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Over the recent years, there has been a drastic increase in the demand for warehouses. The increasing e-commerce sales, evolving customer preferences, labour shortage, and others are some of the few reasons for the increase in the warehouse demand. Especially after the COVID-19 pandemic, the business has to make profits with the limited amount of resources that are present with them. However, this can be done using the latest technology that can optimise a warehouse and can help to overcome the challenges. The pandemic disrupted the global supply chain but on the brighter side, the pandemic forced businesses to think about their existing inefficient supply chain models.
Warehouses running with outdated equipment in modern times have now reached a point where they can no longer be functional enough to meet the market demands. In order to overcome these challenges, companies started to rethink their existing supply chain models. Rather than moving to a completely new facility, optimising your existing warehouse can be cost efficient. The latest technology can help in reducing errors, meet delivery expectations and optimise end to end logistics operations. However, in order to be able to select the right technology it is important to first understand the kinds of warehouse challenges that are being faced in current times.
Earlier there were days when warehouses were struggling with challenges like accidents, human errors, deliveries delayed due to labour issues, cost and time consuming processes. However, in the modern time with technology like automation, RFID tags, warehouse management systems, and other technologies you can overcome such challenges and make your warehouse cost effective. Some of the challenges faced in warehousing are as follows:
The most important factor while determining a place for a warehouse is the layout of the warehouse. The warehouse layout is a crucial part that is responsible for mostly all the accidents that take place inside a warehouse. When a poorly planned warehouse layout and supply flow are optimised the workers are made more aware of where the goods are going to and coming from. This in turn reduces the chances of an accident caused by poor storage of goods in the warehouse. A business can take use of modern technology like automation to optimise and improve the overall efficiency of the warehouse.
Inventory management and tracking is a crucial part of warehouse management. Automated inventory management eliminates the chance of human errors. Unsuccessful deliveries are a waste of financial and human resources. Without automation, the goods need to be physically checked before every delivery. Delayed or wrong deliveries tend to waste human efforts on an even larger scale. Introducing RFID technology and warehouse automation can speed up the delivery process which helps in achieving delivery timelines as well as reducing the cost and human efforts.
Also Read: 5 Basic Warehouse Facilities Requirements
Walking and manually picking orders takes up to 50% of the total delivery time. In such an environment, if any wrong item is picked then it can probably disrupt the whole supply chain process. Efficient picking can help in maximising productivity and reduce the chances of human errors at the same time. Applying warehouse management system (WMS) will automatically pick the listed items and also display the real time inventory levels. The systems can also detect the increase in demand for a particular product by looking at the status of orders. You can even add the shipping time and total units that are to be stored to make the picking process more accurate. This helps in maintaining the warehouse inventory and also helps in optimising the areas that need improvement.
Technology has been eliminating human efforts for a very long time now. Not only is using the latest technology more cost effective but also reduces the scope of human errors in the whole supply chain. By introducing automation in the warehouse, you can reduce the labour costs and improve your productivity at the same time. From warehouse cleaning to packing the orders, warehouses can be fully automated reducing the human efforts in the warehouse. Thus, resulting in the reduction in the cost of the warehouse labour. Unlike human workers, the Automated Guided Vehicles (AGVs) can take on repetitive manual tasks, reducing the need for human efforts in the warehouse. These automated guided vehicles follow digital paths through a warehouse and are capable of loading and unloading boxes, pallets and other containers for more efficient and cost-effective goods handling. Not only does this reduce the cost of goods handling but also ensure full safety of the products.
There are various unnecessary actions that are being repeated in the warehouse such as sorting goods which leads to an increase in the labour cost and warehouse operating hours. These unnecessary processes are a major reason for the wastage of human efforts as well as are a waste of financial resources. However, these can be taken care of with using the latest technology that is present in the market. In other words, by introducing automation, you can easily eliminate these unnecessary steps and increase the speed of the whole process. This also ensures customer satisfaction and is also cost efficient at the same time.
There are numerous warehousing technologies that are available in the market today. You can use these technologies to overcome the challenges that warehouses face today. Some of the common warehouse technologies include:
Automation can benefit the warehouse with their item picking needs. There are various tools that can be used to automate the picking procedure. Not only is this time saving but also saves a lot of human effort. These technologies can be seamlessly integrated with your integrated warehouse management system and automate the whole process.
Not only is the human workforce slower than automated processes to store and retrieve goods from their designated locations, but is also more risk oriented. The automated guided vehicles are much more efficient and safer compared to traditional workforce. On the other hand, it is a much more efficient option to yield the return on your investment than human workforce. Moreover, these vehicles can also be used to rack inventories and carry out other storage operations.
The Internet of Things or IoT, is an overarching concept than an individual technology which when utilised to control a large amount of moving parts, both automated and manual can optimise the complete process. Its data lives in one, easy-to-access network which helps to optimise a warehouse’s inventory management process, which in turn improves the overall customer experience through more rapid fulfilments.
With proper inventory tags, these automated inventory control platforms can save a huge amount of time and human workforce. Apart from that, these platforms are designed in such a way that they are able to count the inventory and process the data for fast and real-time accurate inventory management.
With the new constantly evolving technologies, you can easily optimise your warehouse and overcome all of these challenges. From RFID tags to automated packaging of goods to automated guided vehicles, these technologies improve the efficiency of the warehouse management system which makes the warehouse more cost efficient and thus increases the turnover. Companies like AWL India that are operating since 2007, can take care of all your warehouse optimisation as well as warehouse automation needs. Warehouse optimization can help in keeping your business alive in the rapidly changing market. Moreover, you can have full control over your logistics operations.
Also Read: How does an efficient warehouse help smoothen supply chains?
