The Material Handling Blog

Determining which material handling automation is best for your warehouse is challenging. From sifting through the vast amount of automated equipment options to identifying immediate and future operational needs, it’s not a task accomplished in a business day. And truthfully, the challenge doesn’t end once you’ve selected your new system. The next objective is to ensure the technology fits and optimizes your operations. Seamless integration and full utilization of the new system aren’t a given. It takes time, communication and planning. Before implementing any solution, consider these three tips for successful automation integration.

In this fast-paced industry where customers are looking for the fastest delivery and using multiple channels to complete their purchases, brands need to be nonstop active. Today, almost all consumers check reviews and compare prices both online and offline before making a purchase.

The testing phase is one of the most crucial and often overlooked project phases when planning for an AS/RS (automated storage and retrieval system). Selecting an optimal technology for a customer’s specific needs is only the first step of the process, testing helps to highlight additional opportunities, refine warehouse operations with the new automation, as well as mitigate unforeseen challenges. As we look into what goes into a typical test plan for an AS/RS, there are four stages that can be considered testing staples: remote interface testing, internal integration testing, integration testing with the customer and UAT (user acceptance testing) with the customer.

Supply chains and warehouse operations are under a spotlight with many moving towards adding small- and large-scale automation solutions with software upgrades to match. Identifying and navigating those changes is not easy but the right warehouse software platform and integrator can help make the shift seamless.

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.

With all this innovation and growth in the goods to person warehouse automation sector, it’s vital to factor the impact on the whole system’s integration, tied together through software and controls. To compensate, WES systems are getting larger and more complex in order to integrate with new technologies provided by other vendors coming to market. To truly optimize a goods to person system, customers should consider each GTP technology’s merits, but also the software that will manage its operations.

In these cases, either the host ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) system or the WMS (Warehouse Management System) controls inventory and is the brain of the entire warehouse. The WES (Warehouse Execution System), on the other hand, is responsible for controlling the various islands of automation to complete tasks given by the host or WMS system. This might all seem a bit complicated at first. After all, if the WMS is like a brain, why can’t it just control everything in the warehouse on its own? Are multiple systems really better and more cost-effective than one? As I will explain below, a WES can greatly improve operations where automation is involved in many ways.

More companies are starting to prioritize automation while those that had already put a lot of focus on automation are not looking to slow down. In fact, there is greater emphasis on it. Companies are realizing the competitive advantages that automation provides and are starting to challenge why adding a goods to person or ASRS system may or may not work in their business.

As distribution centers become more automated, a well thought-out and formal warehouse system test plan and test scenarios can help conquer these increasingly complex systems.

A WES is a powerful tool that can help a wide range of warehouse DCs. Here’s what’s required to properly test and implement a warehouse execution system..

Integrating supply chain software may seem intimidating, but with the help of our experts and a good software package such as Exacta, connecting your host software system to your automated material handling system is easy.

Unit testing has become quite the buzzword over the past several years, but what is and why should you care? Learn more about this process and how it can help. Read: What are Unit Tests and Why Should You Care?