load and empower your drivers to be efficient and accurate, you’re letting money roll out the door.
Today’s technology provides a solution. Manual systems, like driver manifests, leave too much room for error, as well as taking up the driver’s time to shuffle through papers and find the right information. In order for you to efficiently manage your fleet, you need real-time, accurate data. You can’t wait till after a route is completed, because then it’s damage control, not prevention.
Mobile technology—handheld computers with built-in scanning and enterprise access, and mobile printers—enable your fleet drivers to work from an electronic manifest. It’s easy to find the details on an order or customer history; scan and verify the shipment and delivery; process orders, changes, and returns; capture signatures; and avoid truck shortages. DSD drivers can take photos on their rugged mobile devices to validate their delivery and merchandising. When a delivery is made, your driver doesn’t have to hand over a scribbled mess of an order, but can print a clean copy with barcodes that the customer can scan to enter the shipment directly into inventory. Accuracy and efficiency lead to a satisfied customer.
Your logistics manager can track the trucks and drivers, ensuring safety. Proactively maintain your fleet by keeping a digital record of the maintenance schedule. When you need to prove compliance, this digital footprint provides an easily accessed audit trail, saving hours of manual labor that would otherwise be required to track down details.
Zebra has a long-standing reputation for rugged mobile technology. The equipment is designed specifically for harsh environments. If you’re going to invest in mobility for your fleet, make sure you’re equipping them with reliable devices that won’t leave them stranded.
A mobility solution delivers a strong return on investment, with significant savings in labor, the potential to increase the stops per route, and the reduction in errors and shortages. Contact Informs to learn how a mobility strategy can benefit your transportation and logistics operation.
by Chelsea Williams | Aug 16, 2016 | Healthcare
Blood transfusions are a routine part of hospital work. Yet, in hospitals using manual systems, it’s a process riddled with the potential for error – from a lab worker accidentally mislabeling a unit of blood, to the unit having to be discarded because the nurse has been held up en route from lab to ward.
Unfortunately, sometimes mistakes aren’t discovered until the unit is at the patient’s bedside and transfusion has begun, risking the patient suffering from an adverse reaction. In 2014, 764 serious adverse events and 346 serious adverse reactions were reported to the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA), in the UK alone.
Additionally, blood collection is time-consuming. Lab workers start by selecting a unit from the computer system and fetching the unit from stock. Next, they print out the correct label, call the ward, and wait to place the unit into the hands of the porter or nurse. Once a call is received in the ward from the lab, a nurse or porter is notified to go to the lab, sign for the unit manually, and then head back to the ward without delay. This ensures the transfusion is carried out in line with cold chain rules. When this same process is repeated from start to finish, hundreds of times a year, the hours spent in retrieving and carrying the blood unit add up to a significant portion of working hours.
While this process might work, ultimately, it doesn’t have to be like that.
Eliminating errors through automation
Automated blood tracking solutions can slash error rates to near-zero, while simultaneously creating huge time savings.
This automated solution creates robust workflows for your teams to follow with safety checks built in every step of the way, ensuring that your patients receive the best possible care. Now, when the lab worker selects a unit of blood, that unit is given a unique identifier assigned to a particular patient. Each patient receives a different identifier, ensuring that each unit receives its rightful patient. After the unit is selected, the lab worker prints and attaches a compatibility label, which includes the patient’s name and demographic details. Then the worker takes the unit to a secure, public-facing fridge, oftentimes found in a corridor.
The picture above shows how easily blood samples can be tracked using a barcode and scanner.
When the lab worker places the unit in the fridge, he or she use a mobile computer or scanner to scan the unit and the compatibility label, ensuring both are labeled correctly and accurately. Once the unit is in place, an electronic message is automatically sent, via barcode, to the ward nurse on his or her mobile device. The nurse then clicks to accept the job, goes to the fridge, and uses the barcode scanner to scan the barcode in the text message.
This unlocks the fridge automatically, while alerting the nurse where the unit of blood can be found in the fridge. The nurse then scans the unit to confirm collection, and the cold chain rules kick in. Now, if there’s a breach and the blood isn’t used within the appropriate time limit, the lab is automatically alerted.
Back on the ward, the senior nurse records a receipt using a computer on wheels. The final step is to scan both the patient’s wristband and the unit of blood: if the match is incorrect, an alert sounds so the process can be stopped. If everything is deemed okay, the transfusion can begin.
This automated solution makes absolutely sure that the blood unit being collected for each patient is the correct one. It also guarantees that only authorized personnel have access to the fridge.
Paperless, efficient and safe
While you can’t guarantee that staff will never make a mistake, this robust, automated blood tracking system makes it much harder for an error to slip through the cracks.
Furthermore, the time previously spent making phone calls, walking to and from the lab, and manually filling in labels is saved by using one seamless, paperless process that makes a blood unit’s journey from the lab to the ward as smooth as possible.
One final benefit that this automated solution offers is that it creates a complete audit trail. Each step of the unit’s journey is logged automatically, thus staff and management know who labelled and stored a particular unit, and who collected it and when they did so. Regulatory inspections become almost hassle-free; all the data you need is catalogued, saved, and searchable, so staff no longer have to wade through boxes of paper.
It’s not often that a solution can make dramatic improvements in patient safety, while improving productivity and reducing costs. Blood tracking is one example of an automated solution that does just that and hospitals typically see a return on investment within nine months. After the initial nine months, this system pays for itself many times over.
by Chelsea Williams | Aug 2, 2016 | Retail
ATTENTION ALL RETAILERS: We know what you’re probably thinking…. What the heck is RFID anyway? If you’re new to retail, or haven’t heard of RFID, let’s start off by reminding you what RFID is all about. RFID stands for radio frequency identification (RFID) technology. This technology uses a method of identifying items through radio waves. The RFID device works much like a barcode and scanner, except it is far more efficient and cost-effective! The technology utilizes a reader and tag that work simultaneously allowing for optimal service at the quickest pace.
RFID technology isn’t a new concept either. It has been around for nearly seventy-six years and has experienced significant advances in the past decade, and most particularly in recent years. These advances include a lower cost of ownership, improved reader form factors, greater global standardization, and innovations in passive ultra-high frequency (UHF) tags, which are all furthering RFID interest and adoption.
While all of these advancements are great, the single-most convincing argument for implementation of RFID devices in retail stores, can be found in the proven return on investment (ROI) that item-level tagging provides throughout the entire supply chain process. If you haven’t had a chance to look at the many benefits of RFID technology recently, consider these five great reasons why you should implement RFID in all of your retail stores:
- Increased Inventory Accuracy. Studies have shown RFID technology offers the best solution to track merchandise for stocking and marketing purposes.
- Reduced Inventory Management Labor. Both apparel and footwear retailers utilizing RFID in their stores have reported inventory labor reductions of 75 to 92 percent. In tests prior to the introduction of RFID technology, only 200 items per hour were counted using a manual process. Following the introduction of RFID technology, 5,000 items per hour were counted.
- Reduced Inventory Carrying Costs. With RFID technology, retailers have been able to sustain leaner inventory levels, while reducing associated carrying costs more than ever before.
- Improved Sales. Item-level RFID has shown an increased sale of items per transaction because the technology is fast and is cost-effective.
- Protection Against Theft. We all know that shoplifting occurs more regularly than we would like to admit in retail. It’s been estimated that shoplifting alone costed U.S. retailers $32 billion last year. By using RFID to support electronic article surveillance (EAS), retailers are notified in real time when items are being stolen.
Almost all of the benefits listed above apply directly to a retailer’s in-store operations, yet, in today’s fast-paced world, retailers understand now more than ever, that being able to distribute items and fulfill orders from inventory located in any part of the supply chain is more efficient, more cost-effective, and more likely to result in greater satisfaction and an enhanced customer experience. Furthermore, nearly all retailers agree that the key to accurate inventory management is technology, most notably RFID.
Throughout the entire the supply chain, RFID technology allows retailers to maximize their inventory control and maintain flexibility from initial manufacturer orders through direct-to-customer shipping. Today’s RFID devices help increase the level of productivity in every retail store, by operating as both a sales channel and a fulfillment center. Additionally, this device helps enhance customer satisfaction and ultimately, improve end-to-end supply chain ROI.
This system of technology works and we are confident that its level of usage will only continue to grow in the future! If you have any further questions regarding RFID placement in retail stores, please do not hesitate to visit us at: http://informsinc.com/.
by Chelsea Williams | Jul 20, 2016 | Healthcare
The journey for a patient entering into your healthcare facility involves successfully overcoming many boundaries within and between facilities. Care is provided from the bedside to the pharmacy to the home, and patients expect this process to be as seamless and thorough as possible. Unfortunately, in society today, the process is often disjointed and inefficient, leading to frustration for both the patient and the healthcare staff.
At a time when budgets tend to be tight and the drive to improve patient care is high, focusing on how different healthcare functions can work together seamlessly is vital for your facility to thrive. By switching to a connected system of care, you can reduce waste, cut costs, and ultimately improve the quality of care you provide to your patients. Change has never been more necessary; and this new automated technology will allow you to transform the way care is delivered and patients are supported.
The digitization of each stage in the care process can lead to better visibility, accuracy, and efficiency, improving the overall patient care your facility provides. By providing your patients and staff with this comprehensive technology, your facility is able to carefully track and record everything into a digital profile, beginning with identification when your patient is first admitted, to the samples that are collected from your patient and the drugs administered to your patient. This technology not only improves the accuracy of each step, but also streamlines the entire process; making it more efficient and affording clinicians’ more of their valuable time to invest in their patients.
Let’s take a look at three of the key areas where technology can help to integrate, enabling truly seamless care.
- KEY AREA: Patient Identification at Admission
- In this day and age, 78% of hospitals still use handwritten wristbands, an alarmingly high percentage when you consider the inherent problems with this system of patient identification. While their use seems to be for good, unfortunately, handwritten wristbands are prone to inaccuracies and misidentification; meaning a mistake is made at the very first point at which patients enter your care. In comparison, printed barcode wristbands are far less prone to human error and offer staff immediate access to patient records.
- KEY AREA: Point of Care
- A digitized system can also transform the process of blood and specimen collection. Before the implementation of this technology, two fundamental problems with sample collection were failure to capture identification properly and failure to label samples at the bedside. This integrated technology is the solution to your problem! Utilizing printers and handheld computers enables a patient to be identified accurately, by scanning their barcoded wristband in conjunction with their electronic health record (EHR), which staff can access instantly, ensuring top-of-the-line care.
- KEY AREA: In the Laboratory
- When the lab receives a sample for testing, the implementation of a digitized system allows the lab to scan the barcode attached to the sample and update the patient’s EHR to confirm receipt of it. While running labs, this system allows for barcodes to be scanned again for ensured accuracy and test results that are automatically sent to the patient’s EHR. Overall, this comprehensive process is more accurate and efficient than ever before. By enabling staff to get test results quicker, you ensure that your staff is providing patients with the best possible care.
With the right technology at each stage of the healthcare journey, rigorous steps are simplified, made more accurate, and staff are given real-time information on their patients. Underpinning the entire process, positive patient ID reduces the risk of misidentification. Furthermore, the addition of pharmacy, drug administration, blood transfusion and discharge documentation to this system, enables your healthcare facilities to offer comprehensive, automated care via a seamlessly integrated solution which facilitates best practice.
by Chelsea Williams | Jul 14, 2016 | Manufacturing
Since the dawn of the internet in 1982, new technologies have revolutionized the way we live. From technologies like the iPhone, that have made our daily lives easier, to 3D Printers that have transformed the way we approach problems in healthcare today, each new tool introduced into society, continues to consistently change the way we live.
One area that continues to draw the attention from many is wearable technology. Wearable technology, like the Apple Watch or Google Glass, allows each one of us to utilize merely all expertise available on our smartphones, without having one in tow. Furthermore, these new technologies allow users to make payments, receive weather updates or directions, and even measure their own heartbeats, all in the blink of an eye. Similar to the introduction of the internet, the cell phone, and ultimately the smartphone, wearable technology continues to propel us forward, to the next level.
The consumer world is not the only one that has benefited from wearable technology; life has become much easier in the warehouse too. Wearable solutions in the warehouse have begun to transform processes by improving efficiency and boosting worker productivity, both essential steps needed to compete in the world today. Now more than ever, online shopping has reformed customer behavior. In our ever-changing world, consumers now demand quick delivery to their homes, requiring warehouses to work more efficiently and more accurately than ever before.
The hands-free wearable technology solution: a mobile computer is a multi-modal solution that enables workers to fulfill more orders at a faster and easier pace. This not only increases efficiency, but also improves worker productivity every step of the way. Additionally, the hands-free mobile computer allows workers to provide voice instructions, view items or choose locations on a screen, scan any barcode or RFID tag, and utilize the touchscreen capabilities to enter information accurately and effortlessly. With each of these functions combined, these multi-modal solutions can deliver a dramatic increase in both, productivity and accuracy across the board.
However, these solutions don’t stop at the mobile computer. By combining it with a Bluetooth 1D/2D ring scanner, a Bluetooth or corded headset, or a software solution that allows each worker to create user-friendly applications, your warehouse will have the perfect enterprise-class wearable solution.
Multi-modal solutions, can cut costs in your warehouse, improve worker productivity by 15%, and reduce errors by 39%! These hands-free mobile computers allow your workers to have better range when scanning barcodes or RFID tags and enable them to have better motion tolerance, resulting in less fatigue and muscle cramping for your employees. Moreover, this multi-modal solution receives faster reads and ensures better scanning performance than other leading solutions. Don’t miss out; discover how these latest devices can improve your warehouse, at a fraction of the cost.
One example of how mobile computers are revolutionizing the warehouses in American society today.
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