What do you really mean by the mobile workforce? It is a little unclear, because mobile workers have gained a lot of attention in the last few years. Now, any employee in motion at any time for any function, even driving to work, has been shoehorned into the definition, and any technology from a long extension cord to a scooter is being sold as a critical component.

But mobile workers in the industrial segment have begun to receive their own spotlight, because wireless communication alternatives are adding to production possibilities. “Wireless has been part of larger plants for a long time,” says Julie Fraser, principal industry analyst, Cambashi Inc., a Cummaquid, Mass.-based consulting firm. “But until recently, it was all mobile radios or walkie-talkies. Now there are other options.”

Ten months ago, when this series on wireless technology began, there was plenty of evidence of a conservative approach to adoption. Yes, wireless transmitters have been on the industrial scene for more than five years, and, of course, two-way radio has been around for decades. But there was still more than a hint of reluctance.

That has changed, according to Soroush Amidi, marketing manager for wireless solutions, Honeywell Process Solutions, an automation supplier based in Phoenix. “There are so many companies on board, so many end-users, that people have become comfortable about the use of wireless for monitoring and data transmission.” In fact, he predicts, “Level 1 control wireless is coming. It’s just a matter of time.”

Truth is, as 2008 winds down, if you have a job to do and you need instant (or continuous) data communications, there are no lack of wireless products and applications to help you. These range from generic, all-purpose computers of all sizes, to specific point-solution products.

Ruggedized portable computers with built-in 802.11 Wi-Fi (Wireless Fidelity) offer complete generic functionality. At the other end of the spectrum, highly-focused, hand-held scanner-based solutions for inventory or in-process transactions have been available for decades, and the addition of a radio is no big deal. Armed with a radio, such devices can give you instant transmission of inventory or production data in real time, instead of batched download at collection points. And you cannot forget those radios that decorate nearly every ear everywhere, the mobile phone—properly herded and corralled, their profusion of features (from photography to global positioning to e-mail to multimedia playback and, oh yes, voice transmission) can be wrangled into serious use in production environments.

“We’re seeing wireless move into more and more production areas,” Fraser says. “Troubleshooting and maintenance is one. Another is direct, remote connection to console or engineering functions. The upshot is that a domain expert can sit in on problem-solving or changes in production parameters, even though the expert might be a building, town or continent away.”

Burgeoning use of wireless devices has led to burgeoning infrastructures, so the range of coverage is now nearly limitless. Global positioning and geographical information devices offer a view of the location, direction and speed of any mobile operator virtually anywhere, from over-the-road truckers to repair crews in the north forty. The biggest problem for the network administrator today is not how to extend the reach of the network, but how to impose the right circumference on a network that is forever threatening to merge seamlessly with other, more or less random networks far and wide.

The real question is: what is the mobile workforce in manufacturing? Few of us face the plight of the salesperson on the 17th green, who needs to have signature-ready printouts by the time the foursome reaches the clubhouse. And few have the need to send reports to the global executive team from a seat 38,000 feet up. No, manufacturing has more circumscribed, earth-bound jobs to do, and mobility is increasing.

There have always been mobile workers, of course. As Fraser says, many traditionally mobile workers in manufacturing have long ago been armed with remote, radio-based devices. This includes personnel who remain under the roof, working in controls, inventory, tool rooms, maintenance and other such areas. And, it includes those roaming the land outside the production facility, looking for new wells and new sources of ores, or en route with a shipment, or simply trying to find a railcar somewhere on this or that siding.

Wireless has offered these traditionally nomadic people with immediate connection to home bases for quite some time. Those bases range from the dispatching shed to networks controlled by manufacturing requirements or enterprise resource planning (MRP/ERP) systems. For ...