Handheld terminals keep management informed

Uniglaze 2 relies on DataScan and Datalogic to keep it at the cutting edge of the glass industry.

Uniglaze 2 relies on DataScan and Datalogic to keep it at the cutting edge of the glass industry.

Established in 1983, Uniglaze 2 (East Anglia) is a manufacturer of high quality British Standard Kitemarked double glazed insulating units and toughened glass.

The company sells to double glazing suppliers and large architectural specialists and has its own distribution network that can deliver up to 40,000 units produced each week.

To meet increased demand, Uniglaze 2 opened a new state of the art factory in Norwich that is 250m long.

The fully automated factory is equipped with six cutting tables, multiple glass selection systems and toughening plants, together with six sealed unit lines.

The factory runs 24 hours a day and employs 300 staff.

Uniglaze 2 installed a new Albat and Wirsam factory management system, Alcim 2000, to help it manage such a large facility.

Orders taken by the customer services team are passed to the Alcim system which creates the codes for the cutting tables and generates a label containing both human readable data such as the customer name, product type and delivery date, plus a barcode.

Each barcode contains the unique reference number for the unit which can be fully traced back through the production facility.

Handheld terminals were being used by Uniglaze 2 to scan the barcodes on the products as they were being loaded into the containers throughout the day ready to go out the following morning for delivery.

Unfortunately these were too lightweight for the heavy demands placed on them by the warehousing staff and failures rates and damages were taking their toll, both on repair costs and more critically, down time.

Tom West, ICT Technician at Uniglaze 2 comments: "We were returning on average 2 units a month, 20% of our scanners".

"I spent a great deal of time trying to repair the units myself before returning them in an effort to control costs and reduce the downtime caused by reduced terminal numbers".

Additionally, there were occasions when discrepancies occurred with deliveries as a lack of handheld terminals meant that not all shipped products could be scanned.

West explains: "We couldn't delay our shipments so if we didn't have enough scanners we'd have to despatch products without being able to obtain an accurate record of what had been shipped".

"This meant that we were unable to prove what had been despatched and resulted in our supplying replacement products in response to claims for nonsupply that we were unable to check".

As Uniglaze 2 was pleased with the service it had previously received from DataScan it asked the company to supply new, more rugged devices that could integrate with the Alcim factory management system.

Uniglaze 2 was keen for DataScan to provide both the software integration and the hardware as it wanted one company to take ownership of any potential problems that might arise.

DataScan recommended the Datalogic Formula Color batch handheld terminal due to its ruggedness and suitability for the industrial environment.

The units run bespoke software written by DataScan to manage the uploading of barcode data to the Alcim system as each product is loaded for despatch.

The new software is very easy to use and enables West to make changes quickly and easily via the settings file, giving him complete control over the system.

The Formula Color terminals are used around the clock, scanning some 200 units onto each of the 20 lorries that go out at 0600 each day.

The scanned information is used to confirm loaded shipments and also to inform customers whether a product has been manufactured or is still in production.

Data is uploaded from the terminals at various times of the day using docking stations.

Data can then be checked to see which products are outstanding.

If any are missing or broken they are allocated to the night shift to be finished in time for their allocated delivery.

The new Datalogic handheld terminals are performing very well and Uniglaze 2 has seen a big reduction in repair costs and downtime.

Discrepancies over nondelivery have been eliminated as the units are so reliable that there is never a shortage of units to scan the product onto the lorries.

"As we scan each and every product onto the lorry we know exactly what has and hasn't been shipped".

"Discrepancies have become a thing of the past", West comments.

Uniglaze 2 plans to introduce another two or three scanning points in the manufacturing process to provide more detailed management information to help it to keep its customers even more closely informed of individual orders.

There is also a plan to move to an RF network that will enable Uniglaze 2 to capture and send information back to its factory management system in real time, further improving productivity.

DataScan designed the software to work in batch or real time ensuring the transition for Uniglaze 2 should be quite straightforward.

"DataScan has been very responsive to our needs and during the software development stage provided a prompt turnaround on changes".

"We have formed a close working relationship and look forward to working with DataScan when we make the move to real time data communications", West concludes.

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