The Impact of Automation in Warehouse Management

December 13, 2019

Owners of distribution businesses face an uphill challenge today in managing their warehouses efficiently. The reason for this is the current trends in complicated global supply chains, consignment inventory and multi-channel retailing methods. All these elements and more exert an extreme amount of pressure for warehouses to maximise the control of inventory, to cut operating expenses and to increase output. On top of these influences, add the increased online competition and demand for express shipping, and it is easy to understand that business owners must enact new methods to conquer the problems these challenges present. Automation technology added to other warehouse management practices appears to be the solution for this goal.

What is Warehouse Automation?

Automation of warehousing practices comes in both process and physical forms to cover all areas of your operation. The first form refers to the computerisation of inventory tracking and other data collection pertaining to stock management. Also, this will include barcodes and scanning equipment to read them. With the second form of automation you will need to use robotic systems, machines, conveyors and more to take the place of certain human manual tasks. Physical automation is only cost-effective if you do a high volume of business. Examples of the setups for this include:

• Goods-to-person or GTP technology
• Autonomous mobile robots or AMRS
• Driverless automated guided vehicles or AGVS

How Automation Affects Warehouse Management

Automating various phases of your warehouse management procedures can impact it in the following ways:

• Improves the accuracy of your inventory tracking and stock counts. This helps you prevent overages or shortages on all your stock. It also reduces your expenditures on restocking since you order only what you need according to your data.

• More efficient movement of stock in and out of your facility. You also can improve the storing processes for placing incoming goods in their allotted places in the warehouse.

• Protects your company’s brand, reputation and profitability since automation increases customer satisfaction.

• Reduces labour costs due to the fact that certain automated processes replaces the need for additional employees.

• Maximises the utilisation of your warehouse layout and space as well as the flow of stock in, out and through it.

• Decreases the manual processes that can slow down or even lower employee productivity.

• Automation also helps you monitor how much energy you use throughout your facility in order for you to more efficiently manage your energy costs.

It is easy to understand why automation might be a win-win for your company after reading the above information. If you need additional facts on how automation impacts warehouse management, turn to Challenge Packaging and Warehousing Solutions. We provide a wide array of services on an outsourced basis to help distribution companies maintain a profitable, efficient status.

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