The Picture Comes Into Focus at the Honeywell EDGE Conference

If you’ve never seen Dan Dunn, you should. Dunn is described online as “an American improvisational Speed Painter and the creator of Paintjam, a theatrical performance art show in which paintings are created in minutes on stage.” At the start of his performance, he walks out silently wearing coveralls and looking a little like the actor JK Simmons. With music blaring over the loud speaker - “What’d I Say” by Ray Charles on the morning I saw him – he places a dark canvas on an easel and begins to paint. It’s a fast and furious two-fisted paint brush approach. As he works, paint is all over the canvas. There are brush strokes, brush stabs and paint splatter. You wonder just what is it he’s creating as the Ray Charles tunes continue in the background. Finally, he gives the canvas a spin to give you a different perspective at what he’s been working on, and just like that, you’re staring at Ray Charles. All you can think is: Wow!

I saw Dunn last week at Honeywell’s EDGE User Conference in Phoenix. As I thought about it afterwards, what Dunn does is similar to what we’re trying to do in the supply chain, which is to turn data into information. In his case, the data is the strokes and splashes of paint. Turn the canvas just right – analyze it – and a picture comes into focus. It’s now information. What’s more, the music provides context. Ray Charles, right!

For years, we’ve used the hardware that companies like Honeywell produces to collect data. We scanned a bar code to identify an SKU. We spoke into a headset to confirm that the number of items we’d just picked. Or, we passed an RFID tag through a portal to capture its location.

All of that data was useful, of course. But now, we’re turning it into actionable information, something we’ve been talking about for years. And, with new tools like social media, we can add context and a richer experience.

I saw a great example of where we might be headed in a presentation on last mile delivery by Honeywell executive Jeff Taylor. He began with a couple of statistics. One is that 50% of the cost of delivering an e-commerce package is in the last mile. Another was that fewer than 70% of packages are delivered on the first attempt by the driver. Maybe the address is wrong or the customer left to run an errand. A 1% improvement in that number, or a 1% reduction in the return visits, could save millions in logistics costs.

He then explained a solution now in place in the UK. A route stop delivery program determines the sequence of deliveries for a driver and then predicts when packages will arrive at a consumer’s address to within an hour. That information is then texted to the consumer. Or, if the retailer collected social media information at the time of the purchase, such as Facebook or Twitter account info, delivery information can be communicated via a social media account. It’s interactive: The customer can tweet back whether that delivery time is still good for them.

As the driver makes deliveries, the ETA is automatically updated – the consumer can even go onto a maps page and follow the driver’s route to see how close the truck is to their address. If for some reason the consumer’s plans change, they can update on their end as well. The point is that we’re now taking the data collected by Honeywell devices, combining it with software to create actionable information and with social media to create a dialogue – or context – with the consumer.

Brian Hovey, vice president of marketing for Honeywell Sensing and Productivity Solutions, told me that in this specific example, Honeywell is working with partners to develop the software solution. But in the future, Honeywell hopes to be not just the hardware company, but the software company as well. What’s clear is that delivering value in new ways takes more than hardware; it takes the connectivity that comes from the web along with software to do the analysis. That was clear this past week not just at Honeywell, but also Dematic’s Material Handling and Logistics Conference. It’s where the industry is headed.