Keeping track of 1000's of vehicles
Hyundai are one of the largest and most innovative car producers in the world. They have the worlds largest production facility in South Korea and employ over 75,000 people worldwide. Their UK presence is largely concerned with importing and stocking vehicles for their UK sales operation, with their site having grown 3 times since opening to supply 700,000+ vehicles. The site can have up to 6000 cars delivered in one shipment that need to be processed quickly.
Hyundai have been a Raptor customer for 8 years and this latest project saw us renewing our previously supplied barcoding solution in their a car importing facility in the UK.
Hyundai uses 120 devices in a 24/7 shift pattern that are now using 5 year old technology. Add to this new demands such as hugely increased vehicle processing needs means the existing technology is no longer adequate for the job. The main challenges were:
Demanding barcode scenario This project presented a demanding barcoding scenario where barcodes needed to be read through (often dirty) glass, by a user who was required to walk quickly past each vehicle as he/she scanned them, ideally scanning from a distance of about 0.5 to 1M. 24/7 device availability Devices needed to be easily charged, all in one place and ideally charged from as few charging points as possible. A conventional quad charging cradle solution would be inadequate in this situation. Outdoor working We had a history of working with this project so we knew Hyundai users were very good. However devices would be working outdoors in all weathers and the value of a case and handstrap was known. The option to have some devices with Trigger handles would also be valued
Existing devices used the Motorola SE950 laser scanner. A trusty and well established scanner but now superceded by the huge technology advancements in 2D scanners over the past 5 years. So we knew we could improve on that and set about offering the Raptor E5 device that had 2 scanner options. A Motorola (Or now Zebra) OEM SE4710 engine which is found in most Zebra devices and is indeed an exceptional mid-range enterprise barcode scanner. However we also had Honeywell's, top-line N6603 scanner as an option in the E5 device too which would bring a high degree of optimisation and features designed for difficult scanning situations.
Initial testing of both scanners both at Raptor and onsite field testing with loan devices soon demonstrated that the N6603 scanner was the best fit. It's unique fuzzy logic and configurability for glass screen scanning coped really well with reflections and dirty glass allowing us to find a scan configuration that would give a 1M read range, dropping to only about 50cm for the most difficult barcodes presented which was well within spec. The laser aimer was also more visible at these ranges in bright outdoor conditions.
The solution to the charging issue was easy for us. We would create a new RAPTEC charging boards that are custom made charging boards that we produce for our devices. These allowed us to create 2 60x device charging panels that ran off only 2 UK plug sockets, charging the E5 devices quickly with the maximum 2.4A rated charge that their batteries would be optimised for. The boards are also only 5 inches in depth which means they can fit in places that conventional "shelf" style systems cannot be. This not only gave Hyundai users an easy way to select and return devices, but also ensured they would have a home so they would not get lost or misplaced. Note the boards for Hyundai were created with corporate branded Hyundai back panels
Other accessories used for this project were The Raptor E5 Case which not only adds superb ruggedness features, but also a handstrap onto the back of the E5.
Lastly we employed a provisioning service for Hyundai which installed a KIOSK application onto each device sent. This provisioned each device with a set configuration for the barcode scanner, network, applications as well as locking down the devices for sole business usage. As always we presented the configuration as a stand alone config file so that Hyundai Tech's could re-install themselves onsite.
To complete the solution Hyundai decided to opt for a more 'peace of mind' support model, in our comprehensive support service (Raptor PRO at the time), now Raptor PROTECT. This would give Hyundai a fast, cost inclusive, TCO support service when needed.
Raptor E5 Device with N6603 barcode scanner Raptec custom charge panels. 60 device panels, charged form 2 plug sockets E5 Case and hand strap sureLOCK KIOSK solution Raptor Provisioning service Raptor PRO comprehensive support