Inefficient or poorly-managed logistics operations increase overhead and reduce customer satisfaction, posing a significant threat to a manufacturer's profitability. Technologies can lend an almost scientific approach to logistics operations planning. With that in mind, let's look at just one area in which technology is making an impact—inventory tracking and handling.
The Fully Automated Warehouse
Full warehouse automation is the most comprehensive example of technology use in retail warehouses. The biggest manufacturers can find that success creates its own particular challenge when it comes to order fulfilment—a gigantic customer base, demanding swift delivery of a huge range of products, to innumerable locations ranging from retail stores to the very homes of the consumers themselves.
To create the operational fluidity necessary to satisfy their millions of customers, leading companies will often invest heavily in completely automating their warehouse facilities. Such facilities tend to have a completely integrated system where specialized warehouse management software interacts with specially designed automated racks, cranes, and stackers to ensure that inbound items are loaded, and outbound items located, retrieved and passed along a network of conveyor belts to the appropriate loading bay—with high accuracy rates.
IKEA, Walmart and Zappos are just some of the retail giants that currently employ these advanced systems as an integral part of their low cost/large scale operations.
Read the full article here to learn more about inventory handling and tracking.
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