Conference Coverage: "How Augmented Reality Can Optimize Supply Chain and the Seasonal Surge"

Jay Kim, Chief Strategy Officer, Upskill, and Alec Hicks,, Group Director Solutions Design, Ryder System Inc., bantered back and forth in a Q&A-styled session, "How Augmented Reality Can Optimize Supply Chain and the Seasonal Surge," at the Smart City Logistics & Connected Supply Chain Solutions Theater. The banter was not only informative, as the questions were related to real cases, but it enabled the sharing of some first-hand, enlightening experiences. 

Some of the discussion points addressed included: Challenges for Supply Chain Today, Most Common Use Cases, 5 Key Benefits and How to Get Started. But, it was the talk of "seconds" that made one of the biggest impacts. "Shaving off a couple of seconds, that has ripple effects throughout your entire operation and can mean savings throughout your entire operation," said Kim. And, where do those seconds come from? Augmented reality. 

Hicks first took notice of augmented reality options when a customer wanted them to capture more data at the time of pick. "And they wanted all of that without us hitting them with a substantial cost increase," he said. Their solution was a wearable headset with a hands-free scanner. "We have tight shipping windows...so we needed to be able react quickly and capture the data the customer wanted." 

This time-saving also comes into play quite a bit during the seasonal upticks. "For two-to-four months out of the year we need to double or quintuple the amount of workers in our DCs," said Hicks, adding that they have to be able to effectively source and train in a cost-effective manner for this time period, too. That is where augmented reality comes into play. "(Smart glasses) are a fairly-easy-to-deploy technology," he said. The ramp up time is reduced from about 8 hours to about 2, which is substantial when looking at the number of seasonal workers hired. 

Also, the technology helps with accuracy and faster picking, improves utilization, increases traceability and allows for better exception handling. It is the exception rate that really caught Hicks’ attention. "That is really the core of it," he said. "It makes it easier to troubleshoot and correct a problem." In addition, exceptions can be solved in real time as there is real time connectivity, added Kim. It can also turn your picker into a cycle counter, which "has a tremendous amount of value," said Kim.