One company reaping the benefits of MRO controls is Alpharetta, Ga.-based Intelligent Switchgear Organization (ISO), a joint venture between Caterpillar and Eaton Corp, that manufactures, sells, and services electric power generation equipment. Prior to implementing its control program, ISO worked with Fastenal, a distributor of fastenings and MRO supplies. Under the plan at the time, ISO had open bins for MRO items that Fastenal restocked each week and then invoiced ISO for. The open bins allowed virtually any and all employees to take free issue items as they wished.

“From what we saw, they did just that, and there was very little control,” reports J. David Lister, purchasing manager. Items included safety glasses, ear plugs, side shields, drill bits, arm sleeves, box cutters and screwdrivers.

ISO decided that it wanted to determine what if any cost reductions it could receive by actually tracking usage of MRO items down to the individual employee. Fastenal had a solution that seemed to be able to do just that called SmartStores. These are vending machines manufactured by Fastenal that the company leases to its customers. “They are like food vending machines, except that they are stocked with the operational items that we use the most,” reports Lister.

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Unitech RH767

The RH767 is a Windows CE 5.0-based multi-tag HF or UHF RFID and bar code reader. It can read both EPC Gen 1 and Gen 2 RFID tags and comes with embedded RFID middleware for easy integration. Like the Unitech PA966 with which it shares the design and most tech specs, the RH767 uses the older 400MHz Marvell PXA255 processor.

Source: ruggedpcreview.com

“Independent retailers have unique challenges. They typically have fewer resources and could benefit greatly by automating everyday tasks. But in general, they don’t have the ability to tap industry-leading technology because of cost barriers,” said Chris Skelly, vice president of sales for McLane’s Western division. “With SHHi, store managers will soon be able to retire their Telxon ordering devices and experience technology that can greatly impact their business with little or no training, and minimal cost.”

Based on feedback single store and small chain retailer customers, McLane developed the specifications around the SHHi system to address real-world requirements. SHHi gives users the ability to track order history, create orders and track upcoming distributions, all from a single device.

Source: businesswire.com

One of the barriers for e-shopping today is the fact that most shop online using their computers which are physically tied to one or a few locations. The obvious solution to this is the smartphone which are advancing all the time and will mean one day that we can e-shop from anywhere, so long as we have a connection. For this to take place, phones in the future will need to be more like PCs, but without the bulk.

Watch the video below to see a new mobile technology from Japan that has the potential to replace the PC. The technology in this video could change our e-shopping and work habits because it packs the power of a PC into something you can carry around in your shirt pocket.

Frog Design is responsible for the hardware: making this 3-touchscreen terminal work with Intel’s newest processors. The touchscreen works in concert with RFID cards and salespeople .

Naturally, a smart cash register like this one doesn’t come cheap, so in order to cut down on costs and energy, these kiosk will be made of energy efficient LCD screens and processors. Moreover, these cash registers will automatically put themselves to sleep when they are not in use, cutting down on 90% of energy usage.

Though Intel conceived of the machine, it’s not getting into the point of sale business. This prototype won’t go into production. Instead, it is meant to highlight a new direction for retail terminals — made possible (naturally) by the chipmaker’s newest processors. “We wanted to show the future,” says Ryan Parker, of Intel’s Embedded Computing Division. “And people don’t like looking at motherboards.”

Sources: i.gizmodo.com yankodesign.com blog.wired.com

Stores that in build intelligence in their infrastructure using RFID with hardware such as smartshelves and smartcarts will need to embrace smartphones to take full advantage for servicing their customers. If customers are carrying around a communications device that can display information, images, and video, then why not use it?

In the smartphone market, it could turn out to be a three way race for platform choices. i.e., the iPhone, Windows Embedded, and Android.

This looks very similar to another three way race that has already taken place in the console market. i.e., PlayStation, Xbox, and Wii.

Using the lessons learned from that market, could we predict the outcome of the smartphone platform market? If we assume that Windows Mobile is most like the Xbox, the iPhone like the PlayStation 3, and Android as Wii, then it would mean that the smartphone platform with the most users will be Android.

Windows Mobile is like Xbox because apart from being the creation of the same company, they are both proprietary and similarly priced around the middle of the market. I liken the iPhone to PlayStation3 because they are both highly polished and proprietary, but both are at the higher end of the market. Lastly, I compare Android and Wii similary because they are both the lower end of the market with less hardware features needed to run them. In other words they are both the lighter of the 3 options in their respective markets.

So my money in the smartphone platform market is on Android. I think it will take the lion share of the market just as Wii has taken the biggest slice of the console market.

Android also has other big advantages, listed below:

• It is free.
• It is open.
• It is friendly toward developers with great tools and emulators.
• It is extremely light, so that it can run on medium end cellphones and scale up to laptops.
• It has the biggest Internet brand promoting it, (Google).

Android

Keep an eye out for Android over the coming years. Perhaps in about 5 years when you find yourself scanning
a product in your local smartstore with your Android smartphone, you will be able to think how much the retail experience has changed in such a short time.