Warehouse operations are under increasing pressure to pick higher volumes of goods more quickly while continuing to maintain quality. According to Sean Culey, supply chain expert and author of Thriving in the Digital Age, warehousing has to adapt to serve and support new customer expectations. “One of the biggest constraints warehousing operations face is the need to improve productivity and efficiency, while reducing costs,” said Willie Nel, managing director of ZacPak. “Automation facilitates instantaneous planning, put away and retrieval of cargo, and space utility. At its most basic, automation attempts to cut down on manual tasks that slow down the movement of goods.” He said one of the leading causes of inventory inaccuracy across all supply chain nodes was the continued use of manual processes when technology was either not available or untrustworthy. Culey said the world was only at the cusp of change and while some companies were opting for large, automated warehouses, others were going the exact opposite route. “A fast-developing trend – especially in the food retail industry - is MicroFulfilment Centres (MFC),” he said. These miniaturised, automated warehouses are compact enough to place almost anywhere, close enough to where consumers live, with a significantly lower investment than that of a large automated warehouse. According to Culey, MFCs are also drastically reducing the last-mile delivery cost.
INSERT: A fast-developing trend – especially in the food retail industry – is MicroFulfilment Centres. – Sean Culey
