| Singapore [ 
Intermec maximizes the efficiency of POSCO's facility inspection system with industrial PDAs
17 May 2007 SingaporeFOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
For information, contact:
TER Hui Peng, Associate Director
McGallen & Bolden Associates
20 Maxwell Road #04-01F
Maxwell House SG 069113
Ph +65 6324 6588
huipeng@mcgallen.com
- Supplies 160 industrial PDAs to POSCO, which is the world's largest single order for facility inspection
- Plans to advance into new markets of explosion-proof facility inspection, such as gas, oil and gunpowder
SINGAPORE, 17 May 2007 - Intermec (www.intermec.com), a world leader in barcode and radio frequency identification devices (RFID), announced that it successfully supplied the 700 series industrial PDAs for barcode recording to POSCO's Iron Mill in Gwangyang. This is part of the company's ongoing expansion into various markets, such as logistics and facility inspection.
Before the introduction of industrial PDAs, the task of recording production equipment condition was performed manually, which restricted systematic control due to poor efficiency and accuracy. Hence, POSCO committed to introducing the industrial PDA inspection system into Gwangyang Iron Mill and completed the implementation of the industrial inspection system on May 2006. The newly adopted system allows the inspector to scan barcodes applied to equipment using a PDA and even inspect temperature and vibration of equipment. All relevant information regarding the equipment is stored into the PDA. In trials conducted for 10 months it has been proven that the PDA system demonstrates its significant efficiency in the inspection.
The introduction of the industrial PDA inspection system resulted in significant improvements, such as the standardization of inspection tasks of each equipment and reduction in the time taken for inspections. In addition to this, the equipment information stored in PDAs can be kept in a database via a comprehensive computer system, allowing users to perform more accurate management and prevent any sudden failure of equipment. POSCO, which experienced improved efficiency and cost effectiveness through the PDA system, is planning to introduce further industrial PDA systems to other business sectors.
Intermec's 700 series PDAs are highly durable and are ideal for routine inspection tasks of facilities exposed to the severe production environment. In particular, the 700 series provides excellent linkage to facility inspection systems, including software measuring temperature and vibration of facilities. The user-friendly 700 series with easy-to-use keypad also received good response from inspectors for both convenience and durability.
Hogeun Oh, Country Manager of Intermec Korea, said that “more than 90% of the barcode-enabled industrial PDAs are currently supplied to logistics and distribution fields. Only 10~20 PDAs are supplied to equipment inspection fields. In this situation, the world's largest supply of industrial PDAs to POSCO marked a turning point in the facility inspection market. Based on the successful POSCO project, we will advance into other explosion-proof equipment inspection markets, such as gas, oil and gunpowder, etc.”
About Intermec
Intermec (www.intermec.com) is a leading manufacturer of automatic recognition products, such as RFID, mobile computing, data collection system, barcode printing and label technology solutions. Intermec's products and technology are widely used in a variety of industries worldwide, while contributing to the improvement of business operations, productivity and quality. For more information about Intermec, please visit www.intermec.com.
