For all the talk of the AI revolution, the real world still runs on material goods, whether car parts, medical supplies, appliances, or soap.
All goods need to be moved from place to place quickly and securely: factories to warehouses, warehouses to businesses, or warehouses and businesses to consumers. That makes companies operating anywhere along the materials management chain—carriers, warehouse consolidators, distributors, or retailers—critical players in our modern economy. For these businesses, real-time inventory visibility, data accuracy, and operational efficiency are non-negotiable must-haves if they want to survive in a highly competitive and fast-evolving industry.
Businesses that rely heavily on materials management must utilize technology to make their operations more efficient. One option is to use the Zebra Technology ecosystem to serve their needs. Zebra Technologies offers a robust, end-to-end materials system—spanning scanners, mobile computing devices, RFID printers, fixed machine vision systems, IoT sensors, and cloud software—that empowers businesses to transform materials management into a fully integrated, intelligent structure.
At Straight Line Solutions (SLS), we help companies build and deploy enterprise-wide materials management systems. We often specify Zebra products for our clients. Zebra’s system is well-calibrated for building smarter, more responsive systems that optimize workflows, reduce errors, and elevate performance.
How Zebra Unifies Materials Tracking for Peak Efficiency
Successful materials management operations rely on knowing precisely what you have at any given moment and where it is in real time. Moreover, you need to be able to bring materials in when you need them, know when they arrive, and move them to where they need to go.
That’s a lot of movement, and delays and inaccuracies are costly. If your company depends on manual scanning schedules or software that doesn’t integrate with all your materials systems, your processes could introduce delays and blind spots that handicap your operation. Zebra’s unified system, including hardware, software, and support, eliminates these handicaps by enabling:
- Real-time data flow from the warehouse floor to management dashboards
- Automated asset identification with RAIN RFID and fixed or mobile scanners
- Seamless printing of barcode/RFID labels at the point of use
Zebra Technologies has designed its system to address critical aspects of materials handling, including:
Mobile Computers & Scanners: Zebra’s rugged handhelds, tablets, and fixed industrial scanners support both 1D/2D barcodes and RFID, ideal for inventory checks, picking, and asset tracking.
RFID Printers & Tags: With products like the ZD621R, ZT610/ZT620/ZT621R, and ZQ511R mobile RFID printers, Zebra enables on-demand printing and encoding of RFID tags and labels of various sizes.
Fixed Scanners & Machine Vision: Zebra’s fixed scanners and machine vision systems support automated checks (e.g., barcode validation, part verification) as items move through conveyors or production lines.
Printing Supplies & Printheads: Zebra supplies premium ribbons, labels, and printer accessories designed to preserve print quality and reduce wear on industrial printheads.
Cloud & AI Software: Zebra’s Workcloud suite offers inventory optimization, demand forecasting, and workforce management, while VisibilityIQ™ Foresight aggregates data from devices and sensors for analytics and decision-making.
These components, coordinated into your materials system, provide:
- Instant Inventory Accuracy: RFID encoders print and program tags at receipt; fixed and handheld readers automatically log arrivals, movements, and dispatches, minimizing stock discrepancies.
- Workflow Efficiency: Handheld scanners direct workers to scan or pick items, with data syncing instantly via cloud, reducing delays and ensuring accuracy through every stage.
- Automated Quality Control: Machine vision systems check package contents, labels, or sealing integrity, triggering automatic alerts or actions without human intervention.
- Smart Analytics & Optimization: All data converges into Workcloud’s analytics platform, enabling predictive replenishment and identifying inefficiencies across inventory flows.
Why Choose Zebra + SLS
As an industry consultant, SLS takes a whole-enterprise approach to helping companies revolutionize their materials management systems. From WiFi site surveys and workflow analysis to specifying hardware, software, and security measures, we aim to design systems that are scalable, rugged, and unified. In our experience, Zebra’s ecosystem often fills the bill for critical components of our system designs.
Investing in Zebra’s end-to-end ecosystem with guidance and support from Straight Line Solutions offers measurable benefits that enhance the efficiency of materials management operations, eliminate pain points, optimize labor productivity, facilitate regulatory compliance, and improve ROI.
If you’re ready to build a smarter materials management system using Zebra components or need support planning and implementing a Zebra material ecosystem, contact Straight Line Solutions today.