Slowly, but surely, wireless technology is popping up from the shop floor to the shipper's dock, from corporate maintenance crews to company drivers checking stock at retail outlets.

There are manufacturers installing wireless signaling devices on the manufacturing floor so employees can quickly replenish parts and components during the manufacturing process.

Beverage companies are starting to equip drivers with wireless devices so they can keep easy track of store inventories while making pick-ups and deliveries to commercial outlets.

From corporations to international airports, maintenance crews are being equipped with wireless devices that provide them assignments in real-time, so there's no need to return to a central office to retrieve work instructions.

Food growers are experimenting with radio frequency identification (RFID) technology to track produce like tomatoes from the growth to storage and packing process.

Howard Beader, Director of Solution Marketing for SAP Solutions for Mobile Business in Boston, Massachusetts, keeps tabs on the myriad ways his customers are starting to apply wireless technology to improve efficiency and productivity. He sees a wide variety of devices-everything from PDA-type pager devices to "smart phones" or cell phones with embedded operating systems, hand-held computers and a variety of radio frequency identification (RFID) equipment-in use throughout corporate operations.

The ways customers are applying wireless technology is equally varied, he says. For example, system integrators like PriceWaterhouse are providing their consultants with wireless devices "to help improve their own business when they're onsite with customers. They in put their own billing information, current projects and accounts. Then when they're in a hot spot, they can synchronize that information to the backend system and update records more quickly," Beader explains.

Coca-Cola, working with SAP technology experts, is experimenting with wireless technology in the form of hand-held computers with wireless transmission capabilities as part of a new direct store delivery program, he adds. Once on location, drivers are using wireless devices to calculate inventory replenishment at individual stores, handle payment, invoicing and stock for store promotions.

"They walk into a store, look at what product is at hand and then dynamically calculate what that inventory replenishment should be based on the amount of product on hand. The device calculates what products they should deliver," he says. Information stored can be transmitted wirelessly back to the distribution center on the spot, or downloaded when the driver returns to the distribution center. If all goes as planned, Coca-Cola will eventually distribute wireless devices like these to 30,000 drivers, according to Beader.

Moraitis Fresh Proprietary Ltd., a leading fresh produce supplier based in Sydney, Australia, is utilizing two types of wireless technology to improve productivity and communication from its growers to shippers and customers in order to tighten the supply chain and ensure delivery of the freshest produce possible, according to Con Colovos, CIO for the Moraitis Group. The company's special focus is utilizing advanced RFID tags to improve communications from its new, 5.9 acre hydroponic glasshouse facility in Victoria, Australia, to the home office in Sydney.

Under Colovos' direction, IBM Global Systems and Magellan developed an RFID-based system that tracks information on the approximately 3.3 million pounds of tomatoes grown annually in the new glasshouse. Information is gathered using IBM software from picking to sorting, packing and delivery and stored in a company data base.

Colovos says the system, which has been running as a pilot for the last six months, works this way: Pickers swipe a card upon entry, inputting their ID into the RFID data base so managers know when they started, where among the 120 rows in the glasshouse they worked and when they finished. That means problems can be identified down to the actual row, he says.

Next, the tomatoes go in the hopper for grading. "You have nine different people on the grading line who pick for size and quality. The tomatoes are placed in trays with RFID tags that contain information on the grade, quality and size," which is then stored in a database. Now, he says, Moraitis has immediate information on the volumes it can supply to retailers and information on the grower's performance, so payment is accurate.

The trays of graded tomatoes then travel along a conveyor belt through what Colovos describes as a two-by-two-foot tunnel that Magellan outfitted with embedded RFID readers. These "automatically acknowledge the tags and identify what has been packed by whom and the quality," he says. "There's no swiping of bar code labels. All the reading takes place in the tunnel and an advanced shipment notice (ASN) is produced automatically."

The system transmits the ASN to the company's Sydney warehouse automatically, so workers there know how many tomato pallets are arriving. For the last three months, Colovos says warehouse workers have been equipped with wireless, PDA sorts of devices so they can report "what's coming through the front gate, who's packed it and where it's being stored in the warehouse" without using RFID guns and bar codes. The information is recorded in the wireless devices and uploaded wirelessly to a warehouse computer system, he explains.

"I'm not just happy," Colovos says of the two ways Moraitis is using wireless technology. "I'm ecstatic. Every time we have a crop it's much easier to identify all the pertinent information on the tomato. We can trace it back to the original source, assess quantities, yields and how much wastage-information we couldn't collect before, let alone so efficiently."

Although it's too soon to measure the savings in efficiency and increased productivity, Colovos says they are already saving "150,000 a year" by eliminating bar codes and moving to RFID tags for information "that's 100 percent more accurate and detailed."

Back in the U.S., Dennis Gaughan says manufacturers are starting to experiment with creating "hot spots" on the shop floor to allow for wireless communication in much the same way the cell phone service providers are building towers to extend service areas.

Gaughan, who is research director for the ARM Research Supply Chain Group in Boston, Massachusetts, is seeing "more and more companies deploying wireless infrastructures to replace wired communications in a manufacturing facility. Going wireless makes it easier to reconfigure a floor," he says, adding that wireless can also be used to speed the manufacturing process. Rather than have to wait until parts or components stored in bins get low, RFID technology can be applied to track outgoing parts and send automatic alerts for reordering, he explains.

"We're also seeing wireless being used in the field to connect with technicians who are on the road and cater to products with long life cycles," Gaughan adds. "Most of the time we're seeing them carry PDAs or hand-held computers that allow them to communicate and also store data and information on the device, which they then download when they get to a wireless network."

Beader describes a similar use of wireless technology taking place at Frankfurt Airport in Germany, where maintenance people are being issued rugged, hand-held computers with RFID readers. "Operations are noted on the device and upon completion the worker can transmit information back. They can get assignments without going back to a maintenance center by synchronizing with various hot spots around the air port. This gets them notification, as well as updating jobs they've completed."