Warehouse Automation: Where to Start?
In the days of the pandemic (and even pre-pandemic), the trends and challenges facing the warehouse industry are clear: difficulty finding labor. As such, exploring automation for warehouses has never made more sense. However, it is a daunting task to understand and explore how to start. Below, we explore basic options to explore warehouse automation.
Automated Repeated Material Movements
Automating activities that only people can do is difficult to achieve currently; however, there are repetitive movements such as walking or transporting material that can be automated, typically at a good ROI.
For carts, something like CartConnect works well. Also, conveyance is always a good option. For repeatable pallet load movements, AGV forklifts are good at moving loads from one end of an operation to another.
Automated Storage and Retrieval
The second option is arguably the most automated – automated storage and retrieval (ASRS). There are many systems under this umbrella, but the concept remains the same for all: the ASRS will take product the operation has received, automatically store them, then pick/deliver them to an operator as needed.
Systems range from a mini-load system to a full pallet ASRS to the new solutions on the market for smaller product like the AutoStore. Also included are dense/fast-pick solutions such as vertical lift modules (VLMs) and horizontal and vertical carousels.
Whichever system is selected, the benefits are the same: more efficient storage space and reduced warehouse labor in putaway and picking, 2 of the most time-consuming processes in distribution operations.
Transaction Automation
Though perhaps not the first thing to come to one’s mind when thinking of warehouse automation, transaction automation is arguably the most important. This is a very broad term but stands for eliminating manual operator interactions to log transactions. The default way for an operator to log inventory movements, receipts, etc. is to manually type it in to the ERP or WMS. The ways to automate this are varied, from RF guns/scanning to RFID to voice picking to put-to-light/push buttons. Regardless of the method, automating transactions improves