When it comes to the material handling industry, change is inevitable and throughout the process ‘where to start’ tends to shift to how when considering optimizing your warehouse operations.
Start at the beginning. But to start at the beginning you need to know the end—your end goal. What are you trying to accomplish in your warehouse? With what volume and speed are you attempting to move product throughout your facility? These questions, though obvious, may not be so obvious when it comes to the material handling equipment options and technologies available to you.
Let’s take a look at our material handling ABC’s:
Automation: The buzz word that continues to buzz—the key to improving your productivity in your daily operation processes. Automation delivers speed, accuracy and efficiency. If we have not learned anything in the last 18+ months, it is that as more and more consumers flock to online shopping with the increasing expectation of an easy, fast delivery of product to their doorstep, automated solutions can and will provide the speed required to meet those material handling challenges. As eCommerce continues to soar to new heights, automation can and will deliver results in the supply chain to allow for faster product service.
Benefits: Utilizing all facets in material handling should include a systems integrator who can and will partner with you collaboratively to find the right solution specific to your material handling needs. Additionally, to make the most of warehouse space, the equipment and overall man power to achieve its success should be evaluated and considered in the overall operation. There are numerous benefits to implementing automated solutions. They include, but not limited to, optimizing storage capacity and efficiency throughout, maximizing productivity and simplifying daily processes through warehouse management and controls systems.
Customization: Optimizing the space of the warehouse and customizing the footprint with solutions that improve the efficiency and productivity is vital to the success of your facility. Customizing a material handling solution that addresses a specific need or challenge can have residual effects on the overall product throughput.
Delivery: Automation solutions require a proper implementation. And that implementation needs to deliver results. A specific measure of success for any viable automation solutions is the operational gains, ease of streamlining processes, the ROI, and any profits. Did the solutions provide an increase in efficiency and productivity across your operation? Were processes simplified? Did those automated technologies and solutions deliver and meet your material handling needs?
So, the question may not be ‘where to start.’ In fact, its answer is obvious. It’s that you do start. To achieve the highest material handling movement potential possible within your facility, there is no end, but a continuous starting point—one that has you always in the mindset to improve operations. After all, ‘there’s always room for improvement.’
Author: Heather Connors, Director of Marketing, Conveyor Handling Company
Are you ready to start optimizing your warehouse operations?
