Mobile devices - how do I find the right one for me?

These considerations will help you find your way through the equipment jungle

A central role for the productivity of a mobile solution is the selection of the right front-end devices. This is because it is important to select the hardware that offers the best possible handling for the respective application.

Factors such as weight, size of the display, one-hand or two-hand operation, ergonomics, position of the barcode scanner, selection of the barcode technology to be captured or RFID/NFC, input tools (e.g. fixed keyboard or touch screen), position of the scan buttons, necessity of image capture, distance to the object to be captured, protection class against the effects of water and dust, and many more are important questions in finding a solution. It is important to take an anamnesis, because this is the only way to actually achieve the highest possible productivity.

At this stage, do not be distracted by the coolness of a product in the visual sense. Products for professional use have little in common with classic consumer devices, even though they may look similar. 

Evaluation

True professional devices must be evaluated according to a clear matrix, because this is the only way to ensure that the end user (your employee at the point of action) can really achieve the parameters for the economic introduction such as quality increase, error reduction, increase in transparency or lead time reduction at the beginning of the project.

At Barcotec, support in the evaluation process is an essential part of our consulting activities, because the jungle of new and proven devices is large, changes frequently and requires a lot of detailed know-how about the features of the devices.

It can therefore also happen that one and the same customer uses different equipment for storage, for example, than for order picking. Of course, synergies are then used in the best possible way and we pay attention to accessories that can be used together (batteries, chargers, etc.).

In principle, professional data collection devices can be divided into 3 categories according to today's standards:

  • Classic, mobile data collection devices with fixed keyboard
  • Smartphone-like industrial devices with a high protection class
  • Industrial tablets
  • In our product portfolio, we call these hardware "mobile devices" because they are devices that are used in-house (in production or logistics environments) or outdoors (for delivery registration or for field service). All devices must therefore comply with hard protection classes from IP54 upwards.

It is difficult to give a general recommendation as to which devices should be used in which environment, because almost every customer has different requirements. For example, one production company has applied 2D barcodes in a small size and needs 2D handheld terminals for this, while another uses conventional 1D codes with 6 mil resolution and needs a pistol-grip device.

This can be continued in the retail, warehouse logistics, last mile delivery, production data collection, healthcare, pharmacy, etc. industries.

Workshop

In order to meet your different requirements, we conduct an on-site evaluation workshop. We bring a variety of the most modern devices to your company, test the readability, distance and handling together with the end users (if you wish) and thus prepare the optimal, expert ground for a new digitisation project.

You can rely on having a real expert at hand who not only brings over 30 years of experience in exactly this segment to bear for you, but also has access to the latest technologies and hardware through international partnerships.

In addition, regular trend scouting on the world market constantly checks the validity of the recommendation in the various sectors. For example, just at the beginning of the year we found a completely new device that will revolutionise the way we work in the future: an Android tablet that you wear on your head.

Our team of consultants is ready for your enquiries, contact us today.