Sara Fiorini is a Product Manager at HUB Headquarter in Bologna since early 2018, following several years in Production Planning and Materials Sourcing. She has also led the Engineering Change (EC) processes that have improved the components of HUB’s legacy and Jupiter ranges, as well as the development of our latest Access Reader Solution and “just-wave” access mode on peripherals.
In order to discover more on the latest projects HUB is developing to address the surging need for touchless solutions to safely access car parks, but also to find out how work from home impacted the Assembly & Production department, we asked Sara a few questions.
For me, it’s been gradual: since April, I’ve been back 1 or 2 days a week to work with the Assembly & Production department. In fact, the specific phase of the EC process that involves the team must roll out live. The rest of the EC process has perfectly translated from physical to digital – I’m thinking of the Kanban board, for example. Our usual paper wall with post-it notes converted into a digital board, and we’ve pinned digital Kanban cards onto it.
Everyone has improved their tech skills with Remote Collaboration tools. As I’ve already mentioned, our Kanban board became virtual. Since the Kanban cards record the timing of the project, once per week we have an online meeting where cards are moved as the project progresses. I must admit digital cards proved to be better than paper ones, as they don’t fall off the board!
The situation made it difficult to follow up the field test projects, because transits were very few. The only car park that provided us with a reasonable amount data was the FAAC company car park, which has been the playground for field test. It was essential for us to keep this one up and running, at least, to monitor the equipment reaction to varying environment conditions and track the improvement on components.
Apart from JPass mobile app, LPR and other existing solutions, we are developing a product upgrade. Until last February our goal was to improve the user experience on older peripherals by replacing the physical button (ask for ticket) with an added function within the display. Now we have adapted to the new circumstances, and defined a new goal: the “just wave” proximity area. It’s an innovative access mode, that allows drivers to literally “just wave” to get their ticket and access the car park. The proximity area will be right under the monitor, with LEDs to make it even more visible and, as it will be available in every country, it will be CE and UL certified. It will be available for our latest range Jupiter. But that’s not all, we are developing a new product altogether, a very classy pedestrian access reader.
The Access Reader can be mounted on a wall or on a pole and it can serve as a pedestrian gateway to car parks when the entrance is unattended or during the night-time. For example, if you want to access the car park at 4 am, you just scan your JPass digital ticket or your paper ticket on the Access Reader, and get in. If you used your credit card or another pass, you dial the code on the touch screen of the Access Reader, or enter your license plate digits: it accommodates all access media.
As the Access Reader guarantees access when the car park is closed, it fits in almost every parking area. It’s particularly useful for unattended hotel car parks, or even to facilitate the access of suppliers in a specific zone of a company car park.
The design is also very appealing, with a touch-screen that reminds that of a smartphone. In dimensions - it is 32x32 cm and 9 cm thick - it recalls a futuristic video intercom. When HUB launched Jupiter, we used to say “the future has just begun” and in fact...we keep up to speed with that!
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