Hello,
I am looking into tablet options for use on our production floors and around our plant. Given the nature of the manufacturing process, ruggedized tablets seem the best fit. I am looking for Windows tablet options. I would greatly appreciate it if you all could share your experiences with different brands and any recommendations or advice you might have. Thank you.
@dmaini we tried a few different types of ruggedized tablets pre go live and found that at first the plant employees would carry them around in their various duties but then they eventually began just leaving them at their workstation, even the fork lift drivers left them at their desk. We went live using Microsoft Surfaces with screen protectors. They have the mobility if they need it but mostly the units are stationary. The down side with these are they have magnets for attaching the keyboard and power supply connectors and us being a metal fab shop they are constantly collecting fine metal filings at those points.
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The rugged tablets we used with EKW, not windows, were the EDA 51, EDA 71 and Galaxy Tab active series. I am really looking forward to our upgrade to Kinetic and Web UX for tablets.
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Thank you for sharing your experience. We have the issue of fine metal dust as well. Makes it a bit harder to find durable options.
That is interesting. We are restricted to using windows based tablets. Thank you for sharing.
We used devices from Mobile Demand in the past. They discontinued the line I was using which is unfortunate, they were slow but nearly indestructible. They have several Windows devices they offer that could be worth a look. More recently I purchased Dell Latitude Rugged Extreme 7212, 7220, or 7230 devices. These are fast and large enough to be used as full workstations in addition to MES terminals. I have 20+ of those deployed in the warehouse/production floor with the oldest ones being ~ 4.5 years old and still running fine. Our challenge is heat and humidity or the occasional 3-4 foot drop to concrete. Have only had 2 units break, one from a 7 foot fall and the other ran over by a forklift… Epicor’s Hardware team can provide Windows devices from Honeywell and Zebra. Steven Duralde and Jenine Anderson are who I have worked with in the past .
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@Norelco2 Thank you for sharing your experience! If you don’t mind, could you tell me what you are using those tablets for? Are your employees using them to access Epicor, any custom applications, or for clicking pictures? And, how has your experience been with Dell Support?
They use them to access Epicor (Full Client and MES depending on need), MS Teams, camera for nonconformance/quality issues, and email as needed. We also utilize Dell mounted barcode scanners as well as Zebra Bluetooth scanners with the tablets for data entry. Only custom functionality is built within Epicor, no other custom apps at this point.
Dell support is as good as it normally is… have had very little issue with the devices. Had one where the digitizer/touchscreen quit working, Dell replaced it under the basic warranty in a few days.
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Thank you! I appreciate your feedback 