The warehousing industry is facing a historic storm of business challenges, including changing customer demands, supply chain disruptions, major labor constraints, and rising costs.
However, many warehouses are using this as an opportunity to change the way they operate for the better.
Instead of trying to ride out the storm and keep doing business as usual, they’re taking the right steps to modernize, adapt and innovate.
Here are 3 examples of ways warehouses are modernizing and turning their current business challenges into a win, including the numbers, tools and strategies they’re using to implement changes:
Example 1: Moving Modernization Forward
As warehouses actively work to get ahead of customer demand, supply chain disruptions, rising costs, and labor scarcity, they’re putting a big focus on modernization. In fact, according to the recent Warehouse Vision Study from Zebra Technologies, 87% of warehouse decision-makers plan to accelerate their timelines of modernization projects within three years. By updating their processes and the systems and technologies they use in the warehouse, they’re aiming to improve the weakest areas of their operations and boost productivity, efficiency and accuracy. Specifically, 35% to 36% are targeting picking efficiency, order fulfillment time, and packing, staging and loading. Some 32% are targeting order accuracy.
Improvement in these areas includes a big focus on technology and software and a switch to fully digital and more automated workflows.
In some cases, modernization is as simple as replacing manual and paper-based processes with digital workflows, or replacing outdated computing and scanning systems with newer and faster wearable mobile devices, mobile apps, and warehouse management software. In others, it’s as sophisticated as moving from barcoding to RFID to enable real-time locating and tracking of inventory as opposed to slow, time-consuming cycle counts. The common denominator is technology. In fact, 87% of decision-makers say that new technology is needed to be competitive in today’s and tomorrow’s on-demand economy. And 83% or more are planning to implement wearable computers and peripherals, new software, and/or RFID technology as part of their modernization.
In fact, 87% of decision-makers say that new technology is needed to be competitive in today’s and tomorrow’s on-demand economy. And 83% or more are planning to implement wearable computers and peripherals, new software, and/or RFID technology as part of their modernization.
Example 2: Taking Steps Toward Automation
Thousands of warehouses are implementing or planning to implement automation to streamline and error-proof processes and reduce the amount of time and labor required to complete warehousing tasks. But it’s still all about people.
Introducing Automation To Help People Do Their Jobs Better
In most warehouses, automation is aimed at optimizing labor productivity, efficiency and performance. It involves equipping people with technologies and digital tools to help them work smarter and more effectively in every aspect of their job. In fact, 85% of warehouse leaders say they have already prioritized labor optimization or plan to do so within the next three years. And 83% say that doing it by augmenting labor with software and devices is the first and best way to phase in automation. There are countless ways to automate key processes and digitize workflows to save time, labor and cost. And opportunities such as the GO Zebra Trade-In Program, which allow warehouses to trade in their aging and outdated technologies and save thousands of dollars toward new upgrades, are making it easier and more affordable to improve.
A Successful Automation Example
One automation strategy that’s seeing increasingly widespread adoption is the use of voice-directed picking solutions. These solutions combine wearable mobile computers, finger-worn barcode scanners, headsets, and voice-directed picking software to help streamline and simplify picking processes. Instead of having to print out and work with a pick list, often walking miles around the warehouse to find the right aisles and bins, pick orders, and then juggle multiple devices to scan barcodes and verify correct picks; these systems remove most of the steps and extra labor from the process. Each order and pick list is delivered on a wrist-worn lightweight mobile computer, which works with voice-directed picking software to provide visual and audible directions to the right inventory locations along optimized pick paths. This way, pickers can take the fastest and most efficient routes to all the items required for the order. Then, to scan barcodes and verify correct picks, workers just use their ring-style barcode scanner to scan each item, and they can use simple touch interactions on their mobile computers to complete transactions. There’s no need to juggle multiple devices, and workers can also be equipped with wearable mobile printers to print product or shipping labels on the spot. It's just one example of how automation can transform a key warehousing process, and when these kinds of opportunities are maximized throughout a facility, it can create dramatic improvements in labor productivity, efficiency, and accuracy.
Example 3: Attracting Employees and Keeping Them Satisfied
Competition for warehouse workers is at an all-time high, and wages are climbing at historic rates. To complicate matters, customer demands and expectations are dramatically increasing, so warehouses can’t get by with fewer workers. This means it’s crucial to attract and retain workers, and preferably at a lower cost. One key to this is making warehouse jobs more attractive and satisfying for workers. That helps with recruiting and retention, which helps keep wages more manageable by keeping turnover low and minimizing the need to hire new workers at increasingly higher wages. Making warehouse work more attractive and satisfying generally means making jobs easier, more efficient, and less physically demanding. And that’s easily achieved with digital technologies and software to help streamline and automate workflows as well as reduce the amount of physical toil and manual process steps they need to do their jobs.
In fact, many of today’s workers want better technologies to help them do their jobs, and many are choosing employers based on who offers the latest and best solutions. Among warehouse associates recently surveyed, 92% agree that technology advancement makes the warehouse environment more attractive to workers. And 82% say their employers’ difficulty in hiring and retaining labor has already prompted improvements, with 57% saying that technology has been used to make work easier.
Additionally, 89% of warehouse associates agree that augmenting labor with software and devices is the first and best way to start introducing automation and helping workers. But it isn’t enough to just hand a worker a mobile computer with a mobile scanning and order fulfillment app and expect results. Some 83% of associates expect their hardware devices and business software to be as easy to use as their personal smartphones.
Thus, it’s important to keep in mind the type of technology and software you’re using, including the simplicity, design, and ability to meet worker expectations and help make their jobs easier and more attractive.
Some 83% of associates expect their hardware devices and business software to be as easy to use as their personal smartphones. Thus, it’s important to keep in mind the type of technology and software you’re using to meet worker expectations and help make their jobs easier and more attractive.
What's Next? Taking the Right Steps to Adapt Your Warehouse
To learn more about how to adapt and thrive in today’s challenging conditions and optimize your warehouse for the future, connect with our warehouse transformation experts at General Data. As a hardware and media provider, a systems integrator, service provider, and a Zebra Premium Solution Partner, General Data can help equip you with the best tools and technologies. Our portfolio of solutions encompasses technologies for:
- Identification
- Labeling
- Thermal Label Printing
- On-Demand Color Label Printing
- Scanning & Mobility Solutions for Data Capture
- Tracking
- Equipment Service
All these technologies are designed to fuel your business growth. We can work together to empower your staff and operations to work more efficiently, lower costs, produce more, sell more, and take your business to the next level.
