Top 5 smart warehouse technology that will change the Warehousing industry

 

To increase the profit margins of a business, the business by itself needs to scale. The process of scaling includes the need to increase production, technological innovation in order to cut costs and also strategize against the fierce competition. One of the most popular ways to upscale a business is by optimizing its warehouse efficiency and such efficiency can be achieved by upgrading to a smart warehouse. The way to choose the right smart tech for the business is based on a number of factors that drive the business from the demand and the supply side. This helps the business achieve their long term plans faster by streamlining the warehousing challenges and reducing many human errors that frequent the warehousing industry. As a result, many big brands have made sure to incorporate smart warehousing solutions that provide them massive potential against their competitors on many fronts.

Here are top 5 smart warehouse technologies that is transforming the Warehousing industry that you must consider adopting according to your own requirements-  

 1. A Warehouse Management System (WMS) 

While WMS is slowly gaining pace as the next biggest trend in the warehousing industry, many firms are also using ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) Systems for their warehouse. The key difference between the two is that the WMS is independent software that optimizes inventory by generating the best location for each good based on real time information and historical data. ERP on the other hand is a system that integrates all the major aspects of a business to provide enhanced visibility and efficiency including its supply chain and inventory. To choose between the systems will solely depend on the needs of the business and the problems businesses want to solve.

If you haven't decided between WMS or ERP because of any lack of information, or have decided between the two but aren’t sure which brand to buy, here is a simple tip that can help you out. What some operations managers do is invite salesmen from different WMS or ERP brands and tell them their needs. The salesmen ensure to highlight all possible ways their systems can help you and whichever best fits your business in your required budget can upgrade your warehouse to a smart warehouse.   

2. Automated Picking Tools 

Nothing screams efficiency more than warehousing automation. Picking manually takes a lot of time and effort with a high level of human errors. But thanks to recent advances in machine learning and artificial intelligence, warehousing automation has reduced the scope of ‘calculated risks’ and has improved accuracy by a huge margin. The key difference that automation brings to the picture is speed and ‘intelligence’. Intelligence here is the ability to vastly minimize picking errors thereby, eliminating expensive mistakes.  Automated picking, automated guided vehicles can be integrated to the WMS for further improving warehousing efficiency.   

3. Automated Guided Vehicles

This is useful if the said business has to navigate through gigantic warehouses spawning acres of land or if the goods are fast moving. This is applicable especially for giant E-commerce businesses, FMCGs and other relevant sectors. Automated guided vehicles are programmed to be much faster, efficient and reliable than manually guided vehicles. Reliable because they are capable of better utilization of the warehouse space. One of the most recent examples of brands testing the Automated guided vehicles include drone delivery. While a major e-commerce brand is trying to use automated drones to reduce delivery time, a tech company was known to have a drone delivery coffee system in place for their office workers. The drone simply delivers coffee without spilling right to the desk. Similarly, imagine drones navigating warehouses. That will cause a revolution in racking as well as for picking. Drones can navigate and store in locations, smartly allocating space for retrieving fastest moving goods first and the rest placed accordingly with a fraction of human labour involved. Such is the power of automation. 

   

4. IoT Implementation

Iot (Internet of Things) is, by definition, a group of physical devices (like sensors, processors, mini-computers) connected wirelessly through the internet.  This way, the connected devices can share data among each other and work as a unit. Iot has countless applications. In a warehouse, IoT is used to keep temperatures in check, optimise inventory accurately, help managers with decision making and also improve safety in the warehouse.  Such work is done using the help of sensors placed at different places throughout the warehouse, where different elements can be monitored and programmed seamlessly and effectively. It is difficult to find a modern smart warehouse that does not implement IoT best practices. 

5. Cobots- Collaborative Robots

Perhaps the most ambitious of all smart technology, Robots have been the top researched topic in the past two decades and there have been significant breakthroughs on robotic technologies. One such is the cobot which works alongside humans in the warehouse, making it much more easier and convenient to manage. The work on cobot is still in its infancy and will keep advancing in the next couple of years. But it is only a matter of time until it becomes common to see cobots effectively working in warehouses and making a difference.   Bajaj is the first-ever company in India to use cobot technology for manufacturing and after seeing their success with the technology others are slowly following in these footsteps.

Smart warehouses are one of the biggest factors that weighs in when a concern business wants to scale ambitiously in the long term. Such advances have come about to reduce supply chain vulnerability and have constantly proven its value in the past years with large firms meticulously aiming to improve supply chain using pilot studies involving evolving smart technologies.  Smart warehouses are the future of the warehousing industry and businesses should adopt such advanced technologies to make their warehouses resilient to any accidents or disruptions.