Found in Robotics News & Content, with a score of 0.50
…a storage facility for goods or a place to put “stuff” as it made its way through the supply chain, the modern-day facility must be agile and capable enough to support brick-and-mortar, e-commerce, B2B, home deliveries and parcel shipments—to name just a few. Achieving this balance requires one of two things: a whole lot of labor and real estate, or advanced technology that helps to offset issues like high labor costs while also streamlining the process and making it more efficient than ever. And while most companies are at least thinking about how to make that happen, many are still…
Found in Robotics News & Content, with a score of 0.12
…conveyors and specific applications like vertical lift modules and put walls,” says Norm Saenz, managing director with St. Onge Company, a supply chain engineering and consulting firm. “While there are clear indications for growth in the survey, I believe companies are being tactical about investments. They want investments that will bring them quick improvements, while some are thinking about outsourcing.” Indeed, when it comes to new purchases, areas with rising interest not only included equipment such as AS/RS, lift trucks, bins/totes, and conveyors—a broad category that rose from a 29% response last year to 34% this year—but also outside services…
Found in Robotics News & Content, with a score of 0.43
…“coming weeks,” according to a new report from The Wall Street Journal. The service, dubbed Shipping with Amazon or SWA, will directly compete with companies like United Parcel Service Inc. and Fed Ex Corp. However, it will be initially restricted to companies selling goods on Amazon’s own marketplace. No doubt executives at companies FedEx (NYSE: FDX) and UPS (NYSE: UPS) are no doubt waking up to frantic phone calls about what their industry might look like in five years. Read: Amazon's Delivery Dream Is a Nightmare for FedEx and UPS Shipping with Amazon is not a new project for the…
Found in Robotics News & Content, with a score of 0.21
…an industry consultant, first saw the writing on the wall around 2012, when he drew up some projections of what the e-commerce market might look like in five years. “When I put together some analytics, they were unbelievable—not that you wouldn’t believe them, but I didn’t believe them,” he says. “I saw Amazon getting into private label, being one of the largest if not the largest 3PL in the country with fulfillment centers everywhere, and it didn’t seem like a plausible projection. Many were saying dot-coms won’t make it or be profitable, and at 2% of retail it was just…
Found in Robotics News & Content, with a score of 0.96
…retailers - particularly small ones - can’t afford to put together their own stand-alone e-commerce business with the geographic and inventory positioning capability to meet same-day/next-day delivery expectations, they’re asking 3PLs to help,” Lieb adds, noting it’s become the fastest growing part of the 3PL business in the last five years. “Last year, of the 3PLs I surveyed, almost 14% of their revenue consisted of e-commerce. The year before it was 18%.” “If a 3PL specializes in doing a certain service well, they can better scale their operations and offerings to price themselves to be profitable” Brian Gibson, Professor of…
Found in Robotics News & Content, with a score of 0.32
…that will drive the systems and processes you should put in.” DMW&H clients such as REI, the outdoor goods retailer, have had success with specific types of automation, notes Castaldi, but he believes the key to REI’s success was keeping core operational goals in mind as they selected methods and equipment. Other consultants concur that deciding which automated systems should drive productivity—in effect determining what should be at the heart of your DC—goes well beyond an equipment capability focus. It starts with analysis of the order profile and throughput requirements, with close attention to stock keeping unit (SKU) characteristics such…
Found in Robotics News & Content, with a score of 0.27
…complex to orchestrate systems, not only within the four walls of the DC, but with order fulfillment and transportation management decisions. “Everyone is being pushed to ship smaller and faster,” says Joe Vernon, senior manager of North America supply chain technologies for the consulting firm Capgemini. “The demand/fulfill cycle has been cut from days to hours, and freight costs are more often absorbed now, rather than passed along to a customer.” Vernon sees distributed order management (DOM) solutions, as well as new types of optimization software that can synchronize pick sequencing, staging and loading, as gaining in importance. Perhaps the…
Found in Robotics News & Content, with a score of 0.94
…components are added. “With our mobile robotics, once you put in the software and some base infrastructure, you can scale up quickly by adding more components as volumes increase,” Schultz says. “Ultimately, you are able to scale your system in small steps without long lead times for deployment.” Another advantage of adopting mobile robots is there will be less fixed infrastructure to impede the movement of human operators around put walls or other pick-to-light (PTL) workstations, notes Jim Bast, vice president and general manager of Matthews Automation’s Lightning Pick brand, which offers order picking solutions. “We see much of the…
Found in Robotics News & Content, with a score of 2.94
…industry's most efficient, accurate and high-speed order fulfillment solution. Put-to-light - Similar to pick-to-light, put-to-light solutions direct pickers to the correct bin or slot to place an item. Best suited for batch-picking applications, put-to-light brings comparable improvements to accuracy and productivity when compared to traditional manual sorting. Voice picking - This solution provides voice commands via a wireless network, leaving the picker's hands free while increasing picking speed and accuracy rates. Voice commands can also be programmed in multiple languages, significantly decreasing training requirements for non-English speakers. Voice picking can be used as a cost-effective, stand-alone system or as a…
Found in Robotics News & Content, with a score of 0.83
…last three to five years. As one industry veteran put it the other day, there was a ten-year period where we more or less saw many of the same products and solutions at show after show. Achievements were often a measure of speeds and feeds – the rate at which the equipment could move materials through a DC. This Promat, I had more conversations about algorithms and software, like the one I had with Dematic, than about the mechanical functionality of the equipment. At the 30,000 foot level, I break the industry developments down into three bullets. New alliances: The…
Found in Robotics News & Content, with a score of 0.99
…to meet rising service level agreements. From receiving and put-away to picking and packing, sortation technology plays a role in nearly every aspect of DC operations. Sortation Automation In Intelligrated's next On The Move webinar, titled “Sort it out! Making smart sortation automation decisions,” Satyen Pathak, senior product manager, will discuss the full range of sortation automation solutions that are available for modern DC operations. He will cover various options, from manual methods well-matched for lower throughput rates to advanced sortation technologies designed to accommodate up to 150,000 orders per day. This informative webinar will take place on Thursday, January…
Found in Robotics News & Content, with a score of 0.39
…Dematic, we thought now was the right time to put these two companies together. The companies compliment one another: Where we’re strong, they’re weaker and vice versa, and there isn’t a lot of regional overlap.” For example, KION has a limited presence in North America, which is Dematic’s strongest market. Similarly, KION is strongest in regions where Dematic has less of a showing. Product lines are complementary At first glance, there would appear to be overlap between some of Dematic’s product offerings, Egemin’s AGVs, and Retrotech’s ASRS. Baysore argues that if you look closer, the deal extends Dematic’s offerings. “We…