Did you hear about the failed video conferencing project? During a global stakeholder meeting, an IT team deployed new video conferencing software without testing a default echo feature. Every participant heard their voice echoing back, disrupting the meeting until someone identified and fixed the setting. While relatively minor, this incident demonstrates how overlooked technical details can compromise professional operations. Consider the failed ERP rollout by a food distributor.

Who are the clinical and non-clinical stakeholders that need to be involved in scoping, planning, testing, implementing, and maintaining asset tracking (or asset management) systems in healthcare? Why is it important to bring these people in? When should they be brought in?

Even if you were watching the robots and the pickers on the screen as I was talking with Kyle and Alex, you might be confused about “what’s new” about this AMR system design or the software it’s using to improve pick efficiency and throughput in their warehouses. The robots look like typical AMRs and the carts look like lots of other carts, right? Well, they are, and they aren’t.

President Theodore Roosevelt once said, “When you play, play hard. When you work, don’t play at all.” And while some people might still subscribe to that idea, the reality is that when you play at work, you often work harder – often without even realizing it. That’s because we’re a gaming society, and gamification is how we make the hard things more enjoyable, like exercising our bodies and brains, eating right, getting enough sleep, and managing our money.

As I talk to many SAP customers looking to migrate from SAP ECC to SAP S/4HANA to better support frontline workers and back-office processes, a key question often arises: Should I choose SAP Extended Warehouse Management (EWM) or Stock Room Management (SRM)? Ultimately, the best option for your business depends on how complex your warehouse and inventory management needs are and whether you truly need the added capabilities of EWM at the added cost of an additional software license.

Editor's Note: This post originally published May 2024. It was updated January 2025. In today's fast-paced world, the unexpected is always around the corner. Imagine an associate suddenly slips off a ladder in your retail store during the holiday season while it’s buzzing with activity. Would they be able to call for help? If not, someone needs to be notified, especially if customers or other associates don’t witness the fall or notice the injured associate on the ground.

Can you believe that Amazon launched 30 years ago? It was one of the earliest e-commerce ventures on the then-nascent Internet. Born as an online bookstore, the company has more recently transformed the world by making goods and services easily accessible to anyone with a computer or smartphone – and inspiring others to do the same. What made Amazon different from traditional brick-and-mortar stores wasn’t just that you could buy online.

It’s no secret that demand planning is a critical component in managing a consumer packaged goods (CPG) company. To achieve success in this competitive market, you must anticipate and meet customers' needs efficiently. But I think it’s important we talk more about how to manage the two fundamental factors that influence demand planning: pricing and trade promotions.

After my last post about responsible AI practices, some people rightfully inquired about Zebra’s practices. So, I thought it would be best to answer these questions publicly. The first thing I want to stress is that our underlying Code of Conduct, company policies, and departmental procedures provide the foundation for everything we do at Zebra.