OKI Launches SHO-XYZ Location and Inventory Management System to Easily Track Products, Equipment, and Other Items Stored Indoors and Outdoors From a Smartphone

OKI will launch its SHO-XYZTM location and inventory management system in the Japanese market from March 2025, for easy tracking of products, equipment, and other items stored indoors and outdoors from a smartphone. This system allows the centralized management of storage locations and inventory information via smartphones by attaching QR Codes® or RF tags to items, resolving on-site issues such as lost items while significantly reducing management workloads. This system is provided for SaaS service usage fees for easy adoption at small warehouses and factories where additional investment is often difficult to justify.

In warehousing, manufacturing, and other industries in which items are stored, storage location management tends to rely on individuals, and items go missing every day due to human error. The most common causes are failure to record storage locations and incorrect registration. In small warehouses, since management often relies on human memory, there have also been problems in which items are temporarily lost, leading to items not being shipped on scheduled dates due to the need to search for them. In particular, recently, along with the expanding deployment of foreign workers in warehouses due to labor shortages stemming from the 2024 logistics issue, there has been a growing need for solutions that overcome the language barrier.

SHO-XYZ, a SaaS cloud-based system, enables automatic tracking of items stored indoors and outdoors by scanning RF tags attached to them using a smartphone connected to an RFID reader. The system also includes functions including a receiving/shipping management function required of general warehouse management systems (WMS). Using QR Codes and barcodes, the system can address both location tracking and inventory management. Additionally, it provides multilingual support for foreign workers and accommodates site-specific terminology.

The system allows workers, regardless of language, to register item locations according to site conditions and to check locations of items on the map of the app, reducing on-site incidents in which items are lost and shortening search times. Validation tests at OKI’s warehouse showed that the system cuts search times by around 75%.

Conventionally, tracking the locations of stored items required preparations including purchasing expensive dedicated equipment, which resulted in high introduction and operating costs. Conversely, this system is provided as a SaaS service with minimal initial investment, making it more accessible for small warehouses and factories where additional investment is often difficult to justify. This enables sites facing cost constraints to adopt the system and to digitize business operations. The use of readily available devices such as smartphones and RF tags also helps minimize introduction costs.