German industrial wearables company ProGlove and California-based StayLinked are using their hardware and software expertise to help logistics firms pair legacy systems with modern mobile tools and IIoT wearables.
 
ProGlove, and StayLinked, a developer of mobile software and IIoT integration platforms, aim to streamline access to the efficiencies of mobility and process automation for companies in warehousing, distribution and logistics.
 
“Industrial IoT integration has emerged as one of the more critical pieces for empowering workforces and increasing warehouse productivity,” said Andreas Koenig, CEO of ProGlove. “Our partnership with StayLinked has allowed our customers to use the latest ProGlove wearables, such as the Mark Display, to interface with existing warehouse systems in a reliable way, quickly and easily. It’s also now easy to work together with other emerging technologies without endless integration hurdles.”
 
Disruptions in the current global economy have prompted operations managers to re-examine workflows to make them more efficient, productive and safe for their workers. Technologies that can be adopted quickly to meet these goals, such as the Mark wearable barcode scanners from ProGlove, help operators needing to pivot.
 
The StayLinked platform enables companies to use automation and IIoT technologies including the Mark wearables with their existing applications, without unnecessary downtime, costs or integration complexities. Entrenched warehouse management systems are no longer a barrier to adoption.
 
“With ProGlove as a StayLinked launch partner, our customers can now use ProGlove’s state-of-the-art Mark Display and entire Mark family of scanners without having to plan for time-consuming and expensive integration efforts,” said Justin Griffith, CTO of StayLinked.
 
Swiss transport company Planzer recently selected the Mark wearable barcode scanner for its materials handling platform operations. Of its 68 locations throughout Europe, 13 are equipped for rail receiving with 350 rail cars handled per night in Switzerland. StayLinked developed the mobile interface that pairs their existing logistics management system with the Mark scanner.
 
With this, the Planzer team no longer needs to dismount from a forklift to scan pallets upon arrival or to record inventory locations. Picking and packing teams are enabled to scan as they go and have their hands free to keep goods moving.
 
“With Mark, we are now more mobile and have information we didn’t have access to before,” said shift supervisor Dominik Gränacher.
 
Padraig Regan, general manager for EMEA at StayLinked, added: “With Planzer, we were able to bring a completely new technology into the workflow. It was gratifying to see how well the partnership between ProGlove and StayLinked performed and how seamlessly the integration was achieved in such a short amount of time.”
 
ProGlove was founded in 2014 after winning the Intel Make it Wearable challenge in Silicon Valley and is backed by investors Summit Partners, DICP and Bayern Capital. It employs 200 people from over 40 countries with offices in Munich, Chicago and Belgrade.