Japanese tech giant Oki has developed a location and inventory management system for easy tracking of products, equipment and other items stored indoors and outdoors from a smartphone.

Called Sho-Xyz (pronounced sho-zai), it will launch in Japan next month.

The product allows the centralised management of storage locations and inventory information via smartphones by attaching QR codes or RF tags to items, resolving on-site issues such as lost items while reducing management workloads. This system is provided for SaaS service usage fees for easy adoption at small warehouses and factories where additional investment is often difficult to justify.

In warehousing, manufacturing and other industries in which items are stored, storage location management tends to rely on individuals, and items go missing every day due to human error. The most common causes are failure to record storage locations and incorrect registration. In small warehouses, since management often relies on human memory, there have also been problems in which items are temporarily lost, leading to them not being shipped on times due to the need to search for them. In particular, recently, along with the expanding deployment of foreign workers in warehouses due to labour shortages stemming from the 2024 logistics issue, there has been a growing need for ways to overcome language barriers.

The SaaS cloud-based system enables automatic tracking of items stored indoors and outdoors by scanning RF tags attached to them using a smartphone connected to an RFID reader. The system also includes a receiving and shipping management function for general warehouse management systems (WMS). Using QR codes and barcodes, the system can address location tracking and inventory management. Additionally, it provides multilingual support for foreign workers and accommodates site-specific terminology.

The system allows workers, regardless of language, to register item locations according to site conditions and to check locations of items on the map of the app, reducing on-site incidents in which items are lost and shortening search times. Validation tests at Oki’s warehouse showed the system cuts search times by around 75%.

Conventionally, tracking the locations of stored items requires preparations including purchasing expensive dedicated equipment, which results in high introduction and operating costs. Conversely, this system is provided as SaaS with low initial investment, making it more accessible for small warehouses and factories where additional investment is often difficult to justify. This enables sites facing cost constraints to adopt the system and digitise business operations. The use of readily available devices such as smartphones and RF tags also helps reduce introduction costs.

Yuhiko Fujiwara, Oki executive officer, said future plans included enhancing data analysis of receiving and shipping status, stock quantities, and stock movement history, and further expanding functions that would contribute to improving the efficiency of on-site operations and warehouse productivity.

While the initial launch targets the Japanese market, Oki will seek to expand into other regions, focusing on Apac in 2026. The service was exhibited at last week’s Yuasa Grand Fair in Thailand.

Attaching RF tags to pallets and containers and RFID readers to forklifts and the like allows the system to analyse the transport status of items by detecting the RF tags via smartphone and to determine automatically the start and end of transport as well as track moving items.

The system allows flexible operation to suit site requirements, such as using GPS for outdoor use and sensors with RF tags or beacons for indoor use, and manual input methods such as QR code scanning. This ensures ease of use in all kinds of site environments, and allows use in operating modes with forklifts and hand forklifts, and even hand-carried operations.

In addition to indicating storage locations by name, the system displays item locations on the map or drawings within the app on smartphones, allowing anyone to find items easily.

Founded in 1881, OKI (www.oki.com) is a Japanese information and telecommunication manufacturer headquartered in Tokyo.