What do you associate with the word AUTOMATION? As a warehouse management professional you would often equal automation with a complex material handling equipment (MHE) system including conveyors, sorters, high bay storage cranes etc. And most of us looking for such solutions think of it as a black box, a closed system supplied by an automation vendor to meet strictly defined input/output requirements. But this is where I want to raise a red flag.  

A recent Supply Chain Digest article on Conveyor Technology looks at FLEXIBILITY – but flexibility in terms of adapting conveyor speed and layout, reducing the distance between cartons, and how to design the elements as LEGO pieces to create one (closed) system. I got somewhat frustrated by the sole technology focus and really felt you need to look at this from another angle.

The ONE SYSTEM approach works fine when you operate in a stable environment with not too much change going on in product assortment, order patterns or distribution channels. Or when you can afford the luxury of significantly over-dimensioning your system and facility… Under such conditions you can go ahead and create a business case based on the key factors of volumes (peak and average), utilization (the system must at least be in use x hours on average), and labor cost level. So if you think your operation will stay as is, change marginally, or you enjoy the luxury of infinite capacity, you can stop reading here.

But what if you need to deal with change? Well, yes, who doesn’t? Last year has clearly put our ability to change and adapt in focus.  It is then wise to adopt this broader definition: Automation is any measure you take to make your operation perform smarter and make more with less people. It means getting access to and making use of the right information to eliminate unnecessary and/or manual process steps. Adding MHE systems is one option, but there are certainly others. The key consideration is how FLEXIBLE you want to be in coping with changing conditions.

What I want to stress is that you should not build your operational processes around your automated systems, but instead regard the automated processes as a way to address certain parts of the operation’s business processes. In a warehouse context we need the support of a warehouse management system that can tie in larger and smaller MHE components when needed, and to coordinate that with mobile users and even manual processing. And – maybe most importantly – make them interchangeable!

Forward looking warehouse operations are designing their production solutions to support changing patterns in demand and market focus. A couple of our clients have recently shifted to a model where movements and picking are certainly supported by different automation technologies, but where the overall supply chain strategy and coordination emphasize the ability to quickly shift which product goes via which warehouse channel. I will elaborate on this and other examples in coming blog posts, including how to automate processes across the integrated supply chain – so stay tuned…

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