The idea of a fully autonomous warehouse - a "dark facility" running on its own - is an inspiring vision for the logistics industry. However, the path to achieving it is filled with immense practical challenges.
SAP enterprise systems provide the robust foundation that successful businesses rely on to manage, track, and process complex order, inventory, and industrial workflows. This centralized structure is highly optimized for strategic data management and core business operations.
Earlier this year, at our Channel Partner Summit, the buzz of excitement was unmistakable. The conversations with our partners, the lifeblood of our ecosystem, consistently circled back to a significant evolution in our industry.
The most critical part of any package’s journey is the final 50 feet. It’s a moment filled with anticipation for the recipient, but also potential anxiety.
AI commands headlines and captures imaginations, promising a future of unparalleled efficiency. Yet for executives leading operations in retail, manufacturing, and transportation, the practical application of AI often feels distant from the hype.
When Kevin Lawton, host of The New Warehouse Podcast, visited the Zebra Robotics demo center in San Jose, we didn’t just demonstrate Zebra Symmetry™ Fulfillment. We put him to work.
With just a few minutes of instruction, Kevin went through a complete warehouse workflow, from building a cart at induction to picking items in the warehouse and unloading finished orders at a packout station.
“I had minimal — minimal — training on this. So you can see how easy it is,” Lawton said after completing his first day on the job.
In addition to giving Kevin an immersive experience, I sat down with him and Cody Upp, Zebra’s head of commercial robotics sales and solutions, to record a full podcast episode. Here are some of the high points from our interview.
As the NFL gears up for its 106th season, fans and players alike are buzzing with anticipation. With the release of the 2025 NFL schedule, the upcoming season promises to be one of the most exciting yet with great matchups and a global reach.
A distribution center (DC) operator and a Wi-Fi solution architect explain why it often feels like such a struggle to get wireless system settings just right in warehouses (no matter how much technical investigation and adjustment occurs.)
If you're an SAP customer looking to migrate from SAP ECC to SAP S/4HANA to better support frontline workers and back-office processes, you may be wondering: "Should I choose SAP Extended Warehouse Management (EWM) or Stock Room Management (SRM)?" This post will help you arrive at the right answer for your business.
As a communications strategist, I live for a great story. I recently had the distinct pleasure of hearing five incredible ones during a special CRN Women of the Channel podcast.
It was a privilege to welcome back former NFL linebacker, entrepreneur, and philanthropist Brandon Copeland to our latest episode of Chalk Talk.
Before a pair of shoes reaches your doorstep, it may pass through up to 30 touchpoints where Zebra products, solutions, or workers using Zebra devices play a critical role in its journey.
As business leaders, we constantly look for ways to streamline operations, empower teams, and deliver better results. If you’ve ever wondered how AI could make your frontline team’s workday smoother, more efficient, and maybe even a little less stressful, the Frontline AI Summit offered some exciting answers. Hosted by Zebra Technologies, this event brought together some of the sharpest minds in the industry to talk about how AI is already transforming operations and what’s next.
In the fast-paced world of technological innovation, government contractors find themselves at the forefront of a digital transformation imperative. As these organizations strive to meet strict audit requirements and manage vast inventories of government property, modern RFID technology emerges as a beacon of efficiency and accuracy.
Two venture capitalists from Zebra Ventures share the out-of-the-box thinking that helped them become more strategic (and successful) investors across the supply chain.
They say there’s two sides to every story. Well, now there’s at least two viable machine vision solutions to every problem when you invite both seasoned and early career vision system engineers to the table, and that’s making it easier to see the right path forward. These two engineers (from different generations) explain why.
Hear how T&L companies, utilities, government agencies, and other service providers are using the tablets currently installed as ELDs to inject more automation and intelligence onboard their fleet vehicles. Our guest, Michael Inglima from Ram Mounts, explains how these mobile devices are working with AI software, cameras, RFID and more to assist workers in and out of the cab as well as those coordinating goods transport and service call response.
From multiple substrate applications to automated compliance checks, the team at Cobalt Systems has come up with some interesting techniques to affix and validate labels on almost anything using common technology such as industrial printers and industrial scanners. Hear what they've done (and you can do) to the benefit of manufacturing, warehousing, distribution, and fulfillment operations.
If you use direct story delivery to get your goods on retailers' shelves, and you're trying to get more SKUs to more stores more frequently, then you'll probably need to enlist the help of more drivers and merchandisers. That's why you may need to rethink how you plan, coordinate, and execute DSD, according to one supply chain expert.
Is enough being done to protect the health and safety of football players and other contact sport athletes at all levels of their game? Cognitive scientist (and former NFL tight end) Julius Thomas provided his professional opinion in a recent episode of Chalk Talk. See if you agree with his perspective and advice.
As the CEO of a 3PL emphasized in a recent podcast interview, "There's a difference between structuring logistics operations for a customer and with a customer." Listen to the entire conversation with Cathy Langham, CEO of Langham Logistics, to find out what happens if you're not innovating with customers and instead just adding new technology in the hopes of attracting new customers.
Security-minded solution architects from Google Cloud and Qualcomm explain how far you’re going to have to go – and the lengths to which they’re going – to help protect your organization’s data.
What does a “good” company culture look like? And does a good culture really influence customers' perception of your company - or purchases from your company - or just employees' perceptions? Zebra's Chief People Officer weighs in.
Bob Bova, President and CEO of AccuspeechMobile, sits down with Andre Luecht, Global Strategy Lead for Transport, Logistics, and Warehouse at Zebra, to provide his honest take on why you may be struggling with your voice technology.
Were exactly should RFID, machine vision and other automation technologies be used within the reverse logistics chain? Alex Whiting, founder of MiTEQ, reveals what he’s found to work best.
Did you know there’s a way to configure your SAP mobile apps so they – and you – can keep working when offline? That's probably good news if you’re losing access to your SAP data and workflows every time your mobile device loses its connection to a Wi-Fi or 4G/5G network connection, you’re going to want to hear this. Read this blog post to learn more.
Brandon Copeland is a career athlete who has not stopped working for a day since he left the NFL. Wait until you hear everything (and we mean everything) this entrepreneur, professor, investor, advisor, coach, and philanthropist has been up to.
What do you think about on-device AI? Is it all hype or will it prove helpful to frontline workers? Zebra CTO Tom Bianculli sat down with Art Miller from Qualcomm and Rouzbeh Aminpour from Google Cloud in this new podcast episode to break down the benefits of this new approach to AI so you can decide for yourself.
What do 3D printing, Nikola Tesla, pharmaceutical production, the future of healthcare, and farming on Mars all have in common? Check out the podcast below to find out!
Responsible AI development, training, testing, and use require ongoing engagement and foundational practices to ensure long-term success and ethical implementation. Here is what you need to do to get started, whether you're an AI model developer, tester, or user.
If you used machine vision years ago, you may be hesitant to go there again. But modern AI-based systems are giving many manufacturers and warehouse operators significant competitive advantages. Here’s how.
The food wasted annually – the ~1.3 billion tons of food that ends up in the landfill – contains enough calories to feed approximately three billion people for a year! So, why is even a single person experiencing food insecurity or hunger right now? There is clearly enough food being produced to feed everyone on the planet today and then some. In this blog post, Leo Lowy takes a closer look at the root causes of food waste and loss as well as the technology tools that could be applied right now to stop food waste in its tracks at a global level. Read his recommendations.
Do you know exactly when, where and why losses are happening within your operations? If not, it will be hard to figure out how to prevent them, fix inventory distortion, and eliminate friction within your operations. So, let’s talk about loss detection.
Find out why you must put your workers’ mobile experiences first when modernizing your SAP warehouse. Plus, learn about the seven things you must do to ensure you are addressing your frontline warehouse workers’ needs when making warehouse management system (WMS) and workflow changes.
Find out how one Fortune 1000 manufacturing company is going to save $1.1 million annually…just by digitizing forms and going paperless with a zero-code, SAP-friendly software solution.
NFL Coach Sean Payton talks about the uncommon things he wants his players to do each day. He also revealed the common practices he’s moving away from as a coach, what’s on his vision board, what he saw in his time “in the booth,” and what he’s looking for when deciding which players will make it on the bus.
Zebra's Senior Director of AI and Advanced Technologies, Stuart Hubbard, sat down with inspired software engineer Saliha Demir to find out what she has learned – and once misunderstood – about AI. Her early AI experiences are certainly a wake-up call to us all. Listen to this…
Between the expanding capabilities of machine vision systems, maturity of deep learning OCR, and modularity of industrial automation systems, you have an opportunity to de-risk your operations and meet SLAs with ease.
Hear all about the technological feat – and strategic execution by multiple teams inside and outside stadiums – that must happen every game day to give you the detailed play-by-play NFL Next Gen stats on your devices.
Jim Nagy explains why it's like to be an NFL scout and shares what scouts are really looking for in recruits at each level. He also explains why the Reese’s Senior Bowl has become a top NFL recruiting event.
Hear what makes Tommi Vincent, the wife of an NFL Legend, legendary in her own right, beyond her innate generosity. Listen to this exclusive interview (and get to know your new role model).
These veteran technology industry experts say you probably need barcode, RFID and vision systems to achieve your business objectives. Hear why.
No matter how much technology enables to run your business more efficiently, people are still the ones responsible for your success (and developing the technology that allows you to work in new, better ways so that success becomes possible). So, it's time to give credit where credit is due - and make sure we're thinking about technology in the context of human impact.
It may be tempting to push customers toward staffed checkout lanes instead of self-checkout (SCO) to reduce losses. However, doing so could push your most loyal customers away. So, let’s talk about ways to stop SCO-related shrink.
If you’re wondering, “How is deep learning already at work in the real world (i.e., my world)?” or “How could deep learning help me work in new, more efficient ways?” then you’ve come to the right place. This blog post serves as a primer to deep learning, explaining what it really is, how it works, and how you can make it work for your business for inspections, quality control and more.
Marcin Kowalski from Avicon Vision Systems in Poland pulls the veil back on some very cool ways machine vision technology is being used to track ball movements, confirm the quality of a chicken’s life, and more.
No one should normalize pain. But Kelly Melideo did because others did. That’s why she wants to share her story. She hopes you’ll see how important it is to speak up when you’re in pain and believe those who say they’re in pain.
Privacy isn’t born out of traditional cybersecurity tactics. It must be treated as a separate but equal action, according to Dr. Ann Cavoukian, creator of the international “Privacy by Design” framework. Find out what you should be doing differently to protect your customers and reduce your company's liability when handling customer data..
A consultant for Körber Supply Chain Software says he has seen clients gain anywhere from 10 to 35% productivity improvement as well as an up to 25% improvement in accuracy with voice guidance.
Hear why you should be moving to the cloud, automating what you can and using gamification to make the hardest jobs easier than ever so people will be excited to work in a warehouse, even when the stakes are high.