16 LONGISLANDPRESS.COM • JANUARY 2021
ZEBRA TECHNOLOGIES’ CHIEF TECHNOLOGY OFFICER TOM BIANCULLI
YEAR OF THE ZEBRA CORNER OFFICE
BY CLAUDE SOLNIK
Zebra Technologies’ Chief Technology
Officer Tom Bianculli is an executive
based in Holtsville for the Lincolnshire,
Ill., tech company. We talked with him
about his role and how the tech company,
with about 1,100 Long Island employees,
is innovating amid the pandemic.
What is the role of a chief technology
officer at a tech company? There are
typically three models. One model is
running engineering across an entire
company, having a matrix of the use of
that engineering across products. A
second is much more outbound, engaging
with academia, media, and analysts
and being the face of the company from
a technology perspective. The third is
our model, helping to coordinate and
deliver on our advanced development
roadmaps, maturing emerging technologies
needed to deliver future products,
understanding investments we need
to drive our vision. And thought leadership,
working with industry peers,
executives at customers’ companies,
the media, industry analysts, and
investors.
How has Zebra
been innovating in
terms of automation?
We launched
SmartSight™, a robot
based solution
that can autonomously
navigate
the store and detect
if stock is out
or pricing and
promotions aren’t
set properly,
and alert the
store manager
or frontline
workers to take
corrective action
that will improve
store operations and
enhance the customer
experience. In many store
formats, a robot that can roam
the store is a more flexible way
of deploying than a fixed camera
infrastructure to see everything.
Depending on the retailer’s product
mix, it can be more cost-effective.
It’s being piloted with a
number of customers.
What other innovations are recent
or in the works? We have also been
innovating in a few other areas including
automation and augmentation of the
worker’s workflow. Zebra Fulfillment-
Edge software boosts warehouse task
efficiency and accuracy by overlaying
shelf location, pick quantity, remaining
picks and bin-sorting information
within each worker’s field of vision.
With FulfillmentEdge, companies can
increase worker productivity by almost
25 percent and
reduce new hire
onboarding and
training by up
to 90 percent.
It’s not virtual
reality where
y o u ’ r e
fully immersed
in
a virtual
w o r l d .
This is augmented
reality,
letting
you see the
environment
around you and giving you
additional contextual information.
Can you give me an example of innovation
directly related to the pandemic?
We made a free Covid-19 mapping tool
available to our retail customers. It
provides a color-coded, action-driven
dashboard driven by Zebra Prescriptive
Analytics. You can see on a map where
your stores are. We overlay the Covid
outbreak data on top of that. The retailer
can use that to adjust inventory, store
staff, and operating procedures, based
on where breakouts occur. Certain items
become more in demand than others
based on the cycle of a breakout. Is it
“Like many companies, we got more creative
starting to break out, did it peak, is it
coming down? They can adjust inventory
in the store.
What Zebra Technologies innovations
are being used by healthcare providers?
We offer mobile computers
and barcode scanners using
advanced medical-grade plastics
as well as wristband identification
technology. And
we’re offering Temptime
temperature sensing and
monitoring solutions.
Hospital wristbands are
typically strips with
printed information
wrapped around
a patient’s
wrist. We
can print
h u m a n
r e a d a b l e
information,
barcode informat
ion,
and have radio
frequency
identification
(RFID) built into
it as well. We
can be within
proximity of
the wristband
and read it. Temptime
is a set of label
technologies able to
indicate the temperature
profile vaccines
and medicines have
been exposed to over time. Vaccines need
to be kept at a certain temperature and
before they’re administered, brought
up to a certain temperature. Temptime’s
HEATmarker Vaccine Vial Monitors have
been used to monitor the temperature
exposure of vaccines, as recommended
by the World Health Organization and
UNICEF.
What products has Zebra developed
related to Covid-19 beyond healthcare?
In May, we launched MotionWorks
Proximity, which has software on our
mobile computers that can detect when
they come within 6 feet of each other.
Workers on a factory floor or a warehouse
would typically use our devices to
scan and check inventory. When those
devices come within 6 feet of each other,
we can generate a digital event for contact
tracing if someone comes up positive. It
also can alert the people in real time.
What other exciting things are in the
works at Zebra? Computer vision is a
big technology area that we’re investing
in. This allows us to recognize products
and gestures, help streamline checkout
at a point-of-sale lane, and be able in
an automated way to detect what’s on
the shelf, using product recognition.
About one year ago, we acquired a London
based computer vision company
called Cortexica, focused on computer
vision technology. We can leverage that
technology to recognize a product or a
gesture from a user interface or read a
label automatically. Think of it as making
a checkout lane more friendly. We
read not just the barcode, but recognize
the product even without a barcode.
How has Zebra handled Covid regarding
your own practices at the
company? We’re users of our own
technology. We use our Motion-
Works Proximity solution in our
own distribution centers. Like many
companies, we got more creative with
virtual meetings. We looked at which
products have seen more volume,
and dynamically adjusted our supply
chain and ability to ship and build
products that saw a surge, such as our
healthcare-specific mobile computers,
wristband printers, and label printers
for specimen tracking.
Zebra Technologies’ Chief Technology Officer Tom Biancull
with virtual meetings.”
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