The Material Handling Blog

Automation in material handling is often celebrated for its ability to increase speed, accuracy and efficiency while reducing operational costs. However, one crucial factor determining the success of automation projects is often overlooked: employee adoption. Implementing new systems isn't just about integrating technology; it's about ensuring the people impacted by these changes understand, accept and embrace them. When executed well, change management bridges this gap, driving both operational success and a positive work culture.

When Maurice’s, a women’s retail fashion brand, set out to reimagine its distribution strategy, it turned to GEODIS, a global leader in third-party logistics, to bring its vision to life. Tasked with designing and managing a 404,000-square-foot omnichannel distribution center, GEODIS needed a fulfillment system that could handle retail replenishment, direct-to-consumer shipping, and buy-online-pick-up-in-store (BOPIS) orders—all while keeping up with rising customer expectations and order volumes. To tackle these challenges, GEODIS sought a solution to deliver high-throughput capabilities and adapt to future growth. Their search led them to AutoStore, a proven order fulfillment technology, and Bastian Solutions, a trusted integrator with extensive experience in implementing automated systems. Through this collaboration, GEODIS and Bastian Solutions created a cutting-edge distribution center that balances speed, flexibility, and efficiency. With AutoStore at its core, the facility is equipped to meet the demands of today’s fast-paced retail logistics environment while remaining ready to scale for what’s ahead.

Growth. Striving for a $2 billion annual revenue goal, SMC Corporation needed a facility and automation technology solution that could meet them where they were and easily support their vision for growth. As a global leader and manufacturer of automatic control equipment, SMC had grown to over 80 subsidiaries and joint ventures around the world. They serve customers in a variety of industries and had grown to 30% of global market share in the pneumatics industry.

The future of warehousing lies in optimizing every aspect of your operation. The AutoStore system, a cutting-edge automated storage and retrieval solution, offers unmatched efficiency and flexibility. This innovative system uses robots on a grid to store and retrieve bins, maximizing space utilization and dramatically improving pick rates. However, the true success of AutoStore results from the precise configuration that meets your unique high-throughput needs.

In today’s fast-paced order fulfillment landscape, fulfillment centers power the seamless shopping experience consumers have come to expect—delivering speed, accuracy, and innovation like never before. To keep up with increasing demand and consumer expectations, operations must strike the perfect balance between speed and accuracy. Distribution centers continue to rely on automation solutions like order pick modules for a good reason. These proven and reliable order-picking systems have evolved with advanced technologies to meet the demands of modern fulfillment operations, maximizing throughput and efficiency. In an era dominated by automation and robotics, pick modules remain adaptable and cost-effective, seamlessly integrating into hybrid operations to handle both high-velocity SKUs and slower-moving items with unmatched versatility.

When designing a material handling automation solution, success often comes down to choosing the right pieces that fit together seamlessly. That’s the value of working with an experienced integrator: finding the optimal combination of technologies to meet your operational goals.

As retail e-commerce continues to evolve, the pressure to adapt and scale efficiently has never been greater. Companies must meet increasing consumer demand while grappling with real estate constraints, workforce shortages, and fluctuating order volumes. Flexibility is critical in an industry where fast, efficient delivery can make or break customer loyalty. For one leading specialty retailer, keeping up with this dynamic environment required a quick fix and a long-term growth strategy. Since 2014, their partnership with Bastian Solutions has helped them stay ahead of these challenges. From optimizing their distribution center (DC) to managing the complexities of fulfillment and seasonal demand, Bastian provided the right mix of expertise and technology to help them scale without unnecessary overhead.

At Bastian Solutions, we see a lot of live operation projects every year – enhancements or modernizations of existing operations. These kinds of projects are considerably more difficult than projects that are performed in a greenfield (brand new building) or brownfield (existing building) site that aren’t operational today.

Once companies decide to automate their warehouses or manufacturing facilities, choosing the technology can be an exciting step in the process. Which leading-edge equipment could be implemented? The possibilities seem almost endless.

Every movement within a distribution center or warehouse, from picking to replenishment, impacts the bottom line. Implementing a goods-to-person (GTP) system is one way to optimize these movements, reducing the time spent searching for items and improving overall accuracy.

“Let’s look at this thing from a standpoint of status. What do we got on the spacecraft that’s good? “ –Gene Kranz (Ed Harris), “Apollo 13.” There’s a lot of genius in that simple question. If you haven’t watched the movie, it’s worth a few hours of your time. The quick summary is that the mission was in serious trouble, Gene Kranz had just put on the flight director vest, and he was beginning the process of recovering not just the equipment, but most importantly, the crew of the Apollo 13 spacecraft. The genius in the question is recognizing that you have no ability to reach an endpoint if you don’t know where you are at the beginning.

Building, storing and moving pallets is often what most people think of when they hear the word “warehouse.” And they’re not entirely wrong, pallet handling operations are critical to the effective flow and performance of many manufacturing and distribution facilities. Outbound pallet handling is often the focus of most companies in this space, as these processes appear to be most impactful to the end-customer. However, inbound pallet handling operations can be equally important to the overall production and fulfillment process. Manual palletizing and movement of inbound product in distribution and manufacturing centers often presents challenges due to labor-intensive processes, ergonomic concerns and safety risks. To address these issues, automation can be implemented to streamline operations and improve efficiency.