With 59 million Hyundai and Kia vehicles on the road worldwide, and the complexities of the after-sales parts supply management chain, Mobis needed a sophisticated warehouse solution to match the reputation of its brand. They needed a solution to efficiently track stock, pick orders and increase their distribution volume and the bottom line.
The challenge was to refresh Mobis’ equipment and adopt a modernised solution that would complement its custom warehouse management system, while solving the issue of ‘end-of-life’ support for Windows-embedded handheld devices. Importantly, Mobis required a solution that provided these added benefits without having to make any changes to its backend warehouse management system.
Mobis opted to go with Zebra’s WT6000 multi-modal wearable device running on Ivanti Velocity. This would include a future Voice-Directed Picking component, Ivanti Speakeasy, therefore accommodating all of Mobis’ requirements from company-wide IT upgrades, budgets, platform and specific operational needs. The results were extremely promising, offering a 15% productivity increase and an additional 39% reduction in errors compared to voice-only solutions.
Darren Bowley, Warehouse Operations Manager at Mobis Australia, said, “We needed a solution that would help increase productivity while seamlessly integrating with our warehouse management system. The rugged, multi-touch capacitive display on the WT6000 makes it easy for our workers across the supply chain to read and enter data, even while wearing work gloves. Moreover, it meant we could easily add voice-directed applications at any time to increase both the accuracy and speed of our pick and scan operations”.
The first phase of the deployment focused on improving the effectiveness of the wearable devices with tailored scripts developed by Skywire and Ivanti to automate the modernization of more than 500 screens using Ivanti Rapid Modernization automation tools. This significantly decreased error rates, enabling increased text size as well as using different font colors, resulting in faster transactions.
The WT6000 mobile wearable device allows Mobis to streamline their entire picking process and increase productivity. This streamlined system allows Mobis to find an item, provides immediate verification and instantly update inventory, without sacrificing accuracy. Also, warehouse staff can move from voice command to barcode scanning to touchscreen input as required, shaving precious time from the validation process and ensuring pick accuracy.
Mobis is confident that the multi-modal, voice-activated solution will increase their speed and accuracy while processing great volumes of orders, keeping them a leader in the warehousing and distributing of automotive parts and accessories market.
James Shepherd, Skywire’s CEO, said: “The collaboration between Skywire, Ivanti, Zebra and Mobis was the key to the success of this project. The customer is our focus and I am delighted that we could help deliver this transformation and result to them. The Skywire services team did a fantastic job with great support from Ivanti and their rapid modernization tool.”
Note: A customer’s results are specific to its total environment/experience, of which Ivanti is a part. Individual results may vary based on each customer’s unique environment.