Fujitsu will offer GlobeRanger manufacturing IoT offering to Baker Hill Industries

Fujitsu revealed that US-based Baker Hill Industries, a vendor of precision machined components to the aerospace, defense, medical and commercial industries, is adding Internet of Things (IoT) capabilities to its manufacturing processes through technology supplied by GlobeRanger Corp., a Fujitsu company.

By adopting the advanced, holistic Fujitsu workflow planning and tracking system, Baker Hill will gain valuable real-time insights into its processes and will be able to pinpoint the exact location of all components at any given moment as they progress through its manufacturing facility.

Baker Hill has chosen GlobeRanger technology as it looks for improvements and increased efficiencies in its end-to-end manufacturing process – from initial order through to shipping finished components. Since Baker Hill is manufacturing high-precision components for highly complex products such as jet and rocket engines, the company also expects to extend the availability of real-time tracking information to its customers, who typically require on-time delivery of parts as they coordinate orders from multiple suppliers.

GlobeRanger is an RFID software and solutions company founded in 1999 that has created information processing infrastructure at the edge of the enterprise. This enables companies to harness data that is generated outside traditional IT environments to improve their business processes and move closer to being real-time organizations. It powers some of the largest RFID production deployment including the U.S. Defense Logistics Agency and Flora Holland. The iMotion platform has been the foundation for many deployments in supply chain operations, logistics, perishables tracking, and healthcare.

GlobeRanger’s IoT solutions are available directly from Fujitsu in the Americas, Oceania and EMEIA regions, while pricing varies according to configuration.

GlobeRanger’s early product vision encompassed a range of technology components integral to the creation of an edge infrastructure. Accordingly, its iMotion ‘edge’ platform incorporated support for mobility and for data collection technologies from handheld barcode readers to RFID to sensors and beyond. This holistic vision of edge computing pre-dated the first phase of mandate driven RFID market activity. As a result, the company deliver products designed to support edge computing across industry verticals.

It aims to offer reliable, scalable, and flexible enterprise edge software infrastructure and solutions at the lowest total cost of ownership (TCO). GlobeRanger’s production-tested iMotion Edgeware platform simplifies the development, deployment, and management of RFID, mobile, and sensor-based solutions. This Edge software platform seamlessly integrates existing and new technologies such as bar code, RFID, wireless and sensor based systems preserving past investments while enabling new edge applications.

GlobeRanger’s iMotion platform provides the connective tissue between the physical world of sensors, devices, RFID and mobile platforms to business process applications and backend systems. It centrally manages device infrastructure and automatically filters data to provide clean, accurate information for upstream processing and integration.

GlobeRanger’s product offerings are based on its iMotion Edgeware platform which gives users the fastest path to robust solutions, and offers configurable applications for RFID-enabling supply chain logistics activities from manufacturing to distribution center to retail store.

Baker Hill turned to Fujitsu to deploy its GlobeRanger Manufacturing IoT solution. Baker Hill’s objective was to take human error out of the equation by deploying an automated system that provides hard data at the click of a button.

The GlobeRanger iMotion platform draws data from a range of sources throughout the production process to provide new insights into customer operations – enabling improved short, medium and long-term planning based on more reliable data. As a consequence, customers can benefit from rapid return on investment and focus engineering efforts accordingly.

The GlobeRanger solution provides Baker Hill with more granular insights into its entire production process, delivering information that was previously unavailable. Each production station at its facility in Coral Springs, Florida, USA, features a visual display showing its performance status, with red, yellow and green lights that clearly illustrate whether or not an operation is performing to expectations. This means that any issues can be identified immediately and a remedy can be found rapidly, without affecting completion times.

“Companies like Baker Hill are realizing how powerful it can be to have real-time data from all stages of the manufacturing process at their fingertips,” said Nabil Lodey, head of GlobeRanger. “Potential issues are identified and rectified before they become a problem, and the valuable business data means that the management team can manage assets effectively for profitable and steady growth. Having this level of visibility over the whole production process supports organizations with their digital transformation.”

“We typically have multiple status calls with customers every week. By giving them access to the same tracking information that we use, they will have up-to-the-minute information about the progression of their products through the manufacturing process,” said Matthew Ricci, president at Baker Hill Industries. “As we send some parts for processing externally, we’ll be able to track them with our suppliers too. We will be able to monitor the lead times and compare them against what was quoted. This will assist us in refining our own timelines as agreed with our customers.”


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