White Paper

Intralogistics – optimizing the

movement of goods and data
through buildings and
processes

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 Automation in the supply chain is not new – transport,
logistics, manufacturing, warehousing, retail and
healthcare have all been automated for years. So, what
is changing?

Introduction
Businesses and organizations have been gradually moving towards greater
automation for some time, digitizing their processes to achieve better
competitiveness, cost control, and to reach new markets. They also want to use
power and fuel more sustainably, and reduce the waste released into the
environment.
These two trends were already driving change in the supply chain and materials
handling functions. Then the Coronavirus Pandemic hit and forced organizations
to transform the way they move goods around in a matter of weeks.

Digitalcommerce360.com estimates that Businesses had to re-design many of their processes. Some needed to adapt to
American consumers spent $861.12bn online maintain business as usual, others – particularly retailers – needed to transform
with US merchants in 2020 – up an incredible
just to survive as shoppers wanted groceries and supplies brought directly to their
44% year on year*.
homes. Accordingly, retailers and their supply chains shifted their focus to enable
online ordering and delivery.
Manufacturers, already responding to Brexit, are also adjusting to new patterns
of supply, transport and distribution.
Health authorities, with their complex supply chains, operate very much like large
businesses, and need to do more with less – treat more patients, instigate
widespread test and vaccination programs, and manage with fewer staff.
Everywhere, there is pressure for efficiency, to get work done whatever, to
compensate for the changes and the economic fallout of 2020. Speed and
productivity matter more than ever: moving and receiving goods, putting-away
stock accurately, shortening sorting and loading times, enabling faster
distribution. Mobile computers and scanners speed up these processes, and every
small improvement makes a difference

Four critical business goals

Intralogistics refers to the Organization,
Intralogistics has become a new science where processes are optimized for
control, implementation and optimization of
efficiency. Businesses, particularly manufacturers and retailers, and health
the internal flow of materials, the flow of
authorities that buy and store high value supplies for patient care, are all looking
information and the handling of goods in
to automation for greater efficiency, improved reliability and fewer errors.
industry, retail and public facilities.
- VDMA, the Materials Handling and The most pressing concern is to compensate for the unforeseen costs of
Intralogistics Association* Coronavirus and make up the financial shortfall.
The Pandemic has taught some tough lessons. Organizations realize they face new
risks they had not previously foreseen – and that they must be more agile in case
of another crisis, whether it is a health emergency, environmental or political, as
with Brexit. At the time of writing, workplaces are following national guidelines on
sanitizing and social distancing, to keep employees safe from Covid-19.

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 This translates to four critical business goals:
1. PRODUCTIVITY - to optimize the use of machinery, vehicles and human
resources
2. FINANCE – to control costs, running costs and inventory
3. MARKETING – to win by being faster to market and providing better
customer experience
4. AGILITY – to be ready to respond to future change
What does this mean? It means taking a new look at business processes from end
to end, to be sure that they are robust, accurate, efficient and ready for the new,
post-pandemic era.
It means re-examining every stage in the logistics journey, in manufacturing,
warehousing, retail, fulfilment and distribution. Each step needs to be visible and
efficient: goods in, data-capture, high-speed sorting, palletizing, assembly line,
labelling, order picking, verification of parcels, shipping, loading to vehicles and
handover to the final customer. These processes need to be flexible so that
employees and their equipment can be relocated to different position if a process
should change.
We see that Organizations in all market sectors are optimizing their logistic
processes to achieve these goals.

Manufacturing
Apart from small craft industries, most manufacturing is automated in the
“The advancement of technologies such as western world. The next step for manufacturers is to move towards end-to-end
artificial intelligence, computer learning, automation and Industry 4.0.
sensors and analytics has created a buzz Most use barcodes to manage inventory, to help them locate components and
about the potential of smart factories across track assembly. The data they capture from barcodes helps them to achieve
the manufacturing world. More and more right-first-time quality, and handle recalls more efficiently if there should be a
factories are moving beyond traditional product issue.
automation to a fully connected and flexible
They can enhance quality through better visibility and traceability. This also helps
plant, using a constant stream of data from
them to comply with legislation and standards. They can use machine vision, OCR
connected operations to learn and adapt to
and handheld scanners to check goods throughout production, and capture batch
new demands.” (Forbes*).
codes, manufacturing dates, and origins.
Manufacturers want to optimize for efficiency, increase capacity and throughput,
and save energy. Integration is the key to efficiency, so manufacturers are linking
their factory systems to their trading partners and suppliers. They can interface
their ERP, QA and traceability systems together, to help speed up projects and
processes

Storage and distribution

Supply chains are changing. Brexit is changing processes. Supply chains can be
reconfigured. Some automated warehouses are now extremely large. New
analytics and AI (Artificial Intelligence) are helping companies to make better
informed decisions and serve their customers better.
With risks from pandemics, disasters, political change and supply threats,
companies must ask whether their existing materials handling system is fit for
purpose?

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 EY wrote*: “most companies lack end-to-end visibility in the supply chain to
effectively reduce costs and risks.”
In practice, this means checking goods in accurately, in real time, recording
exactly where they are stored, and checking them out again for delivery.
Companies use barcode labels and handheld scanners to capture data and
manage the whole process: receiving goods, storing them, order processing
and picking, checking out, loading vehicles and stock-taking.
Gartner*: “Companies utilizing technology in supply chain risk management
increase their effectiveness in supplier risk tactics by almost 2x.”

Retail
Consumers’ expectations of retailers have changed. They now expect quicker
fulfilment of orders, better service at in-store service desks and faster
deliveries to their homes.
Retailers’ response has been amazing. Many adopted e-commerce intensively
and adjusted to new patterns of shopping during 2020. They have added self-
service machines and contactless payments.
Behind the scenes, they are sorting items faster on conveyor belts, and
tracking pallets to where they are stored. This means that automated picking
becomes possible. Order fulfilment can use robots to process orders faster,
and quick barcode scans confirm when an order is handed over. Even the final
drop-off is logged and recorded by the delivery driver.
Retailers are also processing more returns. Where the volume is high, these
too can be automated using machine vision and high-speed sorting in
automated warehouses.
Gartner on retail*: “Covid forced digital transformation at an unprecedented
rate, by some estimates fast-forwarding consumer and business digital
adaption by 5 years in 8 weeks.”
We do not expect operations to return to how they were. Retailers will
continue to use technology to optimize their processes and improve
customer experience. They will strive for better use of inventory, steady
margins and to provide a better customer service.

Healthcare
The crisis of 2020 has stretched healthcare services to their limits. Health
logistics are already automated for accuracy and productivity. For example,
hospitals use barcoded wristbands to check patients’ ID and verify that they
receive the correct treatments. Healthcare inventory is tracked – to monitor
high value assets, hospital supplies and pharmaceuticals, and keep inventory
up to date.
In pharmaceuticals, the implementation of the “Falsified Medical Directive”
has accelerated the use of technology. Manufacturers use vision systems with
1D and 2D labelling for quality assurance. They track batch numbers,
manufacturing dates and expiry dates. They can log supplies by pack, carton or
pallet. The same codes are read again in the pharmacies dispensing the
medication.

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 Scientific laboratories use machine readable codes to label test samples and
process them efficiently and anonymously. With pressure on health services
to do more with less, all improvements in efficiency will make a difference.
Even though each industry has its specific needs, they all share the same
challenges:

Efficient and precise process flow in all intralogistics areas:

Today, when managing any type of goods or data the magic word that
everybody knows is traceability. All items and data that are handled need to be
seamlessly identified and traceable throughout the entire value chain. To
identify parts, goods or packages there is several solutions and sometimes
finding the right one is difficult:

Hands-free stationary scanner solutions for order fulfillment

Hands-free solutions are more suitable for Goods-to-People (GTP), because
they are based on a fixed positioned bar code reader that allows the operator
to fully focus on order creation and capturing the data content of the items in
a seamless way. Hands-free solutions are 100% contactless, since the goods
are read “on the fly” while fulfilling the order.
The fact that there is no need to handle the devices repeatedly makes
operations much safer, especially at a time when it is strongly advisable to
touch shared surfaces as little as possible: the issue of disinfecting the devices
is avoided. The fixed position means there are no cables and no cradles to deal
with.
Hands-free solutions have many other advantages in terms of improving
business processes. For example, the mountings help the operators become
more productive because there is no interruption in their movement and no
time wasted picking up the device and aiming at the label to read it.
Moreover, depending on the dimensions and type of items to be identified, the
hands-free solution can be adjusted to suit the operator and allow them to
work more comfortably and more productively. With just a few models it is
possible to provide solutions for many different situations, as most of the
parameters are software controlled and can easily be adjusted. It is easy to
implement hands-free solutions in most of areas of a logistic center.

Hands-free wearable solutions

Depending on the application, the key benefit of using a wearable hands-free
solution is its ease of use. Users can easily pick up heavy or bulky items with
both hands, wearing the hands-free scanner like a glove. This ensures fast data
capture, hence increasing productivity while reducing unnecessary, repetitive
tasks and associated errors.
Mounted comfortably and ergonomically on the back of the hand, the solution
is thinner and less intrusive than traditional ring mounted scanners. It frees the
user’s hands for all manner of operations and is far more resistant to damage
than traditional bulky, finger mounted scanners.

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 Additionally, combining such a solution with a mobile computer, further
enhances worker productivity with full data collection capability suitable for
any kind of application. With their light weight, fast scanning, long battery life,
quick charge capability and unique notification features, these types of
products help users to maximize the efficiency of their operations with a quick
return on investment.
Dimensional Weighing Systems for efficient shipping
Many companies are using data such as sizes and weights of packages to
manage and optimize their shipping costs. The actual process of measuring and
weighing can either be done manually or by fully integrated automatic
solutions.
The advantage of such automation is clearly increased speed and precision.
These systems combine camera technology with dimensioning and weighing
systems and the three parameters are calculated in fast and seamless way.
When an item’s weight and dimension are used to charge the customer, these
systems are LFT (Legal For Trade) DWS (Dimensioning Weighting Scanning)
systems. Datalogic is a certified vendor for LFT DWS systems.
Camera solutions for packaging control
Camera technology is widely used in many logistic fields, such as following the
packaging process from start to finish, through production up to delivery in the
store. The advantages of an image-based technology, beside the capability to
read 1D and 2D barcodes, are related to the image capture. These images can
be stored as POD (Proof of Delivery) or can be used as further decoding
processes like OCR (Optical Character Recognition).

User friendly and safe working environments:

When moving items from one place to another the environment changes and
so do the working conditions. Depending on the applications, the changes
might be dusty or dirty environments, cold storage, high-rack-warehouses or
movement of pallets. Solutions need to be flexible to ensure that users can rely
on easy-to-use technology in all these environments.
Mobile Computers
Mobile computer solutions offer the greatest flexibility for warehouse
applications where mobility is required combined with robustness and
ergonomics. Operators can choose from different form factors ranging from
devices with or without a pistol grip up to different keypad layouts and display
sizes. In addition, devices with Auto-Range functions enable operators to read
codes from a long distance. This is especially useful in high-rack warehouses.
To offer users the benefit of a familiar and hence easy to use environment,
today’s operating systems are based on Android. Thanks to the unique wireless
charging technology that is only available in Datalogic’s mobile computers,
enterprises can easily lower their Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) because
repair, maintenance and changing of battery contacts are no longer needed.

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 Smart Forklift Solutions
Tailored for warehouse management solutions, vehicle mounted computers
are considered to be the most robust and user-friendly solutions for
applications on forklifts. They offer the benefits of the big 10” or 12” screen,
and a sealed design with IP65/IP67 protection. For applications in cold-storage
environment there are special models with integrated heater systems. To make
them easy to use, operators can also use them when wearing gloves. If they
are used in combination with an auto-range hand-held-scanner the driver does
not have to leave his vehicle to manage materials. They come with a choice of
operating systems such as Windows Embedded Compact 7 (WEC7), Windows
Embedded Standard 7, Windows 10 IoT Enterprise and the new Android™ 7.1.

Margins of efficiency
The challenges of intralogistics are the same everywhere - how to capture data
faster, track goods more easily, and then use that data to achieve measurable
efficiency?
Datalogic’s latest data capture devices are designed to enhance efficiency in
any work environment - manufacturing, warehousing, retail or healthcare. The
latest scanners and barcode readers bring new features:
• Long range scanning for high warehouse pallets
• Readability of 1D and 2D barcodes on various surfaces
• Higher read rates for barcodes, even if badly printed
• Multi-sided reading, for codes on the top, side or bottom of an item
• IP65 and IP67 rated scanners for harsh environments
• Wireless devices for mobile working
Datalogic also brings the benefit of many years’ experience in automation and
data capture.
Scanners and machine vision tools are not enough on their own, they require
integration with corporate databases, documentation and the wider IT
ecosystem. Datalogic offers these services through a community of partners
who bring deep expertise in their market sectors: manufacturing, retail,
transport and logistics, and healthcare.

* Sources
https://www.digitalcommerce360.com/article/us-ecommerce-sales/
https://www.ey.com/en_gl/consulting/covid-19-why-real-time-visibility-is-a-game-changer-for-supply-chains
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/343261244_The_Implementation_of_Barcode_on_Warehouse_Manage
ment_System_for_Warehouse_Efficiency
https://www.forbes.com/sites/deloitte/2021/01/21/smart-factory-transformation-the-time-is-now/?
https://www.shdlogistics.com/amhsa/figures-support-growth-warehouse-automation-market
https://foerd.vdma.org/en/viewer/-/v2article/render/16118581

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About Datalogic
Datalogic is a global technology leader in the automatic data capture and process automation markets since 1972, specialized in the designing and production of bar
code readers, mobile computers, sensors for detection, measurement and safety, machine vision and laser marking systems.
Datalogic S.p.A. is listed in the STAR segment of the Italian Stock Exchange since 2001 as DAL.MI.
Datalogic and the Datalogic logo are registered trademarks of Datalogic S.p.A. in many countries, including the U.S.A. and the E.U. Other trademarks and names belong
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to their respective owners.
20200508
For more information visit www.datalogic.com.
©2021 Datalogic. All rights reserved.

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