BENEFITS OF AMR’s
Autonomous mobile robots (AMRs) bring about a significant enhancement in warehouse operations by automating material handling and transportation tasks. The benefits include increased operational efficiency, reduced labour costs, and improved safety by minimising manual handling of goods. AMRs also bring a level of flexibility that’s vital in today’s dynamic business environment as they can accommodate sudden changes within your business model, evolving market trends, and inevitable supply chain disruptions. Furthermore, these advanced systems contribute to faster order fulfilment and better space utilisation, thereby defining a new standard in warehouse automation.
FIVE WAREHOUSE TASKS TRANSFORMED BY ROBOTIC AUTOMATED STORAGE SYSTEMS
ORDER PICKING
Order picking is the most laborious, resource-intensive, and costly component of the order fulfilment process within most warehouses. Furthermore, it maintains a direct correlation with customer satisfaction by influencing vital aspects valued by customers, including order accuracy, promptness, and inventory availability. As a result, order picking is widely regarded as the most crucial aspect of the order fulfilment process and fundamental to businesses’ overall success.
Within manually operated warehouses, order picking typically involves employees walking numerous miles each day in search of ordered goods. This also involves repetitive bending and lifting, which can lead to fatigue and injuries.
Robotic automated storage and retrieval systems enhance warehouse productivity by decreasing the time needed for order picking, ultimately resulting in faster order processing speeds and shorter delivery times. This is accomplished by utilising innovative hardware and software to transport ordered goods to ergonomic picking stations. From the stations, employees can efficiently and safely transfer ordered goods to the next phase of the fulfilment process, without the risk of manual picking related hazards such as slips, trips, and falls that are common while traversing the warehouse. Dependence on labour is also reduced, enabling warehouses to transition employees to more value-add tasks.
INVENTORY REPLENISHMENT
Similar to order picking, inventory replenishment in manually operated warehouses is typically complex, physically demanding, and time-consuming. However, this process can be made more productive and efficient with the implementation of robotic automated storage and retrieval systems that leverage robots to travel between replenishment stations and tall, high-density storage racks. This alleviates employees from the most laborious and time-consuming aspects of the process. It is also a far superior option to being restricted to shelves that can only be utilised up to the height that employees can reach.
Nowadays, maximising the vertical storage capacity of a warehouse is a significant concern. The demand for warehouse space throughout the country has been consistently high and shows no signs of declining anytime soon. Moreover, the shift towards online shopping during the pandemic has intensified the competition for warehouse space. In this context, robotic automated storage and retrieval systems can help by freeing up valuable floor space within the warehouse. This is achieved by maximising the use of vertical space with tall, high-density storage racks. As a result, businesses can operate in smaller areas without being forced to expand operations to additional buildings.
RETURNS
Returns processing has become a prevalent issue, with 20-30% of all online orders being returned (even higher during the holidays). This process can significantly strain labour and increase inventory costs due to its unpredictable nature and drag on inventory turnover time. Nevertheless, robotic automated storage and retrieval systems provide the optimal solution by simplifying the sorting and storage processes of returns. For example, the Exotec® Skypod® system utilises a Bin Interface, which automates the entry and removal of up to 320 bins per hour to and from high-density storage racks. This ensures an efficient flow of goods while significantly decreasing the risk of mishandling inventory.
ORDER BUFFERING
Order buffering entails storing completed orders within a storage system to be retrieved at a later time. It is key to ensuring fast order fulfilment times for a wide-variety of industries including grocery providers, manufacturing, healthcare, 3PLs and retail.
The system enables businesses to efficiently buffer orders by transporting completed orders from stations to Bin Interfaces via a modular conveyor system. Just like with inventory replenishment, the Bin Interface ensures an efficient flow of up to 320 bins per hour into and out of storage. Outbound completed orders are sent from the Bin Interface to the conveyor and then the next phases of the order fulfilment process.
INVENTORY TRACKING AND ACCURACY
Robotic automated storage and retrieval systems improve order accuracy by reducing the likelihood of human error. Intuitive workstation interfaces and tools such as pick-to-light and put-to-light provide employees with more predictable and easier to manage work environments compared to searching for order goods among seemingly endless rows of shelves.
With intelligent software, inventory information can be tracked throughout the system, providing on-demand access to accurate and easily analysable data. This data can be used to transmit a vast amount of relevant information to managers quickly and accurately, enabling them to make more informed and better inventory related decisions.
