The Material Handling Blog

When we think about material handling automation, we often picture large-scale systems requiring significant capital and time investments. Yet, small-scale integrations can deliver transformative results for targeted challenges, offering a path to efficiency that many organizations overlook. Entry-level automation can substantially improve efficiency, accuracy, and scalability—all without overhauling the entire operation and minimizing the risk to the business. These solutions are about doing more with what you have, like incorporating carton flow racking to streamline picking or ergonomic packing stations to enhance worker efficiency, unlocking untapped potential, and preparing for future growth.

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.

Racking is one of the most basic tools in material handling. Here is a simple overview of 4 common types and their benefits. Read: Back to Basics: 4 Common Types of Racking & Their Benefits

Carton flow rack is one of the many places in the material handling world where gravity is used to assist in the transportation of products. Carton flow utilizes a slightly declined array of rollers or skate wheels to provide an efficient, steady supply of product to an employee picking product for various applications.

By definition, carton flow rack is easy to understand; a form of shelving that uses a rear load design, as an item is removed from the front the item directly behind it takes its place. The idea gets to be distinctly harder to comprehend when choosing between rollers and wheels for your carton flow.

Carton flow rack can be a valuable tool that allows users to save space and increase efficiency in order fulfillment operations. The key is selecting the right type of carton flow rack for your facility. There are several options to choose from, and there are several factors that must be considered.

Goods-to-person picking, the new buzzword in material handling, is a great option for operations with a high number of SKU’s and a relatively low cubic velocity of SKU’s, but in an operation that has very fast moving or large items, it can be prohibitively expensive to use this technology throughout. Sometimes it is best to use, or supplement a goods-to-person operation, with a pick module.