Despite a very slight decline in size and number of warehousing facilities between 2022 and 2023, supply chain decision-makers expect both metrics to show net increases in the next four years. That’s one of the findings from Zebra 2023 Warehousing Vision Study, available here [PDF]. Yet the paper’s overarching message describes the industry’s desire to use technology to address the cost centers of existing operations and ensure a higher-capacity, more accurate future that aligns with rising customer expectations.

Source: Zebra Technologies

The constant headwinds currently prevalent in the industry need little explanation for readers of these pages, and the next few years will inevitably bring the types of supply chain disruptions that are sadly a fact of life in the sector – ocean piracy, war, and localised variation in economic conditions. But digitization, generally, and technology deployments in warehouses and distribution centers specifically have the capability to alleviate external negative influences, make companies more agile, and address many of the perennial problems that dog the sector. This article hopes to describe some of those solutions.

Perfect order profitability

Missed Sevice Level Agreements (SLAs) have varying causes, but errors on the warehouse floor rank high among the variables within the control of facility operators. Personnel must get technology and equipment training as they transition into areas best suited to on-the-spot decision-making. Luckily, reassignment to other areas and being given effective technology are very popular with employees. This could be a boon in a sector where staff turnover is too often accepted as the norm.

Fewer mistakes in general and higher efficiency from trained and equipped workers together mean better operations, of course. However, the secondary effects of automation also help produce a quicker ROI. Data metrics from the warehouse floor create objective, real-time pictures that inform managers’ decision processes. Additionally, investment in employees’ working conditions and careers makes the operator’s facilities an attractive destination for a prospective employee pool that’s often considered transitory.

A beacon of hope

While visions of automated warehousing systems bring to mind ranks of large robotized machines, many of the automation solutions that make the most significant differences to operations are much less eye-catching. Technologies like passive Radio Frequency Identification (RFID), 5G networks, and space optimization technologies are often discrete and can be deployed with little impact on operations during rollout. Wearables are highly effective in this context, enabling the workforce and the technology they use to work as one unit. Additionally, static or handheld RFID beacon readers are a proven technology many years into maturity, and their use at scale, with a relatively modest outlay, brings immediate positive results.

As technologies, these are especially effective in addressing some of the more labor-intensive operational processes that are correspondingly the source of high cost. Many operators have invested in inventory management solutions emphasizing customer experience, with the interesting effect that (according to the responses that formed the Zebra Warehousing Vision Study) warehouse workers feel less informed about available stock than customers. Operationally-focused inventory technology, on the other hand, ensures warehouse operators and workers on the warehouse floor have constant and accurate knowledge about stock levels.

Source: Zebra Technologies

Like the equipment and software that can transform employees’ roles, static warehouse technology provides significant data from automated operations, in addition to keeping the point-of-sale customer fully informed as to availability. Digital models of real-time processes in multiple facilities can be created, using automated sensor data plus input from handheld tech. In turn, so-called ‘digital twins’ allow companies to virtually test new processes, experiment with variations on current processes, and devise new working methods that optimize space, and prioritize personnel efficiency and safety.

The same data-driven approach also brings value further up the decision-making chain, allowing strategic planning – whether to extend existing facilities or break new ground, for example – to take place based on proven data rather than educated guesswork.

Conclusions

If we assume that the next few years will present a series of unexpected events outside the control of individual supply chain operators, then it’s apparent that agility and speed of ability to change are of high importance. Technology in the form of hardware and malleable software does not guarantee agility, per se. But the ability to at least cushion the blow of negative events that will unfold in the future is the least that technology adopters in the sector can expect.

By reducing the impact of known cost centers and equipping people and physical facilities with systems overseen by industry-specific solutions, supply chains develop resilience for the future. Return on investment will take the form of better margins in several areas of operations (customer experience, HR, adherence to SLAs, and so on) in the short to medium term. However, the long-term return on investment will be the very existence of a long-term: that is, resilience and the ability to adapt to change to ensure a viable economic future.

About Zebra Technologies

The Zebra 2023 Warehousing Vision Study can be found here[PDF]. The company is the primary consultative partner for and supplier of the world’s best supply chain-focused technology. To find out more about what it can offer, please contact a representative near you.

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Multiple outside factors affect any company with significant investment in their supply chain and logistics operations, even before internal practices are considered. Extra red tape at Britain’s borders, continuing US port congestion and trade disruptions in the Red Sea are testament to that. A supply chain comprises many actors, so it’s almost impossible to shield the effects of even a small disruption from an individual business.

Source: Zebra Technologies

Supply chain, warehousing, distribution, and logistics functions, therefore, tend to be run by long-term planners. By proactively monitoring and improving aspects of operations within their control, the company buys itself as much protection as it can against local or world events that could occur tomorrow, or many years in the future.

There are multiple ways in which problems closer to home can be addressed and methods combating them attenuated. Staff ‘turnover’ in warehouses, distribution depots, and logistics, for example, brings their own considerable costs, exacerbated by chronic labor shortages in the sector. Employee well-being and job satisfaction – the employee experience (EX) – are high on the list of desired outcomes among decision-makers, as are worker productivity and automation. In some cases, EX, productivity, and robotized processes are interconnected; staff with dull, repetitive jobs can be re-tasked to more interesting and fulfilling roles once even basic technology and automated systems are in place.

Better operational practices not only reduce costs in the mid to long term but also help ensure that the company itself causes a minimum of supply chain disruption both up and downstream. This, in turn, lowers prices on the table from supply chain partners and creates greater trust among third parties with whom the company works.

Source: Zebra Technologies

Those with significant resources set the bar high for others to follow. The practices of Amazon, Temu, and state-owned GEODIS, for example, have been able to instigate top-down approaches to operational overhauls, with some becoming household name brands by dint of their efforts. Yet there is no direct correlation between the resources plowed into restructuring operations and 100 percent positive outcomes. Discrete projects can bring the types of resilience and efficiency to more modest transport, logistics, and distribution companies that create significant cost reductions. That’s partly down to the knock-on positive effects that flow from relatively minor changes.

Light at the tunnel’s end

Founded in 1981, UK retailer The Works decided to give autonomy to its individual shops and online store, supplying employees with the technology to monitor and run their own stock control processes. Data gathered fed back to automated systems in the company’s supply chain, slashing surpluses and ensuring stock availability, where and when it was needed.

Simple-to-use devices with familiar user interfaces ensured employee buy-in and the complexity of the data collated country-wide was handled by automated software. This instigated more efficient logistics and distribution, plus informed warehouse operations, creating cost savings and increased customer satisfaction at the point of service.

The data ingestion and business-led optimization of operations are particularly effective in supply chains, where the consequences of even small changes tend to ripple out into other parts of the business. That’s led larger organizations to invest in expensive re-architecting of enterprise-level ERP systems.

Source: Zebra Technologies

But specialist software designed and deployed solely in supply chain, T&L, distribution, and warehousing businesses have particularly attractive offerings. From users equipped with environmentally-tuned devices^* to controlling software and analytics, industry-specific vendors are in an excellent position to help customers refine their operations across the board.

^* (Cold room-suitable tablets, forklift-mounted tech, long-distance barcode scanners, etc.)

While no single solution is a sure fit for every organization, a sector specialist will already have many of the answers to problems that are sadly not unique to any one business. With the addition of consultation, advice, partnership, and long-term device and software support, companies with significant supply chains have much to gain from sector-specific vendors.

Conclusions

Many of the issues this article touches on are further explored in the Zebra Warehousing Vision Study, which examines many of the pain points of operations in the sector and suggests solutions for automation and technology deployment that make business sense.

Any transformational journey takes time and study to achieve, but some systems are particular to this complex vertical. Getting guidance as part of a longer-term partnership is also highly recommended. What might seem an intractable problem in your organization’s operations may well have, if not immediate solutions, but a range of options. Sometimes, it takes a specialist to bring them to the surface.

To refine your operational strategies to help develop immunity from the effects of global supply chain issues, improve EX, and cut operating costs in some surprising areas, read the Vision Study via this link.

To talk to an expert in the industry about how technology, hardware, and automation can help your business scale, reach out to a representative.

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