Mobile Technology Overview
Standards-Based Software And Mobile Technology
Lucas Work Execution Software Solutions are built on standard software, communications and mobile technologies used in the enterprise. The solutions can be cloud-based or hosted on-site, and they integrate and communicate with other automation and IT systems using industry-standard integration technologies.
Our mobile work applications – Lucas Move, featuring Jennifer – run on rugged smartphones, traditional handheld, wearable and vehicle-mount computers used in the warehouse, and emerging wearable devices that connect over wireless networks to warehouse management and other IT systems. Move combines voice direction and speech recognition with other input, data capture and display technologies to make hands-on processes easier and more efficient for workers within distribution centers and downstream in the supply chain.
Modular Software Speeds Implementation
Each of our solutions are made up of standard software components designed in a modern service oriented architecture (SOA). In simplest terms, this system design and architecture allows us to rapidly assemble and configure unique customer solutions using standard software building blocks, each of which is designed and tested for rapid modification and reuse. Our modular software approach has several advantages compared to traditional software packages or custom development:
1) Rapidly incorporate customer-specific business rules and application logic without the cost and risk of developing a custom application.
2) Flexibility beyond the limited options of a standard software package, without the constraints of customizing a large, monolithic software package.
3) Get only the features, functions and application components you need. Don’t pay for components you don’t want. The net result is more manageable, compact and efficient software.
Standards-Based Interfaces Ease Integration
Lucas voice picking and other mobile applications are designed to work hand-in-hand with your existing warehouse management, labor management, transportation management and other systems, so there’s no need to change or upgrade your WMS to get the advantages of voice, even if you are using a legacy, custom-built inventory or ERP system. We strive to take advantage of the processes and systems you already have in place, but we also seek ways to supplement and extend other purpose-built solutions. The choice is always yours, based on what is the best approach to meet your operational needs. Below we list two unique solutions for integrating and working with existing systems.
Mobile-WMS Integration
If your WMS includes built-in voice picking interfaces and functionality, Lucas Move mobile applications can connect directly to the WMS. This direct approach provides rapid deployment for basic voice capabilities. In some cases, however, DCs will need to configure or customize the standard WMS voice functionality to address specific process and operations needs. A good first step to determine if a direct WMS solution is right for you is to define an optimal voice process flow for your operation and to use this as the basis for a gap analysis of your WMS voice capabilities.
Server-Based WMS Integration
Companies that need to add work optimization, reporting and management capabilities will utilize Lucas Engage software that will integrate directly to their back-end systems. Similar to direct mobile interfaces, most WMS packages offer standard application programming interfaces (APIs or material handling interfaces) that can be utilized with Lucas Engage. In this multi-tier architecture, Lucas Engage communicates with your host, WMS, WCS and other systems, and manages mobile work in direct, real-time communication with Lucas Move mobile applications. A key advantage is that Lucas Engage provides greater flexiblity to implement an optimal work process (or processes) in your DC without the time, cost and risk of customizing your back-end systems.
Mobile Computing Devices
Lucas Systems has delivered more mobile applications on a wider range of voice-enabled mobile industrial computers than anyone. The current generation of Lucas Move software can run on all major mobile operating systems (Windows Mobile, Android, iOS), and warehouses can choose to use Move on a wide range of standard industrial mobile computers from leading providers such as Zebra/Motorola®, Honeywell (including LXE and Intermec™, and Datalogic, as well as rugged smartphones and new Android wearable devices.
Because our software is designed for multi-purpose, multi-modal hardware, our applications can take advantage of the full range of capabilities of these devices, including the screen and keyboard (for logging on and training, for example), and barcode scanners, which are an ideal complement to voice recognition for data capture and produce traceability during picking, receiving, putaway and more.
Multilingual Speech Recognition
Unlike consumer speech recognition systems, industrial solutions require near-perfect recognition accuracy, even in a noisy environment with a widely diverse user population. To meet these demands, every Lucas Move application includes the Serenade Speech Recognition Platform. Serenade ensures users are understood quickly and accurately, every time they speak. The Serenade Speech Recognition Platform incorporates industry-leading speech recognition algorithms with additional audio processing, noise filtering and other tools to deliver the most accurate, consistent speech recognition performance across languages. Serenade automatically adapts to sudden and frequent changes in background noise, and the system adapts to users, even as their speech patterns change in the course of a single shift (due to fatigue, for example) or from day-to-day. Learn more about Serenade.
