The Material Handling Blog

Over two decades ago, the internet made its way into households, retail, and manufacturing environments, providing a foundation for commerce to occur in a more rapid and convenient fashion. Since then, ecommerce has undoubtedly become the platform of choice for procuring everything from household products to industrial equipment. While present strategies such as warehouse execution systems, sortation, rainbow palletizing, and GTP (goods to person) systems have certainly helped meet these aggressive order fulfillment pursuits, a new robotic solution is proliferating the material handling industry that can further improve operations and customer satisfaction.

It’s no secret that, since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, foot traffic in brick-and-mortar stores has seen a dramatic decrease. Recent reports show a slight increase and recovery but it is becoming increasingly clear that online shopping is the way of the future. How are businesses responding to this trend and what does this mean for parcel shipments?

Transform warehouse operations to achieve smarter, more accurate, 24/7 order fulfillment with piece picking robotic solutions carefully integrated to support existing workflows and flexible enough to easily grow for future business volume, products, seasonality and new functions. Download this Infographic to learn more.

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.

Any automation solution is an investment. Integration of goods to person (GTP) is no different, and with technological advancements, GTP has always been known as a flexible solution that accommodates various products and operations. Demonstrating extensibility, however, reaches beyond minor adjustments or accommodations. Extensibility is the measure of the scalability and integrability of a product or system, providing for a truly future-proof solution that works well with new technologies and functions. Adapting to a changing economic and uncertain labor markets, as well as advancements in robotics and software, goods to person continues to prove to be a robust foundation for distribution center operations that can grow and adapt.

Featuring capacity for goods to person system storage of 3.6 million products, Dafiti Group’s newest warehouse, called LEAP, houses one of the most advanced automation systems in the world providing fast delivery across Latin America. As part of the Global Fashion Group, Dafiti leads fashion and lifestyle ecommerce retail sales in Latin America and needed a facility and supporting technology to match their spirit for innovation and top-level customer satisfaction. This fast-moving system was expertly integrated with Dafiti’s current and future ecommerce growth in mind, offering a reliably convenient shopping experience for years to come. “[LEAP’s] scale and sophistication speak to the transformational growth of the fashion ecommerce industry and will help to propel our next ten years of growth in the region,” says Christoph Barchewitz, Co-CEO of the Global Fashion Group.

Pick to light has become a staple of warehouse distribution and order picking. Here are the top 5 benefits. What if there was an easier, automated way to locate these items? Say, when you want to find an item a beacon of light illuminates to direct you to the appropriate aisle, and then another beacon of light illuminates to get you to the correct shelf, and eventually the exact location on the shelf.

Se seu centro de distribuição cresceu em ambos os SKU e o volume de pedidos e seu pedido típico mudou de varejo para vendas de comércio eletrônico, resultando em solicitações maiores de pedidos pequenos, é possível que sua produtividade de separação não seja adequada. Você também pode estar com dificuldades de encontrar mão de obra para enviar pedidos rapidamente e cumprir os acordos de nível de serviço. Esses são apenas alguns desafios que grandes e pequenas empresas de todo o mundo estão enfrentando enquanto se adaptam às mudanças de mercado e mudam as operações de atendimento para cumprir as últimas demandas do comércio eletrônico.

Si en su centro de distribución ha crecido el número de SKU y el volumen de pedidos, o si el pedido típico ha pasado de las ventas de retail a las de comercio electrónico, aumentando las peticiones de pedidos más pequeños, es posible que su productividad de picking no sea la correcta. Además, es posible que tenga dificultades en la contratación de mano de obra para despachar pedidos con rapidez y cumplir sus acuerdos de nivel de servicio. Estas son solo algunas de las dificultades a las que se enfrentan empresas grandes y pequeñas de todo el mundo al adaptarse a los cambios del mercado y pasar de las operaciones de servicio de pedidos a las últimas demandas del comercio electrónico.

The holiday season is in full swing and shoppers have already started browsing and buying. Despite current supply chain complexities, the National Retail Federation reports, “Consumers are spending just as much this year on gifts and other items to celebrate the spirit of the holidays.” Holiday sales are expected to reach between $843.4 billion and $859 billion in November and December, that’s an 8.5 and 10.5 percentage growth from last year. That does not include automobile, gas station or restaurant data. Consumer demand remains strong when it comes to retail ecommerce. For warehouse and distribution center operations that means putting processes to the test. No matter how much automation is currently installed, handling seasonal peaks requires a smooth process that allows for operations to thrive – accurate orders, reliable fulfillment and scalable operations – during this hectic, bustling time. As we gear up for 2022, experts at Adobe predict we will be facing the first ever trillion dollar year in ecommerce sales – it’s never too soon to prepare for an uptick in sales year-round.

A seleção, o empacotamento e o envio é bastante simples. Mas com pressões cada vez maiores para processar pedidos de forma mais rápida, essas tarefas podem dar à sua empresa uma vantagem competitiva. Quando analiso para o centro de distribuição do cliente, há certos indicadores que procuro para encontrar oportunidades de melhoria. Para uma empresa que processa pedidos de comércio eletrônico, os tanques de coleta estão no topo dessa lista. Embora algumas vezes eles sejam necessários, costumam ser uma bandeira vermelha para ineficiências operacionais subjacentes. No entanto, essas ineficiências são facilmente solucionadas por meio de uma combinação de atualizações do fluxo do processo e nova automação. Esses projetos geralmente têm um ROI incrível, pagando o investimento inicial em um a dois anos. Além disso, são escolhas fáceis para o cliente implementar.

There’s no question that online grocery ordering is here to stay. Access to fresh produce, milk, eggs, toilet paper and many more grocery items isn’t changing. However, the process by which those products get delivered to the consumer from distribution centers – that is being re-envisioned to meet changing consumer demands. And, with that come new challenges, technologies and strategies. Let’s first look back at history.