The Material Handling Blog

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?

When new material handling automation equipment is introduced to a manufacturing or distribution center, it is easy to lose focus on continuous improvement efforts. Often it is assumed that technology and automation have created a process which completely maximizes efficiencies and therefore cannot be improved. Kaizen, meaning continuous improvement, is a core tenant in TPS (Toyota Production System) and empowers individual team members to identify areas for improvement and suggest immediate, yet practical solutions. A facility that focuses on continuous improvement does not stop once a process is automated.

In supply chain, decentralization makes it possible to obtain small urban warehouses which help to manage order preparation as close as possible to the end consumer. We are talking about micro-fulfillment warehouses (or micro-logistics platforms), or even nano-fulfillment for the smallest of them.

The question for today’s modern warehouses is no longer when should we automate, but how and where do we automate for the best impact? To help sort through these cutting-edge offerings, we’ve created a quick visual guide to understanding the basics of goods to person systems, including the different types, their benefits and important factors to consider. View the full-size infographic.

Dynamic and easily scalable, goods to person technologies have risen to the forefront of order fulfillment conversation amid rapid ecommerce growth. Answering the challenge of automation for various industry applications and operation sizes, Scallog’s order fulfillment system adds a mobile robotic solution to the mix. Announced late last year, Bastian Solutions, an independent integrator, has added Scallog’s technology to our growing portfolio of automation capabilities. We talked to Olivier Rochet, founder and president of Scallog, for a deeper insight on the technology and future of DC automation development. This French robotic automation system manufacturer, already installed in six countries, offers a goods to person technology based on robots that move shelves around the warehouse.

Various goods-to-person technologies have risen to the challenge of social distancing by creating naturally spaced workstations for employees and allowing companies to continue their business momentum. In some cases, ramping up to match shifts like we’ve seen in ecommerce. In Q3 2020, about $1 in every $5 was spent on online sales, according to U.S. Commerce Department retail data.