Maximizing Efficiency: Eliminating Space Constraints with Material Handling Automation Solutions

Johnathan McRary | 22 May 2024

Picture this: your organization is set for growth, but you're trapped in what feels like a life-size Rubik’s Cube, always moving pieces around to navigate your way through the space constraints of your warehouse. How do you optimize your operations when every inch of floor space counts?

Enter material handling automation. It's more accessible than you might realize and can significantly alleviate the squeeze of limited space. With intelligent, scalable solutions, automation enables you to maximize your existing area and streamline operations. Let's explore how embracing automation can transform your space challenges into opportunities for efficiency and growth.

Overcoming Space Constraints: Boosting Warehouse Efficiency with Smart Solutions

The 2024 MHI Annual Industry Report outlines the top supply chain challenges, spotlighting issues like supply chain disruptions, frequent out-of-stock scenarios and the increasing demand for quicker response times. Among the top concerns for supply chains today, these three stand out for how much harder they hit when space is tight.

1. Supply Chain Disruption: Disruptions in the supply chain, whether due to global events, logistical challenges or supplier issues, often force businesses to rethink their inventory strategies. The knee-jerk reaction is to stock more, "just in case." However, this well-intentioned move can backfire, pushing the limits of available space and straining resources.
2. Out-of-Stock Situations: Insufficient space complicates inventory management, making maintaining an optimal stock level harder. This scenario underscores the connection between space, inventory and the ability to meet demand without interruption.
3. Demand for Faster Response Times: Customers expect rapid delivery. This demand puts immense pressure on operations to be lean and agile, with goods ready to move at a moment's notice. However, poorly utilized space creates bottlenecks that slow down the entire process.

Addressing Warehouse Space Limitations Through Material Handling Automation

The following material handling automation technologies can mitigate the impact of these challenges and transform space limitations into opportunities for streamlined operations and improved productivity.

1. Unit Load AS/RS (Automated Storage and Retrieval Systems)

Unit Load Automated Storage and Retrieval Systems (AS/RS) are designed to handle and store palletized goods efficiently. These systems excel in creating dense storage solutions by taking advantage of vertical space, which is often underutilized in many warehouse environments. By automating the storage and retrieval processes, unit load AS/RS significantly enhances operational efficiency, reduces the need for manual labor and increases storage capacity within the same footprint. The benefits include improved inventory accuracy, reduced product damage and enhanced safety for warehouse staff.

• Mitigating Supply Chain Disruptions: Supply chain disruptions often require businesses to adapt quickly, holding more inventory to guard against uncertainties. Unit Load AS/RS systems address this challenge head-on by maximizing vertical space, allowing more goods to be stored. The precision and reliability of these systems improve inventory accuracy, ensuring that businesses can keep track of stock levels in real time, reducing the risk of overstocking or understocking during unpredictable supply chain conditions.

• Preventing Out of Stock Situations: One of the direct benefits of employing unit load AS/RS is its role in efficient space utilization and real-time inventory management. By automating the storage and retrieval process, these systems ensure that inventory is always accounted for and can be accessed quickly, minimizing the time between order receipt and fulfillment. The system's ability to deliver the right product to the right place at the right time means that businesses can maintain optimal inventory levels, ensuring that they meet customer demands without fail.

2. Goods-to-Person Technologies

Goods-to-person technologies, such as Scallog and AutoStore, are revolutionizing how warehouses and distribution centers operate by bringing items directly to operators. This significantly reduces the space typically required for aisles and manual picking processes. Both systems are designed to optimize storage density and improve picking efficiency, but they do so in uniquely effective ways.

Scallog, a flexible robotic system, uses mobile robots to move shelves of goods toward a workstation, where operators pick and prepare orders. This system is particularly beneficial in environments requiring high flexibility and scalability, adapting seamlessly to changing inventory needs and volumes.

AutoStore, on the other hand, is an innovative cube storage automation system where robots operate on a grid to retrieve and deliver bins to picking stations. Its compact design drastically reduces the footprint needed for storage, making it an excellent solution for maximizing available space.

• Adapting to Various Inventory Sizes and Volumes: Goods-to-person systems excel in environments that experience supply chain disruptions. Their scalability and flexibility allow quick inventory size and volume adjustments, ensuring businesses can respond effectively to fluctuating supply chain dynamics.

• Efficiency in Managing Stock Levels to Avoid Out-of-Stock Scenarios: By automating the retrieval and delivery of goods, goods-to-person systems minimize the risks associated with manual inventory management, including human error and slower response times. Their precise control over inventory enhances the ability to meet customer demand and supports better stock replenishment and allocation decision-making.

3. Multi-shuttle Automated Storage Systems

The ADAPTO shuttle system uses multidirectional shuttles and advanced software to intelligently direct shuttles according to specific order requirements. This system is engineered for flexibility and adaptability, allowing it to handle a wide range of goods with varying sizes and weights, making it an ideal solution for facilities with diverse inventory.

• Adaptability to Fluctuating Demand: One of the standout features of the shuttle system is its flexibility, which allows it to seamlessly adjust to changing demand patterns. This adaptability is crucial for businesses with seasonal peaks or unexpected surges in orders, ensuring they can scale their operations up or down without compromising efficiency or throughput.

• Ensuring Faster Response Times to Customer Demands: The ADAPTO shuttle system contributes to faster response times by optimizing the storage and retrieval process, minimizing the distance that goods must travel within the warehouse. Its high-speed shuttles ensure that products are delivered to picking stations promptly, reducing order cycle times and enabling businesses to meet tight delivery windows.

4. Compact Autonomous Robot with Configurable Payload Handling

Designed with flexibility and efficiency, the ML2 AV (autonomous vehicle)  stands out for its ability to navigate tight spaces and perform a wide range of tasks, from transporting goods to assisting in production processes. It’s small footprint and advanced navigation capabilities make it an ideal solution for facilities looking to optimize their floor space without compromising productivity.

• Operates in Tight Areas: The ML2's design is particularly beneficial for facilities facing severe space limitations. Its compact size and precise maneuverability allow it to operate effectively in narrow aisles and congested areas where traditional material handling equipment cannot go.

• Supports Operational Efficiency and Agility: In environments where demands and priorities can shift rapidly, the ML2 provides the agility needed to adapt quickly. It supports operational efficiency by automating transport tasks, reducing manual handling and minimizing the time goods spend in transit. The ML2's flexibility makes it easy to reconfigure workflows or introduce new routes, ensuring that operations can swiftly adjust to changes in production schedules, order volumes, or inventory strategies.

Streamlining Small Operations: Strategic Material Handling Automation Solutions for Efficiency

Getting automation right involves integrating solutions tailored to your specific operational needs and challenges. This is where Bastian Solutions excels as a system integrator, offering unparalleled expertise in crafting tailored automation strategies that leverage diverse resources. Our approach ensures that your facility benefits from the most suitable, efficient and cost-effective solutions without the constraint of being tied to a single brand or OEM (original equipment manufacturer).

Assessing Facility Needs

We begin with a comprehensive assessment of your facility's current operations, future growth objectives and the specific challenges you face. We consider factors such as space constraints, inventory management requirements, SLAs (service level agreements), throughput goals and labor efficiency. By understanding the nuances of your operation, we can identify opportunities for improvement and recommend automation technologies that deliver the highest return on investment. Bastian Solutions’ focus is on crafting solutions that address your specific needs.

The Importance of Scalability and Flexibility

Automation investments should solve current challenges, anticipate future needs and adapt to market dynamics. Bastian Solutions prioritizes scalability and flexibility in every project, ensuring that the systems we design can scale up or adjust as your business evolves. This forward-thinking approach protects your investment over the long term, enabling you to expand capacity, integrate new technologies or pivot operations with minimal disruption.

Through strategic implementation and a commitment to scalability and flexibility, Bastian Solutions is your partner in navigating the complexities of automation integration. With Bastian Solutions, you gain a strategic partner dedicated to designing the best solution for your space and operational challenges.

Moving Forward with Material Handling Automation

Automation technologies are a straightforward solution for turning tight spaces into productive, efficient operations.

Investing in automation today is an investment in the future of your operations. It’s about looking beyond immediate needs to the long-term benefits these technologies bring, ensuring your facility keeps pace with current demands and is primed for future growth.

Bastian Solutions’ team of experts is ready to help you explore and customize the automation solutions that best fit your unique challenges and goals. Let’s build a smarter, more efficient future for your facility together. Talk to an engineer today!

Author: Johnathan McRary