Wade4Wireless

Logistics & Warehousing Private Wireless Use Cases


I believe that warehousing could be a prime market. They already use a lot of wireless, including SCADE and Wi-Fi. They track almost every pallet, device, and tools. They have cameras everywhere to monitor safety, people, and rodents. They let the employees and delivery people use the Wi-Fi. That’s inside. Outside they track the vehicles once they enter the compound to the delivery spot. 

As for logistics, trucks are tracked in near real time and all the pallets generally use RFID. Each individual unit may be tracked depending what it is. It’s not necessarily 4G or 5G tracking either. While most vehicles have GPS in them they may also be connected to satellites to do the tracking. This is a huge market that Qualcomm helped develop so many years ago. Trucks and shipping containers can be tracked across the world thanks to satellites. This helped logistics companies everywhere track deliveries as well as record losses if they happen. Don’t get me wrong, it’s not perfect, but when you think about tracking a large shipping container around the world, from India to the USA, it’s pretty amazing. 

We track ships, trucks, trains, and shipping containers around the world. Logistics is one reason satellite technology has improved year over year. We have to get better, more efficient, and cheaper to continue tracking with precision and speed. 

Not only that, but the ships, trucks, trains, and shipping containers can be monitored for alarms. Why the shipping containers? There are some that are temperature controls to stay cool, dry, or both. These are vital to getting product from point A to point B.

So if this is a niche you’re interested in, learn more about the industry and you will start to open up your eyes to the possibilities. 

  1. Tracking products in warehouses – this is being done with everything from barcodes and scanners to RFID & BLE tags. The thing is you would have to track so many items but I know in many warehouses they track pallets since it’s easier and there are fewer pallets than individual items. UPS, FedEx, and the US Postal Service (USPS) have been doing this for years. They do a pretty good job. They also can separate each item to go into a specific shipping stack. Unfortunately many groups outside of them don’t do a great job, they rely on bar codes which require manual intervention and scanning each barcode. Who wants to do that? Automation and accuracy is what we’re aiming for. Luckily, big stores like Amazon, Walmart, and Target made warehousing an art.
  2. Tracking product from warehouse to delivery – this is again where FedEx, UPS, USPS, Amazon, Target, and Walmart did an outstanding job. Their logistics groups have become the most efficient in the world. Here in the US they can track almost anything real time with few errors. Sure, things happen but for the most part they do a great job by relying on bar cases or tags. We can help others follow that model.
  3. Warehouse equipment monitoring and maintenance – this is another problem that Amazon offers a sensor that monitors vibrations and can tell you when they get worse by logging it in real time and tracking it in an app somewhere. It’s the Amazon Monitron and you can buy this at Amazon. The model is that the sensor is placed on the conveyer belt or motors and it sends a BLE signal back to a gateway which normally connects to Wi-Fi. Monitoring vibration and temperature of the device and learning what is good and bad on a server elsewhere. This is genius because it monitors the equipment looking for anomalies that may trigger an alarm like temp and vibrations that fall outside reasonable limits. This could trigger an early maintenance session during downtime preventing a failure during peak times. Julian Simon wrote a great article on this, “Amazon Monitron, a Simple and Cost-Effective Service Enabling Predictive Maintenance”, look it up.
  4. Travel monitoring – this is not new and it’s being done today. As I mentioned above, we have planes, trains, and trucks all being monitored in so many ways today. From carriers to satellites we’re monitoring nearly every vehicle out there for tracking and safety purposes. 

Equipment tracking – in a warehouse you may want to track tools, forklifts, or anything else that may get stolen or misplaced. On the road you want to know when a vehicle is moving or stopped. Logistics relies heavily on real time data, just ask Amazon. They need to know where everything is at the near exact time so they can predict delivery. They also work to improve routes, decide what is the best time of day to travel, and to avoid bad situations. All of this adds up to an amazing system to track anything worldwide.

More:

Promos for a Win-Win:

First: do you want to sell or merge? I have partners looking to acquire or merge small businesses looking for partners or an exit.

  • Looking for companies in IT, Fiber (indoor or outdoor), wireless, Wi-Fi, FWA, Venue or DAS.
  • Looking for owners ready to sell or retire.
  • Smaller companies, maybe 4 to 15 employees.
  • Concentrating on the East coast, but open to US based businesses,
  • Email me at wade@techfecta.com.

Next, do you want to grow, expand, or purchase a business? Maybe you are looking to purchase a company, spark growth, or increase production and need an investment partner. This is how my other partner can help.

  • Here is who they want to help:
    • US based,
    • Someone looking for $10M and up,
    • Needing to grow, consolidate, or merge,
    • Email me at wade@techfecta.com.
  • About the Investment company;
    •  Made 155+ completed transactions,
    • $2.4B+ deployed,
    • $1.4B of assets,
    • Focused on Technology, IT, and Wireless,
    • Been around over 15 years.

Finally, here are some other updates.

Update on next book! I am putting together a new book on Private Wireless Networks. Hopefully by the end of January.

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