Falcon Automation™ for Hansen®

Falcon Automation™ for Hansen® enables warehouse employees to use handheld barcode scanners to perform Hansen inventory transactions wirelessly, in real time.

Falcon is designed as a turn-key solution comprised of the software and hardware necessary to add mobility and barcode to the Hansen warehouse.

The customer achieves mobile inventory capabilities with the accuracy and efficiency of barcode that builds on the strengths of their Hansen system.

See the City of Boise, ID Case Study.

Overview

Falcon Automation for Hansen is comprised of three solution components:

• MobileClient
• MobileServer
• PrintConsole

Falcon MobileClient

Falcon MobileClient is the primary interface into the Falcon Automation for Hansen system. It is an application that runs on handheld computers and allows warehouse workers to perform Hansen transactions wirelessly and in real time. It is simple, fast and easy to use.

Features:

• Supports the primary Hansen inventory transactions: Issue, Adjust, Transfer, Receipt and Audit
• Wireless realtime communication with the Falcon MobileServer and Hansen
• Immediate transaction validation and user notification
• Barcode scanning for efficiency and accuracy of data entry
• Stores transactions locally when a loss of connectivity occurs
• Supports a batch-style wired operation for environments without WiFi

Falcon MobileServer

Falcon MobileServer is a server application which connects to Hansen and accepts requests from the Falcon MobileClient. The MobileServer is a PC-based gateway which processes incoming transaction requests on behalf of the MobileClients, transmitting them to Hansen in Real-Time enabling a dramatic increase in inventory productivity.

(Server level hardware and operating systems are not necessary).

Features:

• Multithreaded Operation supports concurrent requests from the MobileClients
• Ability to edit Transactions proir to processing
• Enables an enhanced auditing workflow
• Simple Uncomplicated Interface

Falcon PrintConsole

Falcon PrintConsole is a user interface for printing barcoding labels necessary to truely enable Falcon Automation for Hansen. The PrintConsole communicates directly with the Hansen database to quickly pull information and easily print barcodes. These labels are key to enabling the warehouse efficiency.

Features:

• Prints Multiple Label Types
• Parts
• Stock Areas / Locations
• Employee Badges
• Asset Tags
• Customer customizable label formats (layout, size and design)
• Supports all supported Hansen database types
• Oracle
• SQL Server 2000/2005
• Can be installed independantly of the Falcon MobileServer

Technical Details

Object-Relational Mapper

Falcon Automation for Hansen uses an Object-Relational Mapper (ORM) to generate database agnostic data access layers. This allows us to operate against the range of databases that Hansen supports while minimizing maintenance costs.

Much of the communication with Hansen is done via the v7Link for Hansen 7 and Web Services for Hansen 8. However, for performance concerns, various pieces of Falcon directly access the Hansen database to pull information.

Hansen Version Independence

Falcon is designed to work with all current versions of Hansen. By using a plug-in based system for supporting Hansen versions, this enables us to provide a single installation package for all Hansen users, and enables a simpler user-experience during installation, use, and through Hansen upgrades.

Peer-to-Peer Bridge Operation

To accommodate various customer deployment scenarios encountered during our many on-site installations of Falcon Automation for Hansen, it became apparent that a peer-to-peer configuration or “Bridge Mode” style of deployment would be beneficial to our customers.

In this configuration, a Falcon MobileServer connects directly to Hansen as in the typical deployment; however, another instance of the Falcon MobileServer, called a Falcon MobileBridge, connects to the Falcon MobileServer via a WCF service.

This allows MobileClients at remote location/s to connect to the MobileBridge, which forwards requests to the MobileServer which are in turn processed by Hansen.

To the users in the field, this is a seamless abstraction which allows successful Falcon deployments in complicated network topologies.

Code Quality

JMT Systems Consulting, LLC has a deep commitment to code quality. Code quality is a nebulous entity: the only time it is ever noted is in its absence. JMT takes many steps to ensure the quality of the code we produce, starting with our tooling all the way up to our development processes. By embracing practices such as Test-Driven Design, Continuous Integration, and principles such as SOLID, JMT strives to provide code that is flexible, stable, scalable and simple to maintain and grow. The purpose of these activities is not to create code that we enjoy working with, but to create code that maximizes business value while minimizing long term cost.