Industrial businesses can rely on the corporation of Zebra Technologies providing them with a wide range of reliable, high-quality terminals — including mobile computers, tablets, and barcode scanners — suitable for heavy-duty industrial use. 

One simple reason why is that Zebra — as the company is more colloquially known — has a pedigree in serving industrial firms. Here is a detailed insight into how Zebra has built up this reputation — a reputation that has been cemented over many years.

Zebra has access to a wealth of industrial-grade technology

The above was evidenced as recently as May 2021, when Zebra announced that it had entered the fixed industrial scanning (FIS) and machine vision (MV) markets. The company was unveiling a new suite of machine vision smart cameras and fixed industrial scanners. 

These devices are underpinned by the unified software platform known as Zebra Aurora — which, once set up, can help the hardware to especially efficiently inspect production lines and product movement processes. 

As a result, this seamless combination of hardware and software can help drive up standards in manufacturing and warehouse environments. Zebra’s entry into the FIS and MV markets also saw it acquire Adaptive Vision, a provider of graphical MV software for sectors including manufacturing. 

“The acquisition of Adaptive Vision accelerates our Enterprise Asset Intelligence vision as we continue to embrace new methods of data capture to meet the expanding and evolving needs of our customers,” Zebra CEO Anders Gustafsson said in a press release published by Bloomberg. 

“This is an exciting time to join Zebra and bring our machine vision software to help Zebra’s industrial customers operate more efficiently in increasingly automated, data-powered environments,” Adaptive Vision CEO Michał Czardybon also enthused. 

What else can you expect from Zebra’s industrial-level hardware? 

Today, Zebra’s fixed industrial scanners can assist in streamlining track-and-trace processes by decoding every single part and package moving via production, storage, and fulfilment phases. 

As these scanners can read 1D/2D barcodes, direct part marks (DPM) and optical character recognition (OCR) text, using these devices can help industrial businesses to make warehouse, shipping and returns processes more efficient.

“We are excited to introduce our first suite of MV and FIS solutions for the industrial automation market,” Donato Montanari — the Vice President and General Manager of Machine Vision at Zebra Technologies — said in May 2021.

He added: “These solutions will provide a simple, out-of-box experience and superior reliability that enables maximum visibility and the rapid transformation of image capture into actionable business information.”

What we can learn from Zebra’s history

Something else you want from a mobile device in an industrial setting is a rugged design. Indeed, ruggedness was a signature aspect of the mobile computers, tablets and barcode scanners produced by the enterprise business of Motorola Solutions. 

In 2014, Zebra revealed its intention to acquire this part of Motorola in a $3.45 billion deal. “It’s an aggressive play by Zebra to fortify their position in the entire AIDC (automatic identification and data capture) space,” Northcoast Research analyst Keith Housum told Reuters at the time. 

Zebra’s long history in making devices suitable for use by industrial businesses means that your own company could even still be using a few of these machines. However, whether Zebra continues to offer support for these devices in your company’s possession remains another question. 

Consider the example of the MC9190-G, which Zebra has not supported since December 2020. The MC9190-G has been succeeded by the MC9200 — but if you still have the older model and it breaks, it could actually be more cost effective for you to have it repaired rather than replaced. 

Naturally, with Zebra no longer supporting the MC9190, you would need to arrange for a third-party company to fix the device. The company you do approach could be the Poole-based Mobile Computer Repair (MCR), from which you can easily request a Zebra MC9190 repair — as well as the return of the device once it has been fully fixed.