For retailers and distribution centers, the traditional method for coping with the chaos of the Christmas buying season has been to throw more bodies at the problem. But what if robots could do a better job of handling the surge of activity?
The movie "Back to the Future" showed us cars hovering in air in an idea of what 2015 would look like. Now in 2016, we see our cars still bound to the earth. However, when the movie was made, in 1985, most of the materials in modern vehicles didn't exist.
At Gap's annual shareholder meeting this year, CEO Art Peck said, "to not be considering Amazon and others would be in my view delusional." Soon after, Lands' End announced that it would start selling some merchandise on Amazon, as the online behemoth's "credibility of being a desired fashion destination for shoppers continues to grow."
For an American public that relies on data for everything from where to find the best taco to the likely victor in a baseball game, Election Day offered a jarring wake-up: The data was wrong. Donald Trump's stunning electoral win came despite prognosticators' overwhelming insistence he would lose. And it has forced many to question not just political polling, but other facets of life that are being informed and directed by data.
The quality of any healthcare laboratory - whether it's servicing the biomedical, clinical trial and research, diagnostic or pharmaceutical community - depends on its ability to provide accurate, precise and timely results. In recent years, some labs say they have begun using RFID to automate manual processes to track human specimens and other samples, preventing loss and misidentification, assuring chain of custody, enabling quick retrieval when needed and facilitating compliance with government regulations.
The allure of IoT is strong. Companies are eager to explore the potential for connected products and business processes. But technologies and use cases for the IoT vary wildly, and the vendor landscape is rapidly changing, warns research and advisory firm Forrester. Adding to the hurdles IT teams face is the demand for IoT skills - including data analytics, security and wireless networking expertise - that are already in short supply in many organizations.
If you think customer expectations are high overall in terms of e-commerce and direct-to-customer fulfillment, take a good look at the millennial generation. Across a number of studies you see a pattern: a keen desire for the most rapid shipping method possible; free, unlimited returns; and a greater willingness to spend a bit more to get it the same day.
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