The Material Handling Blog

Warehouse slotting, velocity slotting, re-slotting – these are all commonly used terms when referring to SKU optimization. What does it mean and what does it look like for warehouse operations? Put simply, velocity slotting is an organizational strategy that utilizes storage zones within a warehouse to store products by pick frequency. It’s impact stretches to positively impact costs, inventory performance and satisfying customer service level agreements, to name a few. Let’s take a deeper look at the effectiveness of slotting.

As warehouse automation becomes a strategic priority for improving efficiency, accuracy, and scalability across distribution and manufacturing environments, it is important to start with the right foundation. One of the most important steps is asking the key questions that shape a successful automation solution. While automation projects often center on the equipment like automation storage and retrieval systems (AS/RS), goods-to-person (GTP) solutions, or automated guided vehicles (AGVs), the software that directs and synchronizes this equipment sits at the core of the solution. This is where a Warehouse Execution System (WES) comes into play.

MSC Industrial Supply Co. knew it was time to update how work got done inside its customer fulfillment centers. With growing demand and a vast product catalog, they needed a way to handle more volume while improving the day-to-day experience for employees on the floor. That meant reducing physically demanding tasks, increasing flexibility, and building a more efficient system for order fulfillment. As a leading distributor of metalworking and MRO (maintenance, repair, and operations) products, MSC serves manufacturers and industrial customers across North America. Their operation includes over 7,000 associates and millions of SKUs flowing through two major fulfillment centers in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, and Elkhart, Indiana.

Imagine this: Your Fulfillment Director tasks you with specifying a new sorter and conveyor system capable of doubling current capacities. Where do you begin? Conveyor and sortation systems are engineered solutions. Like most engineering challenges, the solution's effectiveness hinges on the quality of its inputs. Accurate, detailed data ensures the system is tailored to your specific business requirements and product specifications.

Are you looking for a way to eliminate waste within your picking process? Are you struggling to achieve accuracy metrics? Does your operation suffer from constant turnover or accommodate seasonality? If any of these scenarios hit a little too close to home, a pick to light solution may be a good choice to optimize your operation! In this article, I will go over the functionality, advantages and operations best suited for this technology.

Ever tried cramming one last outfit into an already overstuffed suitcase? You push, you fold, you sit on top of it—and still, the zipper won’t budge. That’s exactly how many distribution centers feel when they hit capacity. There’s always one more pallet, one more SKU, one more shipment to squeeze in, but eventually, you run out of room. Unlike a suitcase, warehouses can’t just swap to a bigger model at the last minute. Space constraints in distribution centers lead to far more than just a tight fit—they create bottlenecks that slow operations, increase costs, and make it harder to meet customer expectations. Running out of space isn’t just an inconvenience for companies looking to scale - it’s a roadblock to growth. The good news? With the right material handling automation strategy, you can optimize the space you already have.

Labor and resource planning has always been a moving target. Even the most well-run warehouse or fulfillment center can struggle to match staffing levels with demand. When the right people aren’t available at the right time, delays stack up, costs rise, and service levels slip. Operations teams are up against a familiar set of challenges like fluctuating order volumes, high turnover, and inefficient workflows that create bottlenecks. In the 2024 MHI Annual Industry Report, more than half of material handling leaders cite talent shortages—hiring and retaining qualified workers—as one of their biggest challenges, ranking it as very or extremely difficult to manage. Scaling up often means adding temporary workers or increasing overtime, but that’s not a sustainable strategy. How work is structured and allocated has just as much impact on efficiency as the number of workers on the floor. Material handling automation provides a way to stabilize operations, improve labor efficiency, and optimize resources without relying on constant hiring cycles. But before looking at the solutions, it’s important to understand where the biggest inefficiencies emerge and why workforce planning remains a challenge.

Your warehouse is running smoothly until an unexpected spike in orders disrupts fulfillment. A key shipment misses its deadline, triggering customer frustration, refunds, and cancellations. The delay escalates into a chain reaction of operational issues, leading to financial penalties, lost revenue, and reputational damage. Warehouse staff scramble to recover lost time, but the ripple effect reaches customer service teams, supply chain planners, and even corporate leadership. What should have been a routine fulfillment process turns into a costly and disruptive challenge.

Distribution operations are increasingly complex, with logistics teams managing the delicate balance of e-commerce fulfillment, omnichannel service, and evolving customer expectations while grappling with labor shortages and rising costs. The sheer volume of decisions, from designing efficient workflows to selecting and integrating the right automation technology, can quickly overwhelm even experienced teams. What if a single point of responsibility could take on the challenge of these decisions, streamlining processes and providing tailored solutions that align precisely with your distribution goals? For many organizations, partnering with a distribution integration consultant transforms how they handle these complexities. By bringing in a consultant with single-point accountability, companies are discovering a path to more straightforward, more efficient operations without losing control over their goals and growth.

E-commerce and retail are evolving fast, and small to medium-sized businesses are at the center of that growth. The U.S. alone is home to nearly 14 million e-commerce sites, accounting for 53% of all online retail sites globally. As more businesses move online, the competition to fulfill orders quickly and efficiently intensifies. In fact, small and medium-sized businesses expect their e-commerce sales to grow year-over-year. With growth comes challenges: How do you fulfill rising order volumes quickly and accurately without adding more labor or expanding physical space? Large-scale warehouse automation has long been the answer for enterprise operations, but for smaller businesses, automation has often felt out of reach—too complex, too expensive, and too overwhelming. That’s changing.

Industrial automation has reached a pivotal moment where the promise of emerging technologies competes with the proven value of strategic partnerships. The rise of AI-driven solutions offers unparalleled potential, but experience reveals a crucial truth: the long-term success of automation depends less on adopting the latest innovations and more on building resilient, collaborative relationships with trusted partners.

The integration of emulation software and PLC represents a ground-breaking advancement in industrial automation. By leveraging emulation software, we can construct a virtual model of physical systems, allowing for real-time testing and validation. When synchronized with PLCs, the digital twin accurately replicates the behaviour of the physical system, offering valuable insights into performance, troubleshooting and optimization.