It has been more than a decade that technology has shifted the role of humans in completing tasks. The role of technology itself has helped a lot to make all the processes in manufacturing products or augmenting the projects of humans more effective and efficient. On top of that, warehouse automation has been considered to be the best solution in dealing with the tedious works that take a great focus on completing complex tasks.
When it comes to warehouse automation, it is said that there will be many tasks to do some inventory process as the goods or merchandise arrive in the warehouse and leave it for the next processes. Leveraging the warehouse automation system is thought to be the right way to increase accuracy, productivity, and safety as well as reduce labor costs. This happens for many years as the world are getting crazy about the technology and all the process in the factory are digitalized.
Knowing the role of warehouse automation technology that gives benefits for the factory in many aspects, it is said that the technology does not totally take over the role of the human being. What the workers should know about the implementation of the advanced technology in the warehouse is merely about helping the workers to work for many hours without feeling fatigued so that all the processes can run more safely.
On the other hands, the tasks of fulfilling orders and unloading trailers are still on the hand of the human, so the factory cannot leave the role of the human behind for the sake of the implementation of the advanced technology.
Understanding the types of the warehouse automation
Warehouse automation Indonesia has penetrated in many aspects that assist the workers to handle the tasks. It is no longer deniable that warehouses involve the complex operations such as managing a wide variety of the process from the inventory to the distribution of the goods. To deal with it, there have been many solutions that can enhance the efficiency and effectiveness of warehouse processes.
1. Good-to-person solution
If a factory takes the advantage of the Good-to-Person (GTP) technologies, it can be said that the role of warehouse automation robots is very important to consider. The role of this technology falls into two aspects such as the conveyor system and retrieval system and automated storage. Here, the cranes will travel around to pick up all the materials and store them in the right place which is later named the process of retrieval solutions and automated storage. The good-to-person also involves the conveyor system that moves around to assemble the materials for the shipping or packaging process.
2. Pick-to-light system
The warehouse automation system also uses the pick-to-light system that takes the advantage of the LED lights and barcodes to assist all the workers to place all the items in the correct orders. The use of this technology augments all the processes, reduces walking, and enhancing productivity to complete the tasks in locating the items a bit faster than before.
3. Voice tasking and voice picking
As warehouse automation technology develops rapidly in this era, it is said that voice taking and voice picking technology is the best solution to help workers to communicate through advanced wireless headsets. With the help of this technology, the pickers and the takers easily keep in touch so that it will make the picking tasks run faster.
4. Sortation technology
The use of the warehouse automation machine helps the workers to sort all the materials into the right location or the bin. This sortation technology will save many hours in comparison to the manual process that involves humans. The technology will separate all the items based on the criteria and direct it to the determined location and return to the picking area to do the same tasks until it is completely finished.
5. Drone technology
The drone is technically considered as the warehouse automation machine that plays its role in dealing with inventory management. To save energy, the drone is designed with barcode scanners so that it can be used to do automatic inventory counts. The use of the drone also helps to relocate the wrong materials. In some factories, the drone has been developed much better as part of the delivery process.
How the warehouse automation system performs its task
The warehouse automation technology is designed as a means of completing tedious and repetitive tasks without ignoring human labor. Take the example of when the workers should take more than a thousand shoes in the right storage; it will be boring and exhausting to do it manually because it takes a long time to complete. To deal with it, the use of automation in completing such a tedious task is the best solution so that all the tasks can be completed efficiently and effectively.
In comparison to some decades ago, automation can be said as the machine designed in the fixed location and the conveyor belt that would perform the same tasks many times. This takes a big effort among the human to move all the materials manually. Thanks to warehouse automation technology that changes the way the process to store the goods run more efficiently and effectively. In addition, the complex tasks that need repetitive tasks can also be done without worries of being extremely exhausted.
The benefits of warehouse automation technology
The advantages of the use of warehouse automation are multifold. Nowadays, It is said that modern warehouse technologies are more scalable and flexible in comparison to the older automated technology in the old times which were merely designed in the fixed positions. With the help of this automated system, the operators can meet the demands in the peak seasons so that the factory can obtain more ROI.
In addition, the role of collaborative robots in storing the goods will not totally change the infrastructure so that it can be easily implemented in storage processing.
- The use of warehouse automation can be part of how the factory optimizes the labor rather than hiring new employees with attractive salaries. Optimizing labor can be done by augmenting the personnel through advanced and automated technology. As optimizing labor becomes the major solution, it can also help the factory to survive when the demands slow down unexpectedly.
- It has been stated right from the start that warehouse automation technology will optimize the process of dealing with inventory. As it is implemented in the warehouse, the technology will reduce the cycle times to perform the task so that all the tasks can be completed much faster than before. This also reduces the possibility of a costly shipping delay.
- The warehouse is associated with the way how the workers keep an accurate record of the stock. Here, the workers can know accurately how much the inventory has in accordance with how much the material to take for the upcoming process and how much it is left. This is so-called stock availability.
- With the role of warehouse automation, the factory can meet the customers’ satisfaction and fulfill the orders on budget and on time with transparency. This will result in repetitive order so it is very important to take the role of automated technology in dealing with the warehouse.
Warehouse automation in Indonesia has been greatly developed as the technology has shifted the role of humans in an attempt to enhance productivity, efficiency, and accuracy. In this case, the role of humans should not be put for granted since all the automated warehouse systems will not work at best without the role of humans as operators.
