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If your business is among those struggling to determine where an automated solution will make the greatest impact on your operations, you’re in good company. According to Interact Analysis, more than 80% of U.S. warehouses currently have no automation whatsoever. Yet momentum is building, with the market research firm forecasting that 26% of facilities will possess some degree of automated technology 2027—a significant jump from just 18% in 2021.
Consider Inventory Workflows First
One way to approach the task of matching the ideal automation technology to a unique workflow is to start from a higher-level perspective, suggested Jake Heldenberg, Vanderlande’s Head of Solution Design.
“I recommend first considering the different workflows throughout an operation end-to-end. Then, assess the manual tasks that are associated with each step,” he explained.
“Examine the processes required for handling inventory, from receiving, putaway, and storage to replenishment of forward pick zones, picking orders, and consolidating picks, to packing and shipping,” continued Heldenberg. “Each of those workflows has specific manual tasks associated with them that offer the potential for automation.”
[H1] Segment Handling Processes to Match Automated Solutions
Segmenting handling processes—as well as the types of products being handled—can help an operation identify the areas where the most bottlenecks occur. That, in turn, can make it easier to understand which technology is best suited to automate a given workflow, noted Heldenberg.
He offered three examples:
1. Automated Storage and Retrieval Systems Cut Picking Costs
Manually picking inventory to fill orders is one of the most labor intensive and costly warehouse workflows, explained Heldenberg. “Generally, 70% of associates’ time is spent walking between picks, while just 30% is spent actually picking those items. Automating storage and retrieval of inventory—and goods-to-person delivery of it to associates for picking—is an ideal way to save time and money.”
High density automated storage and retrieval systems (AS/RS) have been around for nearly five decades, he noted. That’s because they are a proven way to enable automate picking, optimize available inventory storage space, and improve inventory control.
“There are also a broad range of automated solutions under the AS/RS umbrella, meaning there’s bound to be one that will work for a facility’s unique needs,” added Heldenberg, who pointed out four different types:
• Crane-based AS/RS for pallets.
• Mini-load AS/RS for totes and cartons.
• Shuttle-based AS/RS for totes, trays, or cartons.
• Autonomous mobile robot (AMR)-based AS/RS for totes or cartons.
2. Automating Received Inventory Transport with Conveyors
Adding conveyor to transport received inventory from the dock to storage locations is another way to automate what is frequently a manual process, said Heldenberg.
“For many operations, received inventory is often moved by forklift or pallet jack to different storage positions,” he explained. “By replacing those lift trucks with conveyor, inventory becomes available for order fulfillment much faster because it no longer has to wait at the dock for transport.”
Conveyors can be engineered with diverts that route received inventory to specific zones within a facility. Once there, personnel and forklifts stationed in the same zone move the products to their putaway locations. This reduces labor costs associated with long distance inventory moves.
3. Sorters Automate Outbound Shipping
On the outbound side of an operation, automated sortation solutions can significantly improve productivity, noted Heldenberg.
“Sorters—such as sliding shoe, cross-belt, or bomb-bay, depending on what’s being handled—help an operation automate a workflow that is extremely labor-intensive,” he said.
That’s because manually sorting outbound parcels is inefficient, error-prone, tedious, and costly. Particularly in e-commerce applications, where there could be hundreds of thousands of individual shipments that need to be routed to different shipping trailers from different carriers.
“Depending on the current manual sortation processes, there are a lot of options to help automate the workflows and achieve much higher throughput rates—plus better accuracy,” concluded Heldenberg.
Find More Automation Insights
Discover more automation insights—grounded in decades of experience—in the Warehousing Answered series. You’ll find more answers from Vanderlande experts about topics including the ideal processes to automate and scalability options that accommodate future growth.