Geodis BM
Remote Monitoring of 200 Handheld Devices Provides Ongoing Control and Optimal Performance
“The closeness of our relationship—between both our business and our technical teams—has guaranteed us better performance in our operations,” – Jean-Michel Dupuis, Head of Information Systems Geodis BM.
Geodis BM is a major transportation and logistics company with 61 sites in France and across Europe, totaling 240,000-square-meters (787,402-square-feet) of warehouse capacity, 1,800 vehicles, over 1,200 networked IT stations and 3,500 employees. Annual revenues are 630 million Euros (US$882 million). The company tailors its services to the specific needs of its customers’ trades, focusing on the chemical and gas industry, retail, print press and paper industry and the automotive industry.
The Challenge:
- Geodis BM needed a rugged, reliable mobile computing solution that could ensure the seamless tracking of goods.
- The selected solution also needed to integrate with its existing, proprietary AS 400: OPTILOG software platform and keep the flow of information going in all directions without problems while ensuring seamless tracking of goods.
The Solution:
- Over 200 7535 handheld computers are in use in the warehouses and on the road—receiving goods, replenishing picking areas, preparing orders, reporting broken pallets, verifying shipments, tracking inventory and confirming successful deliveries.
- Each handheld computer also runs Psion ’ Mobile Control Center (MCC). This toolkit for managing remote terminals allows Geodis headquarters to maintain, configure, troubleshoot or lock-down a remote device at any time.
- They also elected to take a preventative maintenance contract with Psion that includes a yearly visit to each Geodis BM site in France so experts can check each terminal, fix any impending problems before they cause a loss of productivity and ensure everything will go smoothly for the next year.
The Benefits:
- The ability to use the MCC for remote management of the terminals has given Geodis more control, allowing them to monitor status, generate reports, install and update software and perform mass backup of data no matter where the handheld computers are at any given time.
- The preventative maintenance agreement with Psion means most problems are avoided—even as the units age—because small anomalies are identified and corrected before they can cause trouble. This has resulted in reduced downtime and optimized productivity.
