This article delves into the critical application of industrial tablet computers and IoT technology in modern retail warehousing. Through a practical case study of China's leading retail enterprise, Yonghui Supermarket, this article demonstrates how a smart warehousing solution centered on industrial tablet computers tackles core challenges in efficiency, navigation, and inventory control within large-scale distribution centers. It provides a comprehensive optimization solution for building a technology-driven retail supply chain.

User Background

Yonghui Supermarket was founded in 2001 and is one of China's top 500 enterprises. Currently, Yonghui Supermarket operates over 1,000 chain stores in nearly 600 cities across China. Yonghui Supermarket is consistently committed to meeting customers' diverse consumption needs, continuously enhancing its youthful brand image, developing innovative and engaging store concepts, and insists on empowering the supply chain with technology, driving business growth through digital solutions. The company has evolved into a technology-driven retail platform centered on fresh products and customer demand, and has built a higher quality, more efficient omnichannel operating system.

Challenges

With the continuous expansion of its business and the ever-growing store network, Yonghui Supermarket's warehousing and logistics system faces severe tests. The massive volume of goods circulation places extremely high demands on the operational efficiency of its central distribution centers. Traditional management methods, in handling massive order processing, complex storage location navigation, and ensuring inventory record accuracy, have gradually become a bottleneck constraining the overall supply chain's response speed and accuracy.

Before introducing intelligent solutions, Yonghui Supermarket's warehousing operations faced specific bottlenecks in the following areas:

• Inefficient goods handling: The inbound and outbound processes in the warehouse were excessively time-consuming, severely impacting logistics turnover speed and becoming an efficiency bottleneck in the supply chain.
• Difficulty in in-warehouse navigation and addressing: Forklifts and other handling equipment lacked intelligent navigation system guidance, relying on manual experience to find storage locations, leading to inefficient goods searching and mobile operations.
• Insufficient inventory control accuracy: There were often significant discrepancies between the book inventory data in the Warehouse Management System (WMS) and the actual physical inventory. This made inventory counting, replenishment decisions, and loss control difficult, reducing overall inventory management efficiency.

By deploying an intelligent warehousing solution integrated with advanced industrial tablet computers, Yonghui Supermarket achieved the following core operational value enhancements:

• Enhanced network performance and connection reliability: The Wi-Fi 6 technology adopted in the solution ensured a packet loss rate of only 1-2% and latency as low as 3-4 milliseconds in the dense, structurally complex warehouse environment, laying a solid foundation for real-time, stable data transmission.
• Doubled on-site operational efficiency: Integrating industrial tablet computers with forklifts via a VESA standard mounting frame achieved robust human-machine interaction. This design allowed operators to work conveniently without holding the device, doubling mobile operation efficiency and ensuring more stable operation.
• Breakthrough in device endurance and durability: The industrial tablet computers employed featured a rugged, thin, lightweight, and highly protective design, capable of providing up to 15 hours of battery life. This fully met the demands of high-intensity, multi-shift continuous operations.

The solution adopted by Yonghui Supermarket is a comprehensive intelligent warehousing solution with industrial tablet computers as the core of data interaction:

• Upgraded end-to-end goods tracking: Real-time data collection and transmission via industrial tablet computers achieved visual tracking of the entire process from goods receiving, put-away, picking to shipping. This optimized inventory management and improved order fulfillment rates.
• Optimized intelligent navigation and route planning: Equipping forklifts with an intelligent navigation system integrated with industrial tablet computers provided drivers with real-time optimal route planning. This improved in-warehouse operational safety and compliance while effectively reducing material handling costs.
• Innovative data collection mode: Utilizing devices like remote scanners to work in conjunction with industrial tablet computers significantly reduced the cost of traditional scanning methods and improved work efficiency. All collected data was uploaded in real-time to the retail supply chain management system, ensuring information timeliness and accuracy.
• Precise inbound/outbound management: By accurately locating receiving docks and scanning pallet barcodes, the system achieved precise control over logistics nodes. This significantly reduced shipping error rates and enabled end-to-end precise traceability of goods from inbound to outbound.