Tablets on the shop floor

[jhecker (Jason Hecker)]

Has anyone here made the transition to using Windows based tablets for Epicor and such out on the shop floor?

If so, what were your major hurdles and roadblocks with the implementation? Were there any unforeseen benefits that happened to crop up from the migration?

[josecgomez]

Windows based no, but we use Android

No real hurdles they are mounted to the work lines. But we don’t have the greasy finger problem in our shops so the touch screens work fine

[JMPCONJ (John Magee)]

Hurdles - Datto WAPs/firewall/tablets didn’t get along well in the beginning…a lot of squirrelyness…once everything was configured right, it’s been pretty smooth sailing.
Benefits - more efficient entry of work - done right at the WC instead of a couple centralized posting stations like our old ERP

Here’s a link to your Kinetic thread on topic (in case anyone sees this one but not the original)

Paperless and Tablets

We are looking to try to become semi-paperless (the COO says “100% paperless”, but c’mon now, we need to be realistic). Anyways, I have been tasked with finding a suitable tablet computer that can be used in this venture. I was initially told to ‘get an iPad and test out the processes’, and I was in a state of disbelief that iPads were the route they wanted to take. Then it became obvious that ‘iPad’ was just being used as a generic term for a tablet. We will be migrating to Kinetic soon, so w…

[jhecker (Jason Hecker)]

@josecgomez

Windows based no, but we use Android

How well is the Web UI working for that? Specifically with the On-Screen Keyboard. I opened up the Web UI on my Galaxy 5 Fold and the keyboard takes up well over half of the screen.

Is that something that your end users have issue with? Or did you go a different route and utilize wireless keyboards and such?

[jhecker (Jason Hecker)]

I completely forgot about that other thread. (New company and sooo many things going on in my first few weeks here)

[jgehling (Jeff Gehling)]

Ah yes…the classic web UI. I’m surprised it even loads for you

[josecgomez]

We are using EKW

[Ernie (Ernie Lowell)]

Using desktop Kinetic without a physical keyboard is a nonstarter. Even though it is now browser based and can function on anything with a screen, the input method is still based around fingers on keys, and the soft keyboard doesn’t cut it.

[JMPCONJ (John Magee)]

We’re doing MES with softkeys only…only stuff at our WCs is the tablet and a BT miniscanner.

And the mount, so the tablet doesn’t end up somehow getting crushed in the print press or put through the packaging shrinkwrapper

[Ernie (Ernie Lowell)]

MES (now Data Collection) is doable since it’s mostly dropdowns and only mostly numbers. Less of a pain. Scanners help too if your travelers are barcoded.

[JMPCONJ (John Magee)]

Yes on both…won’t say that it’s been foolproof, we still end up needing labor corrections from time to time…but I’d consider it a positive part of the implementation. Wish some of the other areas had gone as well as this.

[Norelco2 (Andrew Crank)]

We have ~ 20 Windows tablets deployed through production and the warehouse currently running classic MES due to customizations I need to uplift or eliminate. We scan everything we can with BT barcode scanners linked to the tablets. This is both faster and eliminates most data entry errors. If someone needs to do higher levels of data entry for a task, we have a couple dock/monitor setups in an office they can plug into.