Editorials

You won’t see it on the news, and it is nowhere near as bad as a few years ago but lead times in our industry are definitely increasing. Certain hardware is taking longer to ship than others. See which devices you might be waiting on.

The larger players in our industry seem to still be making a move to gobble up all the smaller regional AIDC technology companies. But who does it benefit, their stakeholders or their customers? Read on to hear Dave Mattingly's opinion on the industry roll ups that still seem to be occurring and how they affect the consumer.

The world is changing rapidly. So much so that employers and their companies are having to restructure how they operate. Not only that, but sometimes having to pivot at a faster pace. ROI can be a large part of your decision making. See where it's going and what's aspects are leaving indefinitely.

Similar to what we're currently seeing with Artificial Intelligence, there was a similar race that started 25 years ago, but with Cloud Technology. There have been great advancements since then, but one product using this technology in particular caught our eye. See which product we're talking about!

Listen, we love a good spreadsheet. It's a Swiss Army knife when it comes to collecting, calculating, extracting, and hypothesizing data. But sometimes businesses try and use it for everything. Then we have to go in and help them sort it out. See which mistakes can set the foundation for a costly ERP overhaul.

Sweep it under the rug. Then solve it with RFID. That doesn't always work. Even if you're wanting RFID, you might want to talk to EMP about your operational processes.

As a rule, we never criticize our competitors. It's just not our style, and it is not what we are about. Get into the mind of our customer focused intentions by reading the full article.

We touched on this in last month's newsletter. It was titled, "State of the AIDC Industry". In that piece, our president Dave Mattingly, laid out what has worked and what hasn't worked in past years. You can sell all you want, but if technology isn't your identifying trait, then you'll come up short most of the time. So here we are saying once again, "If you want to be in this business you have to sell, but to succeed, well...you have to be technology focused with seasoned experts".

The best way to explain where we're going as a niche industry is to reflect on the history that has shaped what it is today. It's difficult to really capture the history when we operate and thrive in such a niche industry. EMP President Dave Mattingly takes us through the different twists and turns that A.I.D.C has journeyed, arriving somewhat optimistic and yet somehow surprised.

Oh Zebra Xi4...how you will be missed. With its practical and rational operating system. To its easy clean, no nonsense mentality. Unfortunately Zebra stopped manufacturing these not 5 years ago and soon will no longer offer support for repairs. Although, we'll still be able to scrounge up parts for a while, it's safe to say it's time to pivot or upgrade. Check out the history of the Xi4 inside!

Is it a spreadsheet? Is it a database? What is it? A huge misconception is often thinking that spreadsheets are capable of being utilized as databases. While that may be possible for small scaled data input, you'll find yourself running into problems as you expand your data volume.

Are machines going to take over? Probably. But until that happens, we should be using AI to increase efficiency and productivity. be in the workplace. It's a symbiotic relationship that we need to embrace and EMP is looking forward to learning how to integrate this new tool.