Description
What It Does
This impressive system carries out the inventory management of garden and nursery stores simply by having an employee holding a handheld PC such as a PDA, tablet, pistol grip handheld computer or an EDA and simply walking through the store to collect the inventory scan. This does not require direct scanning of each item and therefore, dramatically improves accuracy and efficiency over conventional methods.
Challenges/Issues
There are several issues with traditional garden & nursery store inventory management systems, most of which are barcode-based or manually operated. In these systems, a barcode number must be pre-printed on a sticker, then manually placed on each inventory. If these stickers get damaged or dirty, the barcode scanner could misread or fail to read the barcode. Furthermore, barcodes require a direct line of sight and a close distance to read. A staff member with a handheld scanner must visually identify each item, scan it at a very close range and repeat it for every single item in storage. This makes the process error-prone, labor-intensive and inefficient.
How It Works
To address these issues, GAO has developed the GAO Garden & Nursery Inventory Management System based on the latest UHF Gen 2 RFID technology. It consists of:
- One or multiple handheld PCs, such as tablet PCs, PDAs (personal digital assistant), EDAs (enterprise digital assistant) or pistol grip intelligent terminals
- An RFID object tag for each item
- An RFID location tag for each shelf or area where the item is located
The handheld PC is preinstalled with both an RFID reader and the GAO Garden & Nursery Inventory Management Software. The handheld PC normally has built-in Wi-Fi capability to communicate with a server via a local Wi-Fi network for data transferring. It also optionally has a barcode scanner and a high definition camera.
An RFID object tag is attached to each piece of inventory for its identification. A suitable tag can be chosen from GAO’s wide selection of tags to fit the specific properties of the plants, gardening equipment or other store items. There are RFID location tags for all surface types including metal, plastic, fabric and even specific items such as mulch and pots. An employee can then walk through the aisles with the handheld PC in his or her hand, automatically tracking the inventory and its location. The RFID reader has a further and wider range than a conventional barcode scanner. This system dramatically improves accuracy and efficiency over conventional methods and reduced damage as the equipment does not need to be handled by the employee to scan them.
Features
- No system installation is required since tags are simply placed on store items, or planters and shelves or something indicating locations, and each handheld PC has been preinstalled with an RFID reader and GAO Garden/Nurseries Inventory Management Software.
- This system utilizes RFID technology and dramatically improves productivity and accuracy. It has addressed the issues of the barcode-based conventional systems such as a line of sight requirement and reading errors due to barcode damage.
- Suitable for plants and gardening products of all types
- Suitable for garden/nurseries stores of any size
- Able to integrate with GAO RFID Cloud Service
Technical Specifications
- One or multiple handheld PCs from GAO, which is preinstalled with a UHF Gen 2 RFID reader and GAO Garden/Nurseries Inventory Management Software
- A UHF RFID tag for each item
- UHF RFID tags indicating which shelf an item is located
Applications
The GAO Garden & Nursery Inventory Management System can be effectively used to manage inventories of all kinds such as plants, chemicals, garden tractors, tillers, hydroponic equipment and supplies, fertilizer, sod, topsoil, lawn ornaments, and lawnmowers.
