Project in Brief

CSSI worked with a cold storage company to create a warehouse inventory management system which was a) suitable for freezer usage, b) capable of terminal emulation on mobile Android devices, and c) could improve productivity and reduce training time for a spanish-speaking workforce.

Customer’s Challenge: Telnet Screens, Spanish-Speaking Workforce

Our customer operates several cold storage facilities. They approached CSSI because of aging and unreliable mobile computers used for critical inventory management tasks such as order picking, putaway, and inventory moves.

During facility walkthroughs, CSSI’s consultants observed that a) the telnet screens in use on the customer’s devices were difficult to use and required unnecessary keystrokes, and b) the majority of the warehouse staff were native spanish-speakers, which added training time and created room for errors on text-only devices.

CSSI’s Solution: Modernized Screens, Spanish or English Options

From a hardware perspective, refrigerated warehouses are a demanding environment for mobile computers. Screens can fog up and device reliability will be impacted if non-suitable equipment is used. For this reason, CSSI recommended the Zebra MC9300, freezer-grade model. This is a rugged mobile computer specifically rated for refrigerated and freezer environments.

From a software perspective, CSSI recommended Ivanti Velocity, software which enables terminal emulation on Android mobile devices. Further, Velocity can be used to create a color touch-screen overlay on TE ‘green screens’… without making changes to the customer’s back-end computer systems. CSSI’s professional services team designed color touch screens which lay over the green screens, creating a user friendly interface, and eliminating unnecessary key strokes.

Finally, CSSI recommended the creation of a spanish-language screen interface option, which would enable the native spanish-speaking workforce to work with easier-to-understand screens. This reduced training time and improved worker productivity.

In summary, CSSI’s solution included:

• Freezer-grade mobile computers (the Zebra MC9300 freezer-grade version)
• Telnet software solution (Ivanti Velocity) which allows terminal emulation on a mobile device, as well as custom-screen creation adding color touch-screen functionality.
• CSSI development services to create color screens, and option to switch from English to Spanish

Interested in TE Screen Modernization or Cold-Storage Computing?

The rugged computing warehouse experts at CSSI are ready to discuss your needs. Please contact us to discuss your project.