Stratix Boosts Efficiency in Logistics Operations by 50% with Scandit Express

Stratix is an enterprise mobility specialist in the US and Canada, delivering solutions for leading Fortune 500 brands, education organizations, and healthcare providers. Its mission is to make mobile solutions convenient, easy, and cost-effective for customers, accelerating and inspiring their mobility transformation.

At the heart of its managed mobility services is the logistics operation where efficiency is vital. Stratix combined Scandit Express, the no-code smart data capture app, with iPhone 13 Pro Max to empower workers with intelligent and high performance scanning to receive and process shipments with incredible speed and accuracy.

Switching to Scandit Express-powered scanning has ultimately helped achieve a 50% reduction in the time it takes a Stratix logistics worker to process deliveries and shipments compared to old processes.

Doug Anteau, Director of Logistics and Warehouse Operations, Stratix

Challenge

Stratix is a mobile logistics expert, with millions of devices deployed and multiple locations in the US and Canada handling large-scale mobility projects. The ability to quickly ship devices wherever they’re needed, as well as handling hundreds of thousands of devices for repair annually, is paramount to its overall success.

The Stratix logistics center is always busy. Thousands of packages arrive and depart daily from all over the world, often within the same day, and the team must know what’s in every package and where it needs to go to ensure they always exceed customer’s expectations.

To optimize logistics efficiency, Stratix had two challenges it wanted to overcome: the speed of scanning and the accuracy of the scanning. Boxes arriving in the logistics center have many barcodes on the label and workers need to pick the correct one depending on the task.

Using laser scanners meant workers needed pinpoint control to capture each barcode individually. With small barcodes closely packed together, they had to manually cover other barcodes to ensure they didn’t scan the wrong one, making the process very time consuming when receiving speed is critical.

Additionally, accuracy is very important. In a logistics environment, scanning at angles, at a distance, and with speed was critical. Errors are very costly, especially not scanning an item or scanning the wrong barcode on the label. When the wrong data is captured, it is hard to pinpoint the mistake, items get misplaced, or the wrong items are picked at a later time — not only affecting shipping, but also production and customer service.

Doug Anteau, Director of Logistics and Warehouse Operations at Stratix, discussed the challenges workers face: “Deliveries arrive on pallets, meaning people have to bend and stretch to capture everything, risking not only their backs, but missing barcodes on occasion if the scanning isn’t robust. After completing the process, if you are supposed to have 500 barcodes but you only have 499 scanned in, you’d have to start all over. Our customers depend on us, so that’s unacceptable.”

With a constant stream of deliveries, Stratix wanted a solution to ensure it could receive them as fast as possible within its current ecosystem — but while maintaining the accuracy needed to relieve the burden on workers and enhance visibility.

Solution

To tackle these challenges, Stratix implemented a solution that combined Scandit Express with iPhone 13 Pro Max devices for workers in the logistics center and warehouse.

Scandit Express is an application that enables Stratix to use smart data capture capabilities for essential shipping, receiving, and cycle counting workflows, with no-coding required, to deploy them into the existing IT environment.

With Scandit Express, Stratix workers scan and record multiple barcodes in real-time with high speed and unmatched accuracy. It can pinpoint the needed barcode on each label, eliminating re-scans and scanning the wrong codes. A label can be scanned repeatedly, but Scandit Express is set up to only capture unique barcodes — significantly reducing errors. Data can be added directly to spreadsheets, checked and uploaded into logistics management systems.

Doug Anteau continues, “I’m old school and was used to traditional scanners, but the Scandit Express scanning just worked so well with the iPhone, as well as being easily portable to carry in your pocket. I was blown away by the speed and accuracy, we also saw examples of barcodes that were worn or damaged where regular scanning couldn’t capture them, but Scandit could.”

Speeding up essential logistics workflows

Stratix uses Scandit Express in multiple workflows. When packages first arrive, the application scans the shipping barcodes. Workers get alerts for packages that are urgently needed, and they pull them out and take them to the department in Stratix that needs them.

In receiving, it parses all the barcodes on packages that show what’s inside to update Stratix’s inventory. And then the speed of Scandit Express makes ongoing inventory cycle count tasks a snap.

The combination of Scandit Smart Data Capture’s top performance and iPhones is ideal for Stratix.  iPhone’s excellent connectivity ensures the data flows right into its logistics management system, while rugged cases protect devices in a tough environment.

Doug Anteau said, “Scandit Express offers an intelligent solution, unlike the older scan and point processes. We have it coded in which barcodes to capture, whether it’s the serial number or IMEI number or both for example, so there is no chance of errors and no need to double scan to capture both in the same process.”

Results

Stratix initially had to convince experienced workers to make the switch from the traditional process to the new Scandit Smart Data Capture solution. However, it soon proved its value around speed and accuracy — initially in testing and then in operations. Ergonomically, users can just point the iPhone camera at the labels, scroll down and capture all the data in a quick, fluid movement.

Doug Anteau states, ”Switching to Scandit Express-powered scanning has ultimately helped achieve a 50% reduction in the time it takes a Stratix logistics worker to process deliveries and shipments compared to old processes.”

Part of what makes Stratix’s solution easy is the combination of Scandit Express with the iPhones that run the application. They’re familiar, user-friendly, and powerful. And they can manage multiple tasks with this solution — reducing the number of devices needed drastically and leading to cost savings.

Over a three-year period, the new solution has a 30-40% total cost advantage over traditional solutions.

Problem solved with smart data capture

For Stratix’s busy logistics center, efficiency is improved, while workers don’t have to spend time completing or repeating tedious tasks. The simplicity of the iPhones and the intuitive user experience of the Scandit app has also improved training time. Onboarding and training new employees is 20% more efficient, and they make fewer mistakes.

In fact, not only does Stratix use iPhones and Scandit in its own operations, but they also now offer the solution to its own mobility customers.