Transform retail operations with Zebra’s retail technology solutions, featuring hardware and software for improving inventory management and empowering teams.
Streamline operations with Zebra’s grocery technology solutions, featuring hardware and software for improving retail shelf management, ordering and replenishment.
Enhance e-commerce operations with Zebra’s real-time inventory and automated workflows. Ensure accurate fulfillment, efficient returns, and seamless service.
Zebra’s technology solutions for department stores and specialty stores, feature hardware and software for retail management and workforce management.
Zebra’s omnichannel fulfillment technology solutions, feature hardware and software for timely order processing across channels and unified customer experience.
Zebra’s retail inventory management solutions, feature hardware, software and supplies for optimizing inventory management and demand forecasting.
Enhance transactions with Zebra’s POS technology solutions, featuring hardware, software and supplies for optimizing the checkout experience.
Zebra’s customer experience technology solutions, feature hardware and software for delivering personalized retail experiences and self-service capabilities.
Safeguard profits with Zebra’s retail loss prevention technology solutions, featuring hardware and software for enhancing security and product movement visibility.
Zebra’s associate engagement technology solutions, feature hardware and software for shift scheduling, task management, and team communications.
Streamline operations with Zebra’s healthcare technology solutions, featuring hardware and software to improve staff collaboration and optimize workflows.
Zebra’s hospital technology solutions, feature hardware and software for automating health system processes, reducing errors, and ensuring compliance.
Zebra’s patient registration technology solutions, featuring hardware, software, wristbands, and supplies improve patient identification for safer registration.
Optimize critical assets with Zebra’s healthcare asset tracking technology solutions, featuring hardware and software for ensuring equipment readiness.
Improve decision-making with Zebra’s Health Information Technology solutions, featuring hardware and software for enabling secure communication and data access.
Reduce lab errors with Zebra’s sample identification technology solutions, featuring hardware, software, labels, and supplies for accurate sample and specimen labeling.
Improve pharmacy workflows with Zebra’s pharmacy automation technology solutions, featuring hardware, software, labels, and supplies to reduce medication errors.
Zebra’s point-of-care solutions, feature hardware, software, and supplies for mobile access to critical information, patient ID, specimen collection and labeling.
Enhance processes with Zebra’s manufacturing technology solutions, featuring hardware and software for automation, data analysis, and factory connectivity.
Streamline operations with Zebra’s automotive manufacturing technology solutions, featuring hardware and software for reducing downtime and improving processes.
Optimize processes, assembly and supply chain efficiency with Zebra’s electronics manufacturing technology solutions, featuring hardware and software.
Boost production with Zebra’s food and beverage manufacturing technology solutions, featuring hardware and software for compliance and quality monitoring.
Achieve excellence with proactive quality management. Use Zebra’s solutions for precise root cause analysis and quality assurance.
Achieve seamless production with Zebra’s manufacturing WIP solutions, featuring hardware and software for tracking products and spotting bottlenecks early.
Ensure efficiency with Zebra’s material handling technology solutions, featuring hardware and software for automating systems to prevent delays.
Optimize operations and gain inventory and shipment data with Zebra’s supply chain visibility technology solutions, featuring hardware and software.
Boost performance with smart digital solutions. Equip your team with Zebra’s AI-powered tools for real-time guidance and efficient workflows.
Drive efficiency with Zebra’s unified communications solutions, featuring hardware and software for connecting teams for seamless operations.
Achieve excellence with Zebra’s proactive quality management solutions, featuring hardware and software for supporting root cause analysis and assurance.
Gain transparency with Zebra’s manufacturing traceability solutions, featuring hardware and software for tracking products for compliance and quality control.
Prevent downtime with Zebra’s manufacturing asset tracking solutions, featuring hardware and software for efficiently locating equipment and materials.
Zebra’s transportation and logistics technology solutions feature hardware and software for enhancing route planning, visibility, and automating processes.
Protect products with Zebra’s cold chain logistics technology solutions, featuring hardware and software for accurate tracking, monitoring and data logging.
Enhance operations with Zebra’s post and courier technology solutions, featuring hardware and software for package tracking, proof of delivery, and more.
Zebra’s warehousing and distribution technology solutions, feature hardware and software for inventory tracking, order fulfillment, and warehouse automation.
Ensure accuracy with Zebra’s proof of delivery technology solutions, featuring hardware and software for capturing delivery data efficiently.
Improve efficiency with Zebra’s cross docking technology solutions, featuring hardware and software for real-time tracking and automating scanning and labeling.
Zebra’s order processing technology solutions, feature hardware and software for shipping optimization, order tracking, data analysis and better inventory control.
Zebra’s warehouse inventory management solutions, feature hardware and software for inventory tracking, space utilization, and data-driven insights.
Zebra’s inbound logistics technology solutions, feature hardware and software for inventory management, order fulfillment, and better visibility of shipments.
Zebra’s reverse logistics technology solutions, featuring hardware and software for better visibility and streamlining receiving, sorting, and managing returns.
Enhance deliveries with Zebra’s outbound logistics technology solutions, featuring hardware and software for ensuring timely, precise shipments.
Zebra’s warehouse asset management technology solutions, featuring hardware and software for improved visibility and control of asset movements.
Learn how Zebra's public sector technology solutions empower state and local governments to improve efficiency with asset tracking and data capture devices.
Zebra’s printing, scanning and tracking technologies for public sector healthcare help ensure delivery of the best possible care for optimal health outcomes.
Zebra’s law enforcement and first responder technologies – scanners, tablets and mobile computers – give you real-time, accurate situational awareness.
Zebra’s asset tracking and data capture technologies empower federal civilian agencies to operate more efficiently and effectively.
Zebra’s printing, scanning and mobile computer technology gives state and local government agencies the tools to provide services quickly and efficiently, making the best use of resources.
Zebra’s military and Department of Defense (DoD) barcode printing and asset tracking technologies increase visibility into assets, personnel and equipment, for faster, more efficient and secure operations.
Create a safe and secure environment on campus with Zebra’s ID printing and tracking solutions.
With Zebra's law enforcement technology solutions, you can answer the call of duty with greater confidence. Spend more time protecting the public and less time doing paperwork.
Track your teams, equipment and vitals, so you're better prepared, better protected and better informed at the fire station and at the scene.
Let Zebra show you how our transformative emergency response technology can be your best ally in serving the public.
Zebra’s asset management devices for local and federal government enable agencies to track and manage total asset inventories.
Zebra’s identity management technologies for government include secure ID card printing, mobile fingerprint collection, document scanning, CAC card verification, personnel validation and more.
Zebra’s inspection and code enforcement technology provides fast accurate options for ensuring compliance.
Zebra’s disaster and emergency management mobile technologies allow for real-time communication for onsite assessment, asset tracking and identification, and inventory control.
Zebra’s mobile logistics solutions for military supply chains keep operations moving smoothly around the clock.
Manage the inventory of your military commissary and exchange service with Zebra’s practical and rugged inventory management printers and scanners.
Zebra’s MRO solutions enable personnel to access work orders and maintenance histories, track parts and inventories, and complete necessary documents.
Deliver the right human services, when and where they’re needed, quickly, efficiently and accurately.
Zebra’s electronic citation (E-citation) solutions provide enforcement officers with fast, accurate options for electronic ticketing.
Zebra’s ID card printers and scanners allow for high volume license printing and processing of drivers, marriage, insurance and wildlife licenses.
Zebra’s Communications & Collaboration solutions enable a safer, more informed field workforce, for both routine operations and emergency response.
Zebra’s situational awareness solutions for public safety include an array of purpose-built mobile computers, rugged tablets, visibility and support services enable a fully customized solution for your agency’s needs.
Zebra's hospitality technology solutions equip your hotel and restaurant staff to deliver superior customer and guest service through inventory tracking and more.
With Zebra's Hospitality Communication Solutions, you can enable real-time communications for your hospitality staff with mobile computers and smartphone devices.
Zebra's card printing solutions allows for fast, on-demand printing of room access keys, VIP badges, loyalty, membership and gift cards
Keep track and stay prepared by monitoring and tracking inventory and asset locations with Zebra's restaurant and hotel inventory management solutions.
Zebra provides food label solutions for restaurants, hotels and more. Our labels meet local regulations for direct and indirect food contact.
Zebra's restaurant mobile POS and ordering devices can increase your restaurant sales, enhance server productivity, and increase guest satisfaction.
Zebra's food safety hardware and software keep your guests safe and enable you to automate food safety procedures, reducing the odds of spreading food-borne illness.
Zebra's QSR software can enable you to increase inventory counts, scan guest loyalty apps, decrease wait times and increase customer satisfaction.
Zebra's market-leading solutions and products improve customer satisfaction with a lower cost per interaction by keeping service representatives connected with colleagues, customers, management and the tools they use to satisfy customers across the supply chain.
Enable field workers to perform pre-sales, sales, route accounting activities and more effectively interact with customers.
Instant access to technical specs and inventory helps improve customer satisfaction.
Mobile computers and printers ensure accurate chain of custody handoff during pick-up and delivery.
Empower your field workers with purpose-driven mobile technology solutions to help them capture and share critical data in any environment.
Zebra's mobile computing portfolio is designed to help utility companies improvement the management and lifecycle of their assets.
Zebra's mobile devices enable your entire staff, from call center representatives to field technicians, to deliver enhanced customer service through the use of mobile technology.
Zebra's rugged mobile technology solutions provide the field dispatch and routing tools needed to accelerate in-field operations. Learn More.
From first call through incident investigation, Zebra ruggedized mobile solutions enable emergency response personnel to serve public safety and utilities industries more effectively with industry-leading mobility strategies.
Zebra's rugged mobile devices provide your field teams and contractors with complete situational awareness to meet customer service needs.
Zebra's mobile computing solutions provide utilities companies with the tools needed for advanced GIS asset mapping of in-field infrastructure.
Zebra's mobile computing portfolio features tools to help you upgrade processes such as digitizing record inspections to speed up efficiencies. Learn More.
Zebra's mobile computing solutions specialize in the real-time, data-powered mobile workflows to help utility companies with inventory management. Learn more.
Zebra's rugged HazLoc mobile devices help optimize your critical operations with safety as a top priority. Learn More.
Zebras field-certified rugged mobile devices connect oil and gas field workers to real-time critical data. Learn More.
Zebra's mobile technology solutions enable your operators to get real-time remote asset monitoring across your operations. Learn More.
Zebra's rugged mobile computing solutions enable your staff to plan, schedule and complete maintenance and repairs in any environment. Learn More.
Drive successful telecom management with mobile devices designed to meet the demands of public safety and customer service.
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Zebra's mobile work order management technology allows you to leverage your existing systems to your operations perform at their very best. Learn More.
Zebra's range of Banking technology solutions enables banks to minimize costs and to increase revenue throughout their branch network. Learn more.
Zebra's range of mobile computers equip your workforce with the devices they need from handhelds and tablets to wearables and vehicle-mounted computers.
Zebra's desktop, mobile, industrial, and portable printers for barcode labels, receipts, RFID tags and cards give you smarter ways to track and manage assets.
Zebra's 1D and 2D corded and cordless barcode scanners anticipate any scanning challenge in a variety of environments, whether retail, healthcare, T&L or manufacturing.
Zebra's extensive range of RAIN RFID readers, antennas, and printers give you consistent and accurate tracking.
Choose Zebra's reliable barcode, RFID and card supplies carefully selected to ensure high performance, print quality, durability and readability.
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Zebra's rugged tablets and 2-in-1 laptops are thin and lightweight, yet rugged to work wherever you do on familiar and easy-to-use Windows or Android OS.
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Zebra’s line of kiosks can meet any self-service or digital signage need, from checking prices and stock on an in-aisle store kiosk to fully-featured kiosks that can be deployed on the wall, counter, desktop or floor in a retail store, hotel, airport check-in gate, physician’s office, local government office and more.
Discover Zebra’s range of accessories from chargers, communication cables to cases to help you customize your mobile device for optimal efficiency.
Zebra's environmental sensors monitor temperature-sensitive products, offering data insights on environmental conditions across industry applications.
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Keep labor costs low, your talent happy and your organization compliant. Create an agile operation that can navigate unexpected schedule changes and customer demand to drive sales, satisfy customers and improve your bottom line.
Empower the front line with prioritized task notification and enhanced communication capabilities for easier collaboration and more efficient task execution.
Get full visibility of your inventory and automatically pinpoint leaks across all channels.
Reduce uncertainty when you anticipate market volatility. Predict, plan and stay agile to align inventory with shifting demand.
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RFID development, demonstration and production software and utilities help you build and manage your RFID deployments more efficiently.
RFID development, demonstration and production software and utilities help you build and manage your RFID deployments more efficiently.
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Most tasks today are a race against time, and nearly every organization is battling data accuracy issues – especially when it comes to inventory. That’s why radio frequency identification (RFID) solutions have become so popular amongst the largest and smallest businesses alike. More than 20 billion RFID tag integrated circuits (IC) were sold worldwide in 2020, with approximately 65% going to the retail sector.
It takes a long time to scan the barcode of every item in stock to find “the right one” or reconcile inventory management system data against shelf stock. And using pen and paper checklists to conduct quarterly or even yearly cycle counts takes hours, if not days. Considering that workers don’t even have minutes to spare in today’s on-demand world, the investment in RFID technology has been easy to justify – especially since the introduction of RFID sleds that can add RFID capability to mobile computers.
In 2016, when Zebra first launched the RFD8500 UHF RFID Sled, we wanted to help retail associates find and count inventory far faster than they had in the previous decades. Customer satisfaction levels and sales volumes depended on it. There was a tech revolution unfurling, disrupting the traditional retail model, and the on-demand economy was erupting in nearly every aspect of life. Those who couldn’t get customers what they wanted, when they wanted it, were at a competitive disadvantage. So, we had to make it easier for our customers to track, and therefore reorder, everything from sporting goods to sunglasses.
Then we noticed a pattern emerging across nearly every sector, including hospitality and healthcare – a need for greater inventory visibility and critical asset tracking outside traditional supply chain environments. Restaurants, hotels, and hospitals aren’t necessarily selling products off the shelf like traditional retailers, yet they do maintain quite an extensive shelf inventory of supplies. The same is true of public safety agencies. Without easy insight into availability or utilization, it can be hard to ensure the right items are always on hand to meet customer expectations, whether providing meals, a relaxing vacation experience, or medical treatment. It can also be challenging to improve operational readiness. (Just ask the Pasco County Fire Rescue team.)
So, we’ve worked diligently over the last five years to understand how we can make RFID accessible to all organizations that need insight into inventory lifecycles and their assets and help extend the lifespan of today’s RFID-related technology investments for years to come. And I’m excited to announce we’ve come up with a solution that provides universal accessibility to RFID, extreme flexibility in use, and impressive investment longevity!
Fixed RFID readers aren’t feasible in every facility or warranted in every situation. And not everyone wants to spend the money on standalone handheld RFID readers for workers who may not be conducting around-the-clock inventory counts or searches. Yet, the value proposition for RFID is growing in almost every sector, as is the availability of mobile computers that can easily be adapted for RFID applications. That’s what compelled us to design an RFID sled in the first place.
Most businesses are using mobile computers in some capacity within their four walls – or planning to do so in the very near future, and this snap-and-go accessory makes it easy to transform a handheld mobile computer into a handheld RFID reader in mere seconds. Store associates, restaurant staff, nurses, and even the hotel concierge – all of whom are constantly on the move – can attach the sled adaptor to their Android™ mobile computer when needed and remove it when the inventory count is done or they’ve found what they’re looking for. No tools or special training necessary.
However, legacy RFID sleds only offered a Bluetooth connection to mobile computers, which we ultimately learned wasn’t always desired. (Many customers want to avoid the Bluetooth pairing process and prefer a physical electronic connection to the mobile computer that is more secure and easier to use.) We also found out just how important it is to be able to charge the RFID sled, mobile computer or combination of both in the same cradle slot. (No one wants to have to manage, store and plug into multiple chargers if they can help it.) Plus, customers have made it clear just how much they would value a forward-compatible RFID sled that can work with future generations of Zebra mobile computers.
So, the RFD40 sled, which will support Zebra's current mobile computers as well as new mobile computers as they come out, has been engineered to deliver every single one of these recently realized requirements! You don’t have to send the sled back to IT for retrofitting, either. When you’re ready to upgrade your mobile computers, just swap out the sled adaptor and cup on each device and cradle. Again, no tools are needed, and no one will need to hassle with plugging or unplugging any wire harnesses.
Once the sled is attached, it will only take users a second or two to confirm what inventory and assets you have on hand. Literally. The new RFD40 can read up to 1300+ tags per second! That’s huge! In a minute, one person can accurately account for 78,000 different items! Even if you have 10 times that many items on hand, it will still only take a fraction of the time it does now to complete a full inventory count or locate critical items or assets. That’s incredible when you think about how long it would otherwise take someone to individually scan each barcoded box or piece of equipment.
RFID has opened our eyes to things we would otherwise miss – much like the barcode did when it was first invented. Businesses that aren’t yet looking at RFID for everyday inventory track and trace or the daily and weekly cycle counts that have become common are missing out on the opportunity to improve operational performance, supply chain resilience, and customer satisfaction. We’ve seen what happens when we lose sight of inventory throughput – and inventory that is still sitting on the shelf…somewhere. If you don’t think RFID is a tech tool within reach for your business, know things have changed tremendously in the last few years. (Really, the last few months.) If you use Zebra mobile computers in some way to conduct business, it is absolutely possible for you to fast-track RFID solution implementation without a heavy lift. Plus, with the improvements we made to the RFD40 UHF RFID Standard Sled, you can continuously modernize your mobility solution as needed in the coming years without disrupting any of the RFID-powered inventory management processes you stand up today. You can even use multiple mobile computers with the same sled if you maintain a mixed device fleet —and charge all mobile computers and RFID sleds using the same cradles. Just attach the appropriate cradle cup and you’ll be ready to plug in.
Did I mention the RFD40 also has a 7000mAh battery and quick release function that's accessible without removing the mobile computer? Or that its tri-function trigger allows users to quickly read RFID tags, scan barcodes, and collaborate with an associate via push to talk? It can even be dynamically programmed based on the specific task being worked on!
In other words, workers who may spend all day retrieving inventory from the warehouse for store shelf – or firetruck supply – replenishment will have no problem charging through tasks uninterrupted, even if they are switching between multiple types of tasks and device tools.
If you’ve yet to deploy an RFID solution and think the RFID sled might be just what you need to improve inventory visibility, or you’re just looking for a handheld solution that will be compatible with your current and future mobile computers, I encourage you to give us a call. You can also learn more about the RFD40’s design and capabilities on our website.
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The Zebra RFD40 UHF RFID Standard Sled is currently compatible with all Zebra eConnex™-equipped (8-pin) mobile computers, including WWAN-enabled versions.
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Eric Malmed is a member of the Zebra Technologies product management team with subject matter expertise in RFID technology. He's responsible for Zebra’s RFID fixed readers, sleds, integrated handhelds, and antennas, and has been instrumental to the successful development, launch, modernization, and growth of Zebra’s RFID data capture solutions portfolio.
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