For many people, the phrase “warehouse automation” brings up images of the clunky but much-hyped machines of decades past that never quite fulfilled their promises and left many skeptical about the benefits of warehouse automation. However, automation has exponentially improved and is making inroads into jobs that were once thought impossible to automate. The latest…
For years, automated palletizers have taken the place of human labor in the onerous task of stacking products on pallets in many production facilities, but these automated systems are not truly robotic. They use conveyor belts and a succession of adjustments to line up cartons for stacking. Because they have difficulty palletizing mixed case loads…
If you’ve implemented automation in your warehouse or are considering doing so, you know that pinning down hard numbers for an expected return on investment (ROI) can be tricky. Considering only the cost of technology leaves out other, less obvious costs, like the need to adjust the warehouse floor layout or support ongoing maintenance. By…
The modern supply chain is complicated, to say the least. A variety of products from locations thousands of miles apart arrive at the same warehouse to be processed and shipped off to locations that are also thousands of miles apart. Keeping track of these products and finding slots that keep different product types separate and…
It’s something of an old saw that logistics is understudied, but it is true. Businesses, the public, and even regulators tend to pay little attention to the details of getting products from point A to point B. The Code of Federal Regulations for Food and Drugs Title 21 has many pages dedicated to the application…
When the financial crisis hit in 2008, I took advantage of my G.I. Bill and student aid to go back to school. But I still had to make payments and was often forced to do day labor in order to make ends meet. One of the most commonly available jobs was in the warehouse of…