Thin Air

How Wireless Technology Supports Lean Initiatives

 “Thin Air clearly explains how wireless solutions can offer sophisticated asset management applications, impact patient flow, and increase staff efficiency thereby playing a major role in helping healthcare administrators improve efficiency, streamline operations, and ultimately help caregivers in their primary mission of providing quality patient care.”
—Jason Howe, CEO, Awarepoint

Harness the Power of Wireless for Virtually Effortless Process Improvements

Although Lean and wireless professionals seek the same goals, few are fluent in each other’s language. Those who are, including Motorola and Boeing, have already started to tap into the many competitive advantages possible when wireless technology and Lean’s culture of continuous process improvement are effectively integrated. Highlighting Wireless as a powerful and inherently Lean tool, Thin Air: How Wireless Technology Supports Lean Initiatives proposes practices and paradigms to help you seamlessly integrate these two dynamic resources for virtually effortless process improvements.  

This authoritative resource discusses the application of a wide range of wireless technologies, including RFID, wireless sensor networks (WSNs), real-time location systems (RTLSs), and global positioning systems (GPS). It addresses the modernization of infrastructure, elimination of costly hardware and redundant equipment, the facilitation of e-Kanban, and the provision of real-time visibility into any operation. It also touches upon “airsourcing,” the wireless cousin of outsourcing. The book contains a strong healthcare component with a case study on Mercy Medical Center that appears throughout the text.

Drawing on success stories from a wide range of companies including—American Apparel, the US Postal Service, Ford, Boeing, Motorola, and dozens more—this complete resource includes a one-of-a-kind Return on Investment Calculator you can use to input values unique to your company’s operations and calculate estimated savings in labor and excess capacity.

If you are a wireless technology provider or user, this book will help you understand how to maintain a focus on creating value. If you are a Lean practitioner, you will learn how to use wireless technology to fulfill your mission of continuous improvement.

Features:

• Focuses on the use of wireless technology to support Lean practices
• Fosters cooperation and cross-pollination between Lean consultants and wireless integrators
• Includes a one-of-a-kind calculator in flow-diagram form, that a company can enter values unique to its operations and arrive at  estimated savings in labor and excess capacity
• Speaks directly to wireless technology vendors

About the Authors

Dann Anthony Maurno’s 25-year career in business and technology journalism began with a bachelor’s degree in chemistry, progressed into engineering positions at Raytheon and Genetics Institute, took a turn into publishing and marketing with Factory Mutual and Lilly Software, and culminated in analysis for such groups as Decisions Resources, the Economist Intelligence Unit, and International Data Group (IDG). He continues to pursue field science as an amateur paleontologist, and his field experience includes digs at Olduvai Gorge in Tanzania at sites developed by Dr. Louis Leakey. He lives in Salem, Massachusetts.

Louis Sirico is the founder of The RFID Network, a global community dedicated to RFID and related technologies. He is most widely recognized as the host and Producer of The RFID Network video series with a syndicated distribution of over 3 million professionals.  During his 25-year career, he has developed RFID solutions for Fortune 100 companies both in North America and in Europe as well as the Department of Defense, and the Department of Homeland Security. He has authored over 200 published articles and is credited with hundreds of professional speaking engagements as well as television and radio appearances and provides industry analysis and RFID subject matter expertise to CNN, CNBC/MSN, CBS News, The New York Times, Fox News, the MIT Enterprise Forum (mitef.org), SAP Information Magazine, Inbound Logistics Magazine, and many others.