EMS hosted an informative and insightful event on Connectivity in Logistics this week.
The esteemed panel discussed aspects of technology and organisational change specifically pertaining to warehouses, including some interesting examples using WiFi6, 5G and 4G.
Mike Flynn
Mike Flynn discussed how to make people change without setting things on fire! Given Mike’s formidable experience building new systems and processes that come with them, and successful organisational change, Mike’s insights were fascinating – we loved his checklist: have you used it at 3 in the morning, in the rain, for the purpose you are intending?
Mike noted to expect resistance to change as people just want to keep doing what they’ve always done! He outlined how to create a safe burning platform, the importance of sharing your vision and taking your people with you, and of course, the fallback plan. Thank you Mike for sharing your awesome knowledge in such a fun, easy to listen to presentation.
Stephen Muldowney
Stephen outlined how Private 5G won’t replace WiFi but could compliment it, and that it’s being deployed right now – there are case studies that do show return on investment. He described the 3 main reasons to deploy private 5G in a warehouse being 1. Speed 2. Low latency 3. Capacity. Stephen then went on to explain some case studies that showed added flexibility due to less limitations on movement and increase in number of vehicles for AGV. He also quantified how transformative the tracking of assets can be to an operation.
Lawrence Walker
Lawrence specifically covered tools & tips for instant internet at new & temporary locations – pertinent in this boom time of online shopping and the ubiquity & future planned need for the increase in number and efficiency of warehouses. Lawrence mentioned that fixed lines have a particularly long lead time, which has increased due to Covid. He also said simple 4g routers are not always reliable enough for commercial applications and have bandwidth limitations but bonding increases both reliability and bandwidth – a perfect solution! Lawrence went on to illustrate how unlimited data sims take away issue of expensive overage charges, can integrate with corporate IT infrastructure, and can be deployed rapidly – EMS were instrumental transforming some high street brands to completely online operations.
The event concluded with an action-packed Q&A with lots of interesting questions from the audience and the event was expertly moderated by James Deadman of EMS.
If you’d like to find out more, please contact lawrence.walker@ems-uk.com.
Thanks for reading! You can watch the recording here.