A+W Smart Companion: Scan smarter with smartphones

From incoming goods receipt in the warehouse to status registration in production, on through to delivery confirmation; data is recorded via bar code scanning and transmitted to ERP and production systems.

However, the industrial scanner as we know it is quickly becoming obsolete. The smartphone, equipped with the A+W Smart Companion app, great computer power, and outstanding algorithms for handling graphics, is doing it in. The A+W Smart Companion assists along the entire value-creation chain and contributes to its digitalization, saving time and money.

Easier, cheaper, better

Scanning via smartphone app is easier than with customary scanners, it offers a multitude of possibilities, and it is cheaper too. Smartphones are also more technically sophisticated and stable since they are produced in much greater quantities than industrial scanners. Therefore, a lot more research and development potential flows into the final product.

Smart Companion for all situations

With its A+W Smart Companion app, A+W is demonstrating where software development is heading. Peter Kühn, Product Manager at A+W: "The use of various scan functionalities with current smartphones is already a reality. Our scanner app A+W Smart Companion can fulfill all requirements of flat glass and window manufacturing companies without the disadvantages of traditional scanner hardware – and this along the entire supply chain. The user replaces very specialized, expensive hardware with a familiar mobile device that we use all the time. Therefore much less training is required."

Mobile communication artist

Smartphones with A+W Smart Companion are top-class industrial bar code scanners – under IOS and Android. They can be used everywhere at the company, plus on the go in the delivery vehicle and on-site at the customer. The times when companies used different scanner systems in parallel, for example one in office/logistics and another in production, are past.

And the A+W Smart Companion can be used not only as a bar code scanner, but also as a mobile info terminal. Employees can use it to display the locations of order components and the content of racks since communication becomes bidirectional.

Invalid bookings due to incorrect read sequence of the bar codes are now impossible since the A+W Smart Companion guides the user. The read quality is also much higher.

Another treat: A+W Smart Companion can scan several bar codes at once, e.g. edge compound labels on a rack, which saves a lot of time. Work is more productive and there are fewer errors.

Future-oriented system for smart factories

The A+W Smart Companion will also work on future smartphones – and its range of functions will continue to expand. Future app generations will use technologies such as GPS, fingerprint sensor, etc. (e.g. for user login). This clever A+W app is an example of digitalization with the greatest practical value – a small piece of Industry 4.0.

New user-friendly hardware with breathtaking computing power will drive the development of a new software generation, which until recently would not even have been possible. Apps like the A+W Smart Companion will make your processes faster, more secure, and cheaper – and in the end, that's what counts in a smart factory.