Integrating mobility and leveraging modern technologies can be transformative for businesses today. Keeping up with the pace of business change is daunting and organizations need to embrace emerging technologies in the Internet of Things to stay ahead of the competition. For this post, I would like to discuss a new feature we’ve developed in the A2B Tracking platform for Field team truck inspections with mobile RFID.
Managers of field teams and service vehicles are often challenged with developing systems for pre- and post-trip inspections. Establishing a system to ensure that each vehicle has all of the necessary equipment before it leaves for the day and then returns to the office with the same expected inventory is critical to maintaining compliance, inventory accuracy and operational efficiency.
Utilize RFID tags and handheld readers
Affixing a passive RFID tag on each item that can be scanned by a handheld RFID reader is a game-changer. When properly executed, a truckload of equipment can be scanned in a matter of seconds with a handheld RFID reader.
Our system includes rugged tablets, or smartphones, equipped with Zebra RFID readers that are running the A2B RFID Tracker App connected to the cloud.
RFID Inspection Lists
Our Groupings feature allows users to create a Packing list or an Inspection list. The platform can handle an unlimited number of lists to allow for special projects or the inspections lists can be generic and reused indefinitely if that’s desired. However, by taking a quick RFID scan of a group of items a user can quickly create an inspection list and store it in the system for use.
Before and after completing their delivery routes, drivers check each item on the inspection list by quickly scanning their vehicle with a mobile RFID reader and instantly know if their inventory is complete, or specifically what items are missing. Alternatively, the Inspection is also able to report on items that it did not expect to find and the user can either incorporate that item into the list or relocate it to the proper location.
The fact that the A2B Tracking platform is in the cloud means that all of the inspection lists are available to any of your users, or field teams, regardless of where they’re located around the world. The platform also supplies Global Data filters to allow administrators to limit the visibility of users — so that each field team can have a customized view with visibility into only the inspections lists that they need to see.
This efficient process effectively checks-off each component in the inspection list and ensures 100% inventory accuracy.
Field teams can not afford to waste time with a slow, manual inspection process and at the same time they can’t afford to make a mistake and not have all the equipment that they need for the day. We’ve found that this inspection process is an incredible solution for organizations big and small.
