Apr 24, 2024

Since 2024 has gotten into full swing, we are growing closer and closer to OpTech 2024—the leading technology event of the year, designed to elevate your supply chain game! At  Heartland, we couldn’t be any more excited for it! You should be excited, too! By attending, you get an opportunity to delve into the forthcomings of supply chain modernization processes. In doing so, you will be able to network with similar, goal-driven professionals while interacting with and learning about the best-in-class technologies that are sure to enhance your operational excellence. So, what is there to expect from OpTech 2024? OpTech 2024 will have unmatched presentations that extensively breakdown the most recent and innovative trends and technologies of the supply chain, as well as expansive showcases of vendors where you can learn about innovations from the leaders in the industry and opportunities for learning and networking where you can connect and collaborate with experts in the supply chain from all around. In terms of presentation topics, you can expect to hear about the latest regarding sustainability, the supply chain of 2023, AI in demand forecasting, predictive analytics for risk management, private LTE connectivity for enhanced communication, and much more.

There are many gracious sponsors of this glorious event, many of whom will have space at and throughout the event. With all of this in mind, we would like to spotlight one of the many—New castle systems—to provide insight into who they are and what they do.

• Who is Newcastle Systems and what is their role within the supply chain? – As we all know, the supply chain is moving products from point A to point B over and over again for countless times throughout a workday. And, of course, a vast majority of that requires labeling of some sort. It is in this process where Newcastle Systems really helps. At every point throughout the supply chain, there is somebody identifying product, putting a label on it, and entering data. And, with that said, many businesses are still using static stations to complete this process, where they have somebody walking back and forth with standard devices like printers, scanners, and computers. Newcastle Systems’ product is “a battery-source on wheels” that takes these devices and enables a worker—in an environment that is equipped with wireless—to go anywhere they need to go do get the work done. Newcastle Systems refers to this as the “point of activity.” When businesses do that, they free up the hands, eyes, and feet of so many of their employees—which translates to an exponential amount of time saved and it enhances the likelihood of accuracy. In fact, despite few knowing about this, there is a large problem with mislabeling in operations that utilize human-based labeling procedures. In this kind of labeling process, workers will try to make their lives easier by “batch-printing,” where they print and carry large rolls of labels—which leads to the wrong label being placed on the wrong product. With Newcastle Systems’ product, workers become more efficient because of the time being saved. And, as a result, businesses benefit through the amount of work that is getting done because their employees are working rather than spending a lot of their time walking. This translates to billions of dollars being saved from more productive and accurate procedures.
  
  
• How do their products contribute to increasing efficiency and productivity within warehouse and logistics operations? – Naturally, the faster you get your products off a truck and into a warehouse can really determine how well you stack up against your competition. Newcastle Systems prides themselves in their products’ effects on speed, accuracy, worker happiness of inbounding processes. With their efficiency tools, they help businesses create more engaging, efficient, productive, and profitable operations for all of those involved. Retaining labor in the warehouse is hard work. So much so, Newcastle Systems strives to provide companies with tools that not only simplify their operations, but also wholly enhance them throughout—which, in the long-run, can translate to so much money saved through diminished labeling and inbounding mistakes.
  
  
• How does Newcastle Systems leverage AI and voice technology in their products to enhance functionality within the supply chain? – When focusing on voice technology, it’s evident that many businesses are transitioning to voice picking because it’s faster and comes with a tremendous ROI. With voice technology, you can more effectively practice “batch-picking,” which compiles vast amounts of single-line orders together and puts them into an organized, automated system—which translates to outstanding gains in efficiencies for companies who implement it. Then, when shifting focus to Artificial Intelligence (AI), it is important to clarify that Newcastle Systems’ product requires a person, someone looking at a screen. However, with AI, will affect the decisions those people make by analyzing tremendous amounts of data and helping them make easier decisions. AI, especially, will prove to be beneficial in returns procedures, as it can accurately decide to do with large clumps of returned items. In addition to this, it can enhance warehouse management systems (WMS) to help allocate and keep on task better.
  
  
• What are the environmental benefits of using Newcastle Systems’ products? – For Newcastle Systems, their focus is on selling “battery-sources on wheels.” In recent years, battery technology has gone from lead-acid—a nasty, potent toxin that is old and fails quite quickly, contributing to vast amounts of e-waste—to lithium iron phosphate that is very safe and encapsulated. This switched was prompted by the massive benefits that stem from its longevity, as they can last up to ten years. So, as a result, you limit the number of times you must purchase new batteries—which hinders the amount of the world’s e-waste. In addition to this, they are low wattage and does not draw a lot of power when charging, which limits the amount of power that is consumed by your operations when charging alone. Ultimately, these batteries provide a cleaner source of power within a building. Then, of course, digitizing your operations will lead to greatly diminished levels of paper being used by businesses.
  
  
• What are some examples of how Newcastle Systems has helped customers achieve sustainability goals while improving their supply chain operations? – While focusing on the paper-side of things, Newcastle Systems’ influence on their customers’ sustainability goals is clear to see. By scalably and seamlessly digitizing your operations, you eliminate grand amounts of paper by using wireless WMSs and saving data in the cloud. In addition to this, you decrease power usage by utilizing Newcastle Systems’ battery-sources.
  
  
• What are some emerging trends or advancements in AI, voice technology, RFID, or sustainability within the supply chain industry? – For AI, we see employees at mobile workstations that can communicate with AI on a factory floor as it takes in data—such as required maintenance times, for example—and communicates back and forth with an employee on wheels. In addition to this, it will be able to streamline the workflows of processing returns as it makes decision-making for employees as efficient and productive as possible. Similarly, RFID is growing steadily, as many people are practicing cycle-counting with carts each day. 
  
  

At Heartland, we pride ourselves in priding our customers with scalable and sustainable solutions that enhance their businesses’ operations to levels of efficiency, productivity, sustainability, and profitability that are unmatched .So, if we or Newcastle Systems sound like there’s something for you, be sure to check out OpTech 2024 and the rest of its great speakers and attendees.