Similar to smart home, smart warehouse can be realized through a variety of automation and interconnection technologies. Together, these technologies improve the productivity and efficiency of the warehouse, minimize the labor force and reduce errors.
In manual warehouses, we usually see workers carrying lists, selecting products, loading them into shopping carts, and then transporting them to the loading dock;
But in the smart warehouse, the order will be automatically received, and then the system will confirm whether the product is available. Then send the pick-up list to the robot cart, put the ordered products into the container, and then hand them over to the workers for the next step.
Therefore, the intelligent warehouse system is the result of the collaborative work of various interconnected warehouse technologies. They form a technical ecosystem, which can automatically receive, identify, classify, organize and extract commodities. The best intelligent warehouse solution can almost automatically complete the whole operation from supplier to customer with the least errors.
When considering intelligent warehouse, you should pay attention to some characteristics that mark a successful intelligent warehouse system. Some features include:
flexible
It is no secret that the warehousing business is becoming more and more complicated. In order to meet these complex requirements, intelligent warehouse needs to be able to adapt to the changes in today's world and cope with rapidly changing variables. Your intelligent warehouse system should constantly try to optimize the process of products from storage to transportation. In addition, the intelligent warehousing business should also pay attention to temporary storage opportunities and third-party logistics (3PL) suppliers to prevent temporary inventory overflow.
Your intelligent warehousing system also needs to consider and realize personnel requirements. The goal of intelligent warehouse is to limit the demand of on-site employees, but also to prepare employees during the busy time of the year. A good intelligent warehouse will maintain a cross-trained core staff team in a slow month.
Agility also applies to all kinds of software used in intelligent warehouse. All your systems should be able to use many platforms, sales systems and other warehousing functions. One thing to consider is to use software as a service (SaaS) solutions, because these systems are becoming the standard in many industries.
SaaS smart warehousing solutions usually have a low entry price, so as long as you need this service, you can pay in monthly installments. These services can also save time by eliminating the large number of internally deployed software updates that are usually required.
expansibility
With the increasing complexity of warehousing and supply chain, your smart warehouse should always focus on the future. Intelligent warehouse needs to be ready to accept a large number of products and new products at any time.
This brings us back to another attractive SaaS solution quality. If you have an internal solution, it may be difficult to add new functions to the intelligent warehousing system. In some cases, when the update is completed, it may be necessary to dismantle the whole system, which may cause the speed of the warehouse to be greatly reduced.
SaaS solutions do not encounter this limitation. Updates can be completed immediately, and new content can be introduced without affecting efficiency. To realize the new function, we just need to introduce it to solve unexpected problems, which is what the intelligent warehouse operators have to deal with.
Data visibility
With the continuous development of technology, data visibility has become a necessary condition for most software related to supply chain functions. This is very important today, because the supply chain and warehousing operations become more complex, and software solutions need to be ready to update and store data immediately. Customers and stakeholders want to take advantage of the real-time data provided by your intelligent warehousing system and know where their products are now.
Your smart warehouse should enable interested people to find what they want immediately. If customers can choose to cooperate with the operation of updating data overnight or continuously, you can choose which one they choose.
When considering customer retention, this aspect is not only important, but also data visibility provides a lot of useful information for the operation itself. Real-time data allows operators to have a bird's eye view of the whole warehouse and the performance of each component. If the inventory or delivery time is inaccurate, you will know their source immediately. In this way, the intelligent warehouse operator can take action before things get out of control and put a bigger wrench into work.