EP 236: ProGlove and the MARK Display

In this episode, I was joined by Ilhan Kolko of ProGlove. Ilhan is the Chief Product Officer and President of North America at ProGlove. I had the pleasure of catching up with him after playing around with my own demo MARK Display. We discussed the device, how ProGlove has found such success and what’s in store for the future. You can also read my thoughts on the ProGlove MARK Display below.

Key Takeaways

• ProGlove is focused on helping workers take advantage of Industry 4.0 and utilize these technologies to empower them and make their lives easier. Their main product is the ProGlove scanner which comes in a few different variations and allows workers to be totally hands-free when it comes to scanning barcodes. The device itself is mounted into a hand sleeve that conforms to your hand and allows you to move freely. With this technology, you can truly be hands-free because there is no need to consistently reference a device or use a hand to pull a trigger on a scanner. The trigger itself is built right in the sleeve and is done by squeezing your thumb against your index finger. The product has developed in such a great way due to the focus on this being their core product and consistently striving for perfection.
• Initially, ProGlove was conceived by a group of engineers who wanted to eliminate efficiencies for workers who have to scan to complete their jobs. They took a human-focused approach and really pushed that forward into developing the ProGlove device which completely improves the human experience of scanning. The overall numbers are targeted to help reduce scanning times of 4 to 6 seconds which multiplied over several thousand scans a day is a huge saving. However, the time outside of the scan time is really the big savings that I see. If you look at the relationship a worker has with their device like an RF gun-style scanner there is a constant need to touch that device. Not only are they touching it and using it to scan but there are moments when they forget what location they should be at or they get distracted and now have to pick the device back up to reference. With the MARK Display version of ProGlove, everything they need is right there on their hand so they are eliminating all that other time that is consumed referencing the device as well as scanning.
• On the back end, there is also a robust software platform that can help you understand the analytics that the device is generating. Ilhan explains all of the different ways that this can be utilized. It is able to understand movements and even proximity to other workers. This data can then be translated into a BI system and utilized to understand the performance of scanning as well as other metrics. Additionally, the proximity alerts are helpful in understanding where you may have congestion or where you may have issues regarding social distancing. Not only will it alert management but it can also give a special alert to the worker right on the device itself.

Listen to the episode below and then watch the video to see my experience with the ProGlove MARK Display.