The rapid growth of e-commerce business has redefined the way the warehouse industry functions today. This astounding growth has forced businesses to opt for efficient ways to manage their warehouse. Warehouse automation is no longer considered as a luxury but has become a necessity.
Over the past few years, there has been an explosion of the latest warehouse automation technologies, systems, and strategies, all promising to make your operation more competitive, less wasteful, and, ultimately, more profitable.
When autonomous vehicles hit the market for the first time, it was considered that warehouse automation is only for the biggest corporations and hence companies like Amazon and Coca-Cola benefited a lot. Now the scope of warehouse automation has widened and it is possible even for small and medium sized companies to automate their warehouse operations. According to a G2 survey, 77% of the businesses are eager to automate their warehouse management and are shifting to an efficient data-driven performance.
Warehouse automation categories
Basic Warehouse Automation:
This is the core physical part of the automation where manual work is automated using machines. We’re not talking about completely replacing human labour, but machines do most part of the task and human touch is required. A classic example is a conveyor belt or carousel that moves inventory from one point to another instead of humans moving inventory.
Warehouse System Automation:
This type of automation focuses on the software part of the warehouse management system. Using the evolving technologies like robotics, Artificial Intelligence and data analytics management tasks are automated and efficiently carried out by the software. It is quite common for a human person to forget things and make mistakes that could result in lesser productivity. An automated warehouse management system will review all the orders to be carried on a particular day and will let warehouse employees pick all the inventory in the proper order that will ensure he spends the least amount of time going around the warehouse. The user is allowed to tick each item after picking up, so that he doesn’t miss out on any order. This increases the overall efficiency of the warehouse functionality.
Mechanized Warehouse Automation:
Robotics and autonomous vehicles form the core of the mechanized warehouse automation category. Here the robotic equipment will aid the employees to complete heavy physical tasks in a seamless manner. An autonomous shelf loader is a perfect example for mechanized warehouse automation.
Types of Warehouse Automation Technology
Goods-to-Person (GTP)
As the name indicates, Goods-to-Person fulfillment systems largely help in automating movements of goods inside the warehouse. A properly planned GTP system will increase the efficiency and reduce the congestion of the warehouse. Successful implementation of GTP results in doubling or tripling the speed of warehouse picking. The core components are conveyors, carousels and vertical lift systems.
Automated Storage and Retrieval Systems (AS/RS)
This is again a form of Goods-to-Person fulfilment system that contains automated systems along with material carrying vehicles, tote shuttles and mini-loaders. AR/RS basically aids in all tasks related to storage and retrieval of goods in the warehouse. This is highly helpful for space constrained businesses that handle high-volume warehouse inventory.
Automatic Guided Vehicles (AGVs)
Unlike AS/RS, AGVs are a perfected fit for large warehouses which have very less human traffic. Automated Guided Vehicles helps in automated movement of inventory inside the warehouse using magnetic strips, wires or sensors to navigate a pre-laid fixed pathway. Space constrained warehouses are not suitable for AGVs.
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