Summary
In recent days, the usage of a tape measure has decreased as warehouse operators no longer enjoy measuring parcel dimensions with it.
Increasingly, warehouse owners are acquiring automated dimensionalizers to calibrate the parcel dimensions faster and smart robots, which mark the beginning step towards automation.
This blog gives you a better insight into how your warehouse can be made more intelligent with the deployment of dimensionalizers and smart robots.
Customer Persona:
- Logistics Specialist:
Working with suppliers and consumers to complete the shipment, knowing the Supply Chain and Logistics market patterns and the effect of AI in their core domain.
- Warehouse Automation Manager:
Understanding how AI is changing warehouses and how it is possible to make their work simpler and ensures the safe and successful storage and delivery of warehouse goods.
- Operations Specialist:
Ensure that the warehouse is managed smoothly and efficiently by processes and regular functions. Focus on the enhancement of productivity through automation and improvement of business processes.
Introduction
Todays’ warehouses are undoubtedly becoming smarter than ever, and the warehouse robots are seamlessly working without human assistance. ECommerce’s rapid development has been urging warehouse operations to implement AI-enabled automation systems for the last few years. Before diving deep into the idea, let us know about what a smart warehouse is and the considerations to keep in mind before deploying smart warehouse solutions to your workspaces.
What is a smart warehouse?
The smart warehouse is the endpoint of warehouse automation – meaning combining different developments to knock down many iterative and hand-held warehouse operations. Furthermore, smart warehouses can pare the need for human labor while enhancing warehouse performance and reducing operational costs.
Taking into account below are the following factors to consider before adopting a warehouse solution:
- Agility:
Agility in the warehouse refers to the process of quickness, flexibility, competence, and handling multiple redundant operations. Also, agility in the warehouse helps you to adapt to both market and internal changes.
- Data visibility:
As the technologies continue to surpass, we need to have a clean database. The supply chain and warehousing activities may become intricate in the coming days, and we need to keep track of every process. So this is again a paramount requirement before warehouse automation is adopted.
- Scalability:
The process of looking at future-preparedness, meaning it doesn’t matter whether you’re a star-focused start-up or an existing organization that is getting ready to revamp with smarter growth. It will be excellent if you have a concrete strategy for the scalability of your business.
Benefits of adopting AI-enabled warehouse solutions:
1. Improve labor efficiency:
By eliminating repetitive manual tasks using automation, we can quickly reduce workers’ numbers and add more value to the remaining employees. Besides, the automated warehouse can perform more warehouse duties smoothly without any shift time.
2. Enables fast turnaround times:
By incorporating automation in the warehouse and significantly improving customer service, we can respond quickly to online orders.
3. Scales up warehouse transparency
The more your client understands your warehouse inventory’s levels and conditions, the more responsive the contact will be. The automation technology can produce full-time insight into warehouse operations and inventory information.
4. Improves scalability:
With the right warehouse automation, we can rapidly simplify warehouse operations, minimize labor costs, and modify various warehouse functions.
5. Uplifts adaptability
Forward-thinking can benefit in space utilization for future-oriented purposes. Smart warehouses can intensify the ability and willingness to adjust operations according to changing requirements.
When you plan to invest more in automation, you should collect relevant information like forecasting reports and customer demands before adopting technology into the warehouse.
Smart Technologies Paving The Way For Warehouse Automation
Over the last decade, the utilization of warehouse management systems has expanded from approximately 32% to almost 75%. In the coming days, 53% of warehouse employees would plan to invest heavily in technical developments. Some of the advancements include real-time surveillance systems, automated dimensioning solutions, advanced drone technology, wearables, barcode scanners, and autonomous mobile robots.
Solutions To Deploy During The First Phase of Warehouse Automation
Automated dimensionalizers
The AI-led dimensionalizers were developed to calibrate the dimensional information such as length, height, width, and DIM weight of any shaped parcels and packages in less than a second. These dimensionalizers are further categorized according to the industrial standards into parcel dimensionalizers and pallet or package dimensionalizers.
The package dimensionalizers package or otherwise known as automated package dimensioners can calculate the measurement of pallets and crated freights. These dimensionalizers can be paired with barcode scanners, weighing scales, and 2D cameras To picture the full load image before the shipment.
The parcel dimensionalizers or otherwise known as automated parcel dimensioners can record the dimensional information of individual boxes, packages, and cartons of varying sizes and shapes in a jiff. In addition to this, we can integrate other external devices like weighing scales, barcode scanners, and other ERP and WMS software applications with these automated dimensionalizers.
Here are five noteworthy reasons to deploy dimensionalizers to your warehouse:
- Financial savvy:
Without the investment, you cannot procure any equipment in the warehouse. Therefore, before accepting it in real-time use cases, it is often essential to check its price.
- Simple integration:
Analyzing the working efficiency of the dimensionalizer is salient. It would be better to select dimensionalizers with a versatile structure to integrate with any preferred future-readiness systems.
- Improved customer service:
You can easily create trust in customers with precise measurements, which encourages customers to stick to the brand. By deploying automated dimensionalizers in your workspace you can easily get rid of manual dimensioning with vMeasure automated dimensionalizers and can skyrocket customer trust effectively.
- Optimized storage space:
For a warehouse, money is all about optimized space and time. The automated dimensionalizers calculate the packages and parcels’ exact dimensions in less than a second to quickly assign the storage space for products in the warehouse.
- Improved precision and reduced manual errors:
Not only does the automated dimensionalizers save time, but it also gives you money! These dimensioners can generate accurate dimensioning information to cut down the conventional (hand-held) dimensioning method.
Autonomous mobile robots (AMR)
The autonomous mobile robot is constructed with the latest navigation advancement that does not require cables, tape, magnets, or other assistance like conventional autonomous guided vehicles (AGV). These AMR are trained with different datasets to create their map with the operating environment, onboard sensors, and cameras to process their surroundings, self-locate, and navigate the location based on real-time conditions.
Here are four powerful reasons for efficiently bringing in autonomous mobile robots to revamp warehouse activities:
- Reduces walk time:
Staff should roam around the warehouse in traditional warehouses to identify and pick the products and then walk back to the sorting station. And this back and forth walks time increases the overall time spent on picking assignments.
- Directs workflow to boost precision and efficiency:
The AMR uplifts not only the picking process but also helps the employees by navigating the products’ location, displays the product quantity, and assists employees to improve precision and efficiency during the order fulfillment process.
- Enables flexible capital expenses:
There is no need to mount tracks and magnetic strips, and forklifts by deploying autonomous mobile robots to the warehouse.
- Augments human labor:
We can schedule other high-value tasks for employees by bringing autonomous mobile robots into the warehouse.
Drone technology
Over the last few years, the deployment of AI-enabled drone technology has increased. By investing more in robotics and automation, central warehouses aim to improve warehouse potency. These drones are explicitly purchased for three main applications in the warehouse: inventory control, inspection and tracking, and indoor intra-logistics.
Below are the two main reasons to deploy drone technologies in your warehouses.
- Data accuracy:
Captures high-quality aerial photographs, scans product barcodes, and generates the data with a list of in-house product details and its location in the warehouse.
- Increased efficiency:
Drones can be a perfect alternative to replacing warehouse manual monitoring and inspection processes, as they can conduct various detection operations such as roofs, shelves, walls, pallet placements, and ceilings.
- Higher inspection and monitoring:
Drones can be a perfect alternative to replacing warehouse manual monitoring and inspection processes, as they can conduct various detection operations such as roofs, shelves, walls, pallet placements, and ceilings.
Conclusion
Warehouse automation will replace the conventional warehouse in the coming days. Unless the automation processes are stabilized, the efficiency of the automated warehouse systems would be intricate. But you need to take installation costs and the cost of maintenance incredibly before deploying the automation.
To find out more, we encourage you to check out our company website at www.vmeasure.ai
