The current C# Windows client is built using a rather old (10 years?) version of the Infragistics Windows UI toolkit.
Then have have the now defunct Handheld which used RDS to serve up small form factor C# forms in terminal services
Various odd android apps for CRM, T&E, Field Service, warehouse etc.
Mobile dashboards
classic web access
3 different flavours of home screen for the smart client
In my mind it’s an appalling mix of UIs. Some more awful than others!
Now we have Kenetic UI - which I believe is built using the ‘Kendo UI for Angular’ toolkit from Epicor’s old mates at Progress
Progressive Web Apps ought to unify many of these and yes there is no reason why barcode reading can’t be engineered using Angular. You can do (almost) anything in software
I am with you Rich! I am just saying I feel like they are going to be focused on kinteic UI being used for client transactions rather than handheld related workflows.
I feel like handhelds are used to ensure efficiency AND quality by enforcing things like scan sequencing and scan validated fields. I agree that you can do (almost) anything with software and angular… I’m just saying what are the chances that Epicor is actively working on replacing epicor mobile warehouse (and all it’s scanning functionality) with Kinetic UI given the multitude of issues that are going on with the base functionality of Kinteic UI?
I love your point about the mobile warehouse being a stop gap until they get the kinteic UI tailored accordingly, but if I am trying to implement handhelds current day, do you think I should consider holding off until they get the kinteic UI working as the mobile app does now?
Personally I have found in our company no real issue with EMW we was the first company to use this in the UK back in 2019 and to be honest apart from a few hicups along the way its been fine.
I don’t see EMWW being replaced with a unified ‘Kinetic’ solution for some years. so unless you have the resources to roll your own or integrate a 3P solution go with EMWW.
Essentially it just rolls out existing desk-based functionality to a small, mobile device. It’s a bit underwhelming as a product, but it does work and we have implemented it at our site.
I have no real issue with it either, it does everything that MES does and in a mobile way.
The enhancements that I would like to see are:
Customize the app so that the incremental scanning feature would pop up based on the part & lot number combination (where applicable).
This would ensure that the correct qty for each lot number being transacted is accurate.
Add a scan sequence to several of the screens since we want to scan in a specific order on the form (i.e. part number, then warehouse, then bin, then quantity) instead of the default.
Currently you are forced to scan in the sequence that the app makes you scan in- this is a trivial request, but having the ability to adjust the scan sequence on any given screen ensures that anyone can scan in any sequence they would like. I don’t think we need to be told that scanning warehouse then bin then part then lot then quantity is best practice… I don’t think there is any foundational research that suggests this is the best way to scan. In fact, say you go to a bin and you waste time scanning warehouse then bin then the part only to find that the box you just scanned was the wrong part… you just wasted a few seconds scanning warehouse and bin when the part was wrong… maybe starting with the part is better…
Add scan validation on screens that don’t have the validate scan setting in the menu settings.
Again, while this app does a great job at making MES mobile, it doesn’t enforce scanning or doesn’t allow for the option to enforce scanning on all fields. This is important to have because handhelds are meant to improve accuracy in my opinion. Forcing scans would help improve accuracy.
Incrementally scan a part on the fly. At the moment it seems that only parts entered in part maintenance pull up the scan incrementor in customer shipment entry.
You can’t increment parts on the fly- for many epicor users they make job shop orders so everything is custom. I don’t see why you can’t increment part numbers that are parts on the fly given that they use a standard UOM, just like normal parts…
While none of these are “real” issues, they are things that would make the mobile app useful to us. It would be the reason to use the mobile app instead of what we are doing right now with the standard MES kiosks. If all you are doing is making MES mobile, that is only half of the pie for us. We demand that it also improves quality and efficiency which is why scan related enhancements like the ones above are necessary for us.
You could always customise the MES form and have a laptop on a trolley running the fat client
I used to work for a company the produced proper real time, mobile warehouse management systems and the definitely an element of psychology in getting the interface optimisation right to improve data accuracy as well as speed.
Hello @josecgomez, could you please provide more information as to how to add a new field to warehouse mobile, for example to the Receipt Detail Screen?
Regards, Fernanda
You create 4 UD Fields the first field contains the name of the field you want to display (custom or not)
Look at the instructions on the PDF Carefully please it is all defined there.
Is the name of the field i would like to display to be entered into the column name field or initial value name field. I’m not finding the instructions straightforward.
