From the Cloud to the Edge Computing for Barcode and RFID Tracking

Using the example of the BellHawk job and materials tracking system. the White paper traces the evolution of barcode and RFID based tracking systems from client-server systems, to running in the Cloud, and now to being deployed in ruggedized IIOT computers, at the Edge, in each manufacturing plant and warehouse.

We see, with each evolutionary stage, how we gain and lose capabilities, and how each architecture had to evolve to compensate for these losses. This evolution has been primarily driven by increases in computing power at ever lower prices. It has also been driven by the reductions in IT staff, from typically having half a dozen IT support staff and programmers in each plant or warehouse to having one and now none.

Instead we now have manufacturing and process control engineers, for whom we now provide a set of ruggedized boxes, complete with software and remote support, which they can integrate into their production lines and distribution warehouses.

To learn more about how we evolved from client-server systems to a set of IIOT (Industrial Internet of Things) boxes in each plant or warehouse capturing real-time data, using RFID and barcode technologies, and then providing an enterprise view of manufacturing and distribution operations through Cloud-based servers, please click on. "From the Cloud to the Edge for Barcode and RFID Tracking".