In this discussion, Robert Bowman from Supplychainbrain talks to Brian Kirst, Chief fulfillment officer with SnapFulfil. A cloud-based, Tier 1 warehouse management system in the US with flexibility at its core.
He talks here about a big trend in warehouse technology today is hardware becoming “more obtainable,”. Faced with the need to augment their workforce and make tasks less repetitive for human workers, facilities have accelerated adoption of new systems.
Popular choices include autonomous mobile robots and systems for assisting humans in picking. Software is equally important, Kirst says, with an emphasis on orchestration and integration of multiple discrete systems. A key concern is avoiding disruption of operations when one piece of automation is down or being serviced.
Some warehouses have been reluctant to commit to automation out of a fear that they’ll become locked into a configuration when markets shift. For that reason, Kirst says, it’s important to find a system that can scale in line with customer demand. “It’s end to end,” he says. “The right software, all the way down to the right processes.”
To get started with orchestration, warehouses should work with integrators and other parties to scope out their unique challenges and devise solutions that address them.
Logistics service providers in particular need systems that are highly adaptable, Kirst says.
At a time when warehouses require a wide range of technologies that must work in concert, orchestration “is the coming thing,” Kirst says.
Nucleus would just note that flexibility and orchestration are two of the defining features of what we offer as a 4PL Supply Chain as a Service provider.
Source: Supplychainbrain
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