RF Scanner

[Former Member]

Hello Experts,

We are in design phase. Business wants to use RF scanner but their WiFi signal is not that strong in all part of warehouse. There will be a case where they may lost the network connectivity in between the transaction operation while moving from point A to point B. Hence business wants to use certain technology which helps the RF scanner to retrive the page or data when network connectivity will be lost in the middle of a transaction.

What are the option available in SAP.

1) Can we use ITS Mobile technology

2) Can we use SAP Web Console

3) SAP Console with telnet server.

4) Can we use BSP (Business Server Page)

5) Can we use Web Dynpro

6) Anyother ??

Business is going to use more than 100 mobile RF devices at same time. Will it be going to a challenge to ITS Mobile or any other technology which supports RF scanner?

BR,

SMO

[Former Member]

Good day,

I am not aware of any option that is going to handle network disconnects seamlessly. If you can procure RF devices that store the data internally (flash drive) and hold the data during any disconnect (sending after the connection is re-established) that would minimize the impact but the only devices that I know have that functionality are Pick to Voice devices. I would focus on making the RF network more stable, add more access points, newer hardware whatever it takes because I have never seen any RF scanning devices handle disconnects without interrupting the work flow of the user.

Rather then suggesting the best set up to handle network disconnects I would suggest that you work to improve the networks stability because I believe the various connectivity methods will all have difficulty handling disconnects. You will be faced with disassociated network sessions, users stuck in processing on the scanner, failed updates, dropped sessions...

Perhaps another user is aware of some point that could help minimize the impact of lost network connectivity but personally I would fight for a stable network and plan for stable connections rather then disconnect handling.

[Former Member]

Hi Jacob,

Thanks for your reply. Even I am strongly believe that business should work on network stability. But in Malaysia network connectivity is very poor and same time the shopfloor and warehouse are very big in size. I had a discussion with user and come to know below things.

Proposal from business:

Main idea is to separate application into two layers to make better solution and solve our concerns.

Dividing application into 2 layers will benefit with:

·         No problem with WIFI coverage (high risk):

o   One time login per shift (per working time)

o   No “dead sessions” exists

o   High data integrity (session with SAP proceed in minimum time)

·         Only 1 user in SAP (100 licenses per year ~ 150 000 EUR savings)

No problem with bin blocking (high risk => small amount of BIN)

Here my question is:-

1) Is ITS Mobile can work like this?

2) How does not it mean 2 layer application?

3) In screen shot, it was mentioned as, user will connect to the device and then operate the T-code. Soon connection will close and when the connection will come it will update the database. Is this the way BSP works?

4) Do you have any better solution or suggestion? - wherein we have network interuption in a middile of scanner transaction.

No problem with bin blocking (high risk => small amount of BIN)

[MANIS]

the major benefit of RF is to do immediate update in your case if the connectivity is going to be a problem then you should look for a offline solution and in that case my personal view is you should not go with ITS (con of this is that no real time update to the system and the exact picking and putaway status is not known in SAP system) .

Please have a look on the below mentioned existing thread with similar coverage issue

http://scn.sap.com/thread/3625842

my personal view : couple of my client in Malaysia are using RF in their warehouse and the connectivity is perfectly fine so my view, we cannot generalize it at country level you need to relook your warehouse infrastructure and talk to service provider. personally I am against any custom development and will always go with SAP standard after having the feasibility study(network infrastructure, Business requirement & technology support)