Warehouse employees have also become more satisfied with their employers' use of advanced technology, according to a new study by zebra technologies Corp. Although less than half (45%) said that their employers had increased wages or offered bonuses in the face of labor stress, most (80%) felt that this situation had a positive impact on them.
Employers are improving working conditions in other ways, such as providing them with more technology to use at work and using technology to create more flexible work shifts.
In fact, more than 92% of warehouse employees are more attracted to the warehouse environment created by technological progress to some extent. Even in such an era of tight supply chain, surging demand, stricter customer satisfaction and increasing pressure.
Nearly 90 per cent of warehouse operators agree that they must implement new technologies in order to be competitive in the on-demand economy, and 80 per cent recognize that the pandemic has prompted them to develop and modernize faster. To achieve this goal, the company is turning to wearable devices, as well as mobile printers and rugged tablets. They are also using mobile measurement software to automate the measurement of packages and cartons.
In addition, 27% of warehouse operators have deployed some form of autonomous mobile robot (AMR) today. Within five years, this figure is expected to grow to 90%.
"We see positive changes taking place in the supply chain, especially in the warehouse," mark Wheeler, director of supply chain solutions at zebra technologies, said in a statement. Most decision makers believe that the investment in automation far exceeds the risk of doing nothing. They are becoming more comfortable integrating new technologies into their current operations and infrastructure. "
The biggest challenge facing the warehouse
There are many factors that pose challenges to the warehouse. They report that it is more difficult for them to send out customer orders on time than it was three years ago. They are also trying to maintain the accuracy and visibility of inventory. Rising transportation costs are costing more than 40% of warehouse operators, including manufacturing, transportation, wholesale distribution, logistics and retail. This may not be surprising given that respondents say their traffic has increased by an average of more than 20% over the past two years.
In order to solve these problems, from now to 2025, more than 80% of respondents are expected to increase the number of inventory units (SKUs) they carry and the number of items they transport. They also plan to expand the return management business, provide more value-added services, and increase their physical footprint. The number and size of warehouses will increase.
Although 61% of warehouse operators also hope to increase the number of employees in the next year to rationalize their workforce, they admit that finding and training workers in time is still a great challenge. Therefore, more than 80% of decision makers agree that they will have to rely more on automation in the future.
Balancing scale: enhancing efficiency through automation
Although most warehouse operators will deploy AMR for human arrival (p2g) picking, material movement and other automated inventory movement, more operators will invest in software that helps automate analysis and decision-making. They hope to improve the efficiency and efficiency of workers and reduce labor costs.
James Lawton, general manager of Robot Automation Department of zebra technology, said in a statement: "As the pace of operations accelerates and workflow becomes more complex, warehouse operators find that the average time for workers to achieve full productivity is 4.7 weeks. Now, decision makers believe that the most important labor measure is to reduce unnecessary tasks so that employees can focus on more customer-centric work. If warehouse operators are automated through AMR and workflow optimization software, with customer demand and labor The fluctuation of availability will make it easier to expand the operation scale and meet the service level agreement. "
Job satisfaction and employee retention are by-products of automation
Nearly 80% of warehouse employees said that even if they had to pick up or deal with more items, walking a few fewer miles a day would make their work happier. Many people strongly believe that AMR can reduce the pressure of warehouse work.
Companies should note that only 41% fully agree that implementing warehouse technologies such as robots and equipment can help attract and retain workers, although most employees.
● employees working with AMR today confirm that they can help improve productivity and reduce walking / travel time (80%), reduce errors (73%), and promote to new roles or opportunities (65%).
● claim that they are more likely to work for an employer who provides them with modern equipment than for an employer who provides old or no equipment (83%).
"Automation is a great balancer, especially when the labor force is limited or it may be difficult to rapidly expand the labor force during unexpected surge periods or seasonal peaks." "Interestingly, colleagues now feel this more strongly than warehouse operators," Wheeler added
Five year technical prospect of warehouse operation
85% of companies say they have implemented mobility so that front-line workers can capture every move of their inventory, and most people think they are optimizing the use of equipment to meet the requirements of task, safety and ergonomics.
However, warehouse employees (84%) and decision makers (79%) are worried that they will not be able to achieve their business objectives unless they make more investment in technology to improve operations, with employees in transportation (92%) and logistics (88%) feeling this demand most strongly.
Therefore, more than 60% of decision makers said that in the next five years, they will invest in technologies to improve the visibility of inventory and assets in the warehouse and the whole supply chain.
Nine out of ten expect their use of sensor based technologies such as radio frequency identification (RFID), computer vision, fixed industrial scanning and machine vision systems to become more common in the next five years.
As enterprises invest in advanced technologies that enable more visibility, real-time guidance and data-driven performance, they are focusing on improving team productivity and making better use of assets, equipment and personnel, which is equivalent to improving workers' welfare and overall market competitiveness. However, with the increasing digitization of workflow and the expansion of system scale, warehouse operators become more thoughtful about how to implement and integrate technology, which will become the key.
