With the right adjustments to DC design and strategy, wearable computers can deliver the accuracy and efficiency needed to keep up with the rising demands of e-commerce fulfillment. Stop by your local Best Buy or Staples, and you’ll see that wearable computers are among the most popular consumer electronics on retail shelves, from the Fitbit and Apple Watch to a host of other devices that track our heartbeats, footsteps, and more. Wearable technology is good for more than just checking texts and shedding pounds, however. The portable devices can also help warehouse workers boost their efficiency by 10 to 20 percent. When DC employees don a voice-command headset, finger-trigger glove, belt-mounted scanner, or Google Glass goggles, they gain a two-way communication channel with crucial software platforms such as the warehouse management system (WMS) or labor management system (LMS). With both hands freed up for picking and a direct line feeding them instructions for the next task, workers with wearable computers can get their work done faster and more accurately than their colleagues who have to walk back to the lift truck or the end of the aisle for new instructions after every pick. E-COMMERCE DRIVES DEMAND FOR WEARABLES Another factor driving the adoption of wearable computers is the struggle to meet the demands of fulfilling online orders placed by individual consumers. "Warehouses are seeing a change in material handling demands as they deal with smaller, more frequent picks because of e-commerce and direct-to-consumer orders," says Mark Wheeler, director of supply chain solutions at Zebra Technologies. "With this changing order profile, the case for hands-free computing remains solid." Ironically, logistics managers tend to look at wearable computing devices only after they’ve tweaked everything else in the DC, such as the layout or the fulfillment process, Wheeler says. When they finally […]