Globalization, skilled worker shortage, faster delivery times: Today, managing a warehouse properly and efficiently is an increasingly complex task. Whether at goods receipt, storage, order-picking, shipping or at goods issue - challenges arise from managing these various processes and meeting certain requirements. The characteristics of the challenges are different depending on the type of warehouse, the product inventory, the industry and other criteria. However, here are 5 common challenges warehouses usually have to deal with today and should be kept in mind.
Of course, every company has to manage the main component of their warehouse – the inventory. An efficient inventory management can have a major influence on the companies’ profitability. To ensure this efficiency, managers most importantly need to make sure that the inventory is kept accurately and in order. In addition, there should be a clear overview about all the processes and flows regarding to the inventory and best case having a suitable WMS. Another important part of the inventory management is a space-efficient storage, including processes such as compacting goods to save space and an appropriate quality management of the goods.
Being flexible is an important and often decisive competitive advantage for a company in today's world. Customer needs are increasing, topics like Same-Day-Delivery are becoming more and more important and a natural part of our everyday life.Warehouses therefore should create a concept that enables them to respond flexibly to seasonal demand, shorter product cycles and higher product variants. Another important factor is the technological conditions. The question is here: Are complex processes still carried out manually, thus creating a bottleneck and limiting flexibility? Last but not least, the personnel must of course be trained accordingly, in order to encourage a flexible working environment.
It's no secret that the logistics industry worldwide - including warehouses - is already suffering enormously from the consequences of the shortage of skilled workers. Finding good qualified and reliable staff becomes harder and harder these days:According to a survey conducted by the flexible worker platform Instawork, more than 70% of warehouse operators can’t find enough labor. In addition, the warehouse as working environment requires special needs when it comes to finding suitable staff: Employees often have to work in shifts - even at night- and are often exposed to high time pressure. Physically demanding activities such as lifting heavy packages are also often part of the daily work routine. A high physical and mental stress threshold is therefore an important requirement.At the same time, many warehouses are still struggling with tedious and manual processes as these further impact the amount of needed skilled workers.
As already mentioned in part 3, physically demanding activities are often part of the everyday work in a warehouse. Common activities here include palletizing, depalletizing, onward transportation or other repetitive activities, which often require a high manual effort. For this, an appropriate physical condition of the employee is indispensable. On the other hand, mental health also plays an important role: Employees often need to be flexible, have to cope with peak times and work shifts and should have appropriate stress resistance. Companies should therefore have a stringent concept for employee health that positively influences both ergonomic factors and the general working atmosphere (e.g. air and light conditions). This includes not only the purchase of appropriate ergonomic equipment, but also questioning time-consuming, manual processes that could be automated.
Time is money –this also applies to warehouses. Time efficiency plays a more and more increasingly important role in order to stay competitive as customer expectations are constantly rising in our digitalized, fast-moving world. Another challenge is the handling of peak times for delivery and pickup - there is a great danger of “bottle necks”, which leads to a delay in all downstream processes. This makes it even more important for warehouses to establish an efficient process management, monitor these processes and further optimize them. Cooperation between departments should also constantly be optimized.
There are several approaches and ways to address the different challenges in warehouses. One of the most promising: smart automation with collaborative robots. Whether at goods receiving, order-picking or shipping - smart robotics solutions can support employees by eliminating time-consuming processes and – if robots are already in use – make these even more efficient by adding ArtificialIntelligence. Employees are thus relieved; time and money are saved.
In order to bring more smart automation into warehouses in an easy way, robominds and piab developed the Depalletizing Kit – a ready-to-use combination of robobrain®(the brain that gives robots human intelligence), piab’s vacuum gripping technology piCOBOT®L and suitable robotic components. The AI-based Depalletizing Skill used in this application enables the robot to recognize variable load carrier positions and stacking (e.g. cartons on a pallet).
Explore the depalletizing solution live at this year’s LOGIMAT, the international trade fair for intralogistics solutions and process management in Stuttgart from 25th – 27th April at Hall 7, Booth 7C71. Don't miss this opportunity to see firsthand how this powerful combination can transform your palletizing and depalletizing operations.
