INDUSTRY INTERVIEW: Zebra Enterprise Solutions

MLF 2010 Volume: 4 Issue: 2 (March)

Q: What role does ZES seek to fill in DoD?

A: Zebra Enterprise Solutions uses an integrated family of automatic identification and data collection technologies to help organizations get the right asset in the right place at the right time. Our technologies include barcode, passive RFID, active RFID real time location systems [RTLS], and vehicle GPS telemetry. This broad portfolio allows system designers to apply the right mix of technologies to best solve a problem.

The unique nature of various AIDC technologies provides their utility in certain situations, but the lack of commonality has caused developers to focus on one or two technologies and make problem definition fit the tool on hand. By bringing multiple technologies to the market in a common framework, ZES reduces the barrier to best of breed deployments. Technologies are compared on their inherent merit, not the strength of their advocate or differences in the accessories.

Q: Where are the greatest opportunities—and challenges—to provide a transformational change in military logistics processes?

A: While our commercial customers often have common business processes, a singular focus and limited integration, defense organizations have highly specialized processes, interdisciplinary operations, and complex dependencies between organizations and operations. That complexity and specialization is a tough problem: commercial solutions don’t fit, and developing custom solutions is expensive.

The challenges that make military logistics hard are ones that create a great opportunity for real time location systems. Logistics operations operate at a high tempo, moving large assets of large areas. Leaders at all levels are challenged to collect accurate information on the location and status of materiel and equipment. Facility throughput is often reduced by the need to dedicate time to collecting and analyzing status information. Time is lost in the warehouse, on the shop floor and out in the yard, looking for an asset that was mislaid, misrouted or just had the misfortune to be one of 500 other tactical vehicles parked in the area.

Real time location systems eliminate data collection time. Data is not just available to senior management: that data can be made available to all workers, so that the constant decisions made during the work day can be made in the context of both upstream and downstream impacts. Beyond the workers, the automated systems can now be informed. Comparing real time location to the logistics plan identifies the part that got misrouted by the paint shop, the hazardous material that was placed in the wrong storage location, or the forklift driver that can’t seem to keep under the speed limit.

Q: Please provide some background on ZES and the company’s work with DoD in the logistics arena.

A: ZES has been fortunate to receive excellent sponsorship at sites that have validated the value of the technology for defense users: Tobyhanna Army Depot, the Air Force Materiel Command and the National Geospatial Intelligence Agency.

Tobyhanna was the first military facility to employ ZES RTLS for work in process [WIP] tracking. By automating the visibility of assets moving through the overhaul process, workers can better manage their time. Misrouted parts, mislaid test equipment and the need to walk the depot to check status have all been greatly reduced. Four military overhaul facilities and six aerospace and defense manufacturers use ZES for WIP tracking.

Robins Air Force Base was the first production deployment of a real time location system for tracking flight line equipment. With over four square miles of coverage on the base, Robins provides visibility of multiple assets classes across the entire facility. Flight line tracking has been deployed at multiple military bases and an aerospace OEM. Many air bases combine flight line tracking with WIP tracking in their maintenance facility to provide a comprehensive view of base operations and maintenance.

Q: What’s next?

A: We’re continuing to move forward on three vectors: product improvements, use case development and partner education.

As an enabling technology in an emerging field, product innovation remains a priority. Improving price and performance is a constant, but ZES is also committed to driving out the complexity in the technology in order to further lower the barriers to adoption and reduce the total cost of ownership. We’re reducing the complexity of our own family of technologies by working to unify the processes and software required to implement technologies from barcode to vehicle telemetry. In addition to internal initiatives, we’re working with standards bodies to insure that the software interfaces and RFID protocols our customers want are open standards.

We have many success stories and drive business value for a lot of organizations. We’re working to collect the lessons learned from overhauling airplanes, building combat vehicles and repairing radars to provide a more general model of work in process tracking. With use cases developed for work in process, materiel movement, classified asset, test measurement and diagnostics and other business functions, we’ll be able to more accurately quantify potential value for technology insertion.

Partner education is the key to broader adoption. Defense systems integrators and weapons systems manufactures have the insight and creativity to employ our technology to best effect. We continue to evangelize the power of the technology in the context of successful implementations. ♦

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