Rugged tablet PC improves order picking and shipping

Swedish chain store Jula provides a range of products for professional and do-it-yourself projects. From its warehouse in Skara, Sweden—the largest building in northern Europe at 1.6 million square feet—the company ships goods to its 90 retail stores across Sweden, Norway and Poland. After deploying ultra-rugged tablets to assist order pickers and shipping employees, the company streamlined order picking and truck loading.

Twenty rugged tablets (Handheld Group) were installed in vehicle docks on warehouse forklifts used by order-picking employees. The IP65-rated tablet computers feature a 10.1-inch full HD projected capacitive touchscreen and a processor that can run warehousing software and perform complicated tasks quickly. The lockable vehicle docks have several connection options, including two USB ports, two RS232 ports and an Ethernet port, along with GPS/WWAN pass-through.

The company uses a pick-by-voice system to keep workers’ hands free to operate machinery and handle goods. By displaying a picking list on the tablet, forklift operators are able to override the voice system’s given sequence as needed to speed up picking and load items more efficiently.

Another 25 tablets with external scanners were deployed so shipping workers can scan each pallet’s label as it’s loaded onto a delivery truck. Scanning sends inventory details wirelessly to the back office and saves a record of every loaded item and which pallet it’s on.

“When we’ve worked as hard as we have to make our warehouse as perfect as possible when it comes to reliability and infrastructure, delivery security is of utmost importance,” says Urban Andersson, infrastructure IT system manager. “The present system is modern and fast, and the tablets are stable and reliable.”