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Wireless technology is helping one of California's largest state agencies reduce
manual data entry and improve efficiency.
The California Department of
Water Resources (DWR) is employing a wireless barcode system to track materials
in a dozen of its key storage facilities. Developed by Ontario, Canada-based
Psion Teklogix, the TekRF system performs inventory management transactions in
real time via hand-held wireless terminals. The terminals communicate with the
department's materials management database located at DWR headquarters in
Sacramento.
The agency, with an annual budget approaching $1 billion,
administers the state's water resources and flood control programs. Its division
warehouses, located throughout the state, handle thousands of materials every
day, from simple office supplies to huge water pumps. Previously, employees
tracked materials using traditional paper processes and transferred tracking
data into computer workstations connected to DWR's network. The result was a
time-consuming system fraught with errors.
Scanner in the
Works
The new system, which took between six and eight months to
implement, is designed to extend the functions of DWR's main SAP R/3 materials
management database to character-based handheld devices used on the warehouse
floor. First, materials are tagged with a barcode generated by an on-site
printer. Once the barcode is scanned, workers can use the SAP navigation tools
via the handheld device keypad to select from a variety of material management
processes, including physical inventory, receipts and stock transfers between
warehouses. Information such as the type of transaction, quantities, dates and
barcode identifier are transmitted directly from the scanner, via a radio
frequency link, to an on-site base station. Each wall-mounted base station -
about the size of a cereal box - is configured to communicate over DWR's wide
area network with the main database in Sacramento.
"These are government
storage facilities which handle thousands of items each day," said Mike Brown, a
DWR information system analyst and leader of the TekRF implementation team. "Our
goal was to try to cut down on data entry errors and loss of information. By
switching to wireless, we've essentially cut the number of material processing
steps down from three to one."
Now, workers can more accurately perform
inventory cycle counts and track quantities of parts taken from stock.
Warehouses employing the system have the capability to tag, classify and log
large deliveries in less than half the time it used to take.
"In addition
to eliminating paperwork, we used [the system] to build in other functions we
had not performed before," Brown said. "We can now check every item that's
received, with the ability to create a barcode for each item."
The new
system minimizes data entry errors. Warehouse employees can ensure correct
quantities and items are received and input the data directly at the source. The
system guides users through transactions step-by-step, displaying error messages
and prompts for data input.
With the system still in its first year of
implementation, DWR has not yet quantified improvements to inventory processes.
However, users report that they are able to process two to three times the
amount of materials previously processed using traditional methods. And
preliminary statistics show that between 70 percent and 95 percent of goods
issue transactions are being done with the wireless barcode system, according to
Dave Kearney, DWR purchasing services manager. Those figures are expected to
rise as the staff grows more comfortable using the handheld devices, Kearney
said.
Follow the Leader
The use of wireless barcode
data collection is rapidly growing in the private sector, where manufacturers
like Toyota are using the process to streamline their operations. At DWR, the
decision to implement the TekRF system came on the heels of an organization-wide
assessment that looked for areas where best practices could be implemented to
get the most out of the department's recent deployment of ERP software.
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