A Smart IoT Solution: the ZF Call Button

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Tags: InternetOfThings

An easy-to-install smart tag accelerates material supply in production and assembly.

Jan Wienrich, May 28, 2019

Jan Wienrich has been working as a cross media publisher at ZF since 2010. He is specialized in digital topics and takes care of the company's social media channels.

Sometimes it's the small ideas that significantly improve processes in a big organization. And ideas like this often come from employees who have to work with those processes.

Both these things apply to the ZF Call Button. The smart tag lets production employees re-order the requisite materials at the touch of a button, shortening the process route as well as dispensing with document scanning.

How the ZF Call Button works

So how does it work? Well, the Call Button uses Bluetooth Low Energy technology and ZF's cloud-based IoT platform to communicate directly with the relevant order system. The LEDs on the button then give the worker instantaneous feedback on the order status.

"We've slashed the lead-time for replacement by 50 percent."

— Daniel Biefeld, ZF expert

The Call Button is battery-powered – and hence wireless – easy to set up, and suitable for any production environment, which means it has other use cases, such as sending notifications or controlling conveyor systems.

Winner of the Digital Innovation Challenge

Colleagues at the Passau location are already using the ZF Call Button. "As a result, we've slashed the lead-time for replacement by 50 percent", says ZF expert Daniel Biefeld, the man behind the idea for this hardware tag, which won him the Digital Innovation Challenge award in the Industry 4.0 category.

This competition gives ZF employees the chance to make their ideas on further digitalizing the company a reality. Best of all are ideas that are fast and easy to implement – just like the ZF Call Button.