When starting the journey of warehouse automation, it is important for today's food and beverage leaders to decide whether they plan to transform existing facilities or invest in a new construction.
The market value of food automation, including warehousing facilities, is expected to reach US $29.4 billion by 2027. Many enterprise decision makers must maintain keen insight into the future, observe market trends, try to balance current business in complex markets and prepare for growth. Investment in automated warehousing is a reasonable step to streamline internal operations.
When embarking on the journey of warehouse automation, it is important for today's food and beverage leaders to decide whether they plan to transform existing facilities or invest in a new building. With the growing, obsolete and faster innovation cycle of SKUs, this can be a difficult and daunting path for customers who realize automation for the first time. Here are some key considerations when investing in warehouse automation.
Pick a data centric Automation Vendor
A trusted automation partner will take data as an absolute standard when evaluating areas in the warehouse that may benefit from automation. Through proper analysis of the data, the supplier should be able to fully customize and design a system suitable for specific and unique needs, including temperature controlled storage options. Even before deciding whether to renovate existing facilities or invest in a new building, the right partner will recommend creating a design from thoroughly explained indicators.
Set realistic expectations
Automation is often a multi million dollar investment, and decision makers are often worried about positive investment returns and overall financial success, especially when making large financial commitments to investors and the board of directors. From the initial stage of the project, investors can set realistic expectations and prepare for the long-term results. For example, the first year of implementation should be considered as a transitional stage, which is not only the debugging of the system itself, but also the stage for employees to prepare and familiarize themselves with the system and its operation mode. As long as you have perseverance and patience, you can get positive returns.
Develop an implementation plan
While automation does contribute to the overall goal of future oriented operations, it will not succeed if those who operate the system are not prepared and well trained. It is essential for the company to be ready to run and operate the automation system during commissioning. The supplier's technicians are here to debug the system and solve problems, not to operate the system. Asking them to do so will affect the progress of solving the problem.
One way to ensure that operators are ready for new automation implementation is through strategic knowledge management. Allowing employees to learn the new automation system from the beginning of implementation can not only create comfort and confidence in automation operation, but also create a lot of tribal knowledge for future operators to inherit. Exposure to automation is a long-term career promotion for many workers in DC workshop. Working with automation makes work easier, safer and happier.
Select a vertically integrated supplier
Many warehouse machines have been implemented in the past 30 years, which has caused data integration problems and different life cycles. For example, a complete system may have more than 20 different machines, from conveyor belt to robot to automatic storage / retrieval system (as / RS). If these machines come from 20 different companies on a decentralized timeline, there will be many challenges, such as software support and integration. Ensuring the long life cycle of products through vertically integrated suppliers is a good risk mitigation strategy.
Considering the demand for temperature control solution of cold storage
Compared with normal temperature structure, the construction cost of cold storage or frozen storage facilities is much higher. It is estimated that by 2030, the cold storage market will increase to more than 330 billion US dollars.
With the automatic storage system, the temperature controlled warehouse can not only handle higher product density and high SKU quantity, but also build higher capacity, make the overall floor area smaller and protect the green space. This awareness of land use is environmentally friendly. The use of automatic storage system will save long-term costs for investors and enterprises.
Warehouse automation solves the difficulty of first in / first out rotation, and can also completely or partially eliminate laborious manual pallet handling and box picking, providing a number of benefits, including:
● efficiency improvement in reliability and energy consumption
● improve data collection and utilization
● reduce exposure and contamination opportunities
For some foods, beverages and other perishable items, the temperature in the storage and distribution center needs to be very low, sometimes as low as - 30 ° F. Exposing employees to these extreme sub zero temperatures creates many safety hazards and may lead to a decline in productivity. Implementing as / RS in temperature controlled facilities is extremely beneficial for workers and warehouses who often encounter large quantities of goods. Adding as / RS to refrigeration or freezing facilities can not only make storage more intensive and make the work of floor workers easier, but also create more space for other business needs.
Make the right choice for you
There is no perfect solution. Consider the advantages and disadvantages of new construction or expansion of old ones. One of the biggest benefits of a new build is the way the system is built from the inside out. Creating and building logistics designs and then building buildings around them can provide great flexibility and can be built in almost any way you need. However, new buildings often require the purchase of land, high construction costs and can be time-consuming, especially when regulations and land management laws are different. In addition, when investing in automation, new projects are usually not a green choice.
Many companies can also study the transformation of existing facilities. After all, the main reason for automation investment is to reduce operating costs, while the cost of building new facilities is high. However, unlike the new build that creates the design from the inside out, the transformation must build the logistics within the existing parameters. As a result, there are sometimes challenges such as buildings that are too small or not suitable for application. The transformation must also consider the potential shutdown cost in the process of construction and implementation.
Finally, no matter which way you choose, investing in warehouse automation is an important step to maintain or even become competitive in the current and future market. Although the roadmap for automation implementation varies from one company to another, working with strong and experienced participants, using a data centric approach, smart warehouse execution system (WES) and realistic expectations can create considerable returns in a short time.
