Leading Warehouse Automation Manufacturers

Many of the crucial tasks that sustain your warehouse e.g. receiving, sorting, storing or picking, packing, shipping, replenishment, and returns, can all be aided by warehouse automation. A lot of the operations in your warehouse can now be automated with today's technology.

What is Warehouse Automation?

Warehouse automation may be defined in more than one form. It includes the tools and robots that help staff with operations involving inventory from the time materials enter the warehouse until a finished piece leaves. Using warehouse automation systems may lower labor costs, boost safety, and increase productivity and accuracy for warehouses.

Under one definition, warehouse automation can be regarded as businesses using machines' accuracy and endurance to constantly perform repetitive jobs for extended periods of time without getting tired. Humans are still involved in some warehouse automation solutions, which handle anything from unloading containers to order fulfillment.

Types of Warehouse Automation

Warehouse automation can be achieved in numerous ways, each having its own unique advantages. Under the general heading of "warehouse automation," many technologies that support human workers or independently complete activities from beginning to end are included under this term. Below are some of the noteworthy types of warehouse automation technologies:

Collaborative Mobile Robots

Collaborative mobile robots support workers during the picking process to increase picking accuracy and productivity. Some collaborative mobile robots optimize picking routes and jobs based on the status of the warehouse and the priority of the workload. Collaborative mobile robots provide many advantages, such as adaptability, dependability, scalability, shorter walking distances, and higher productivity.

Sortation Systems

Sortation systems use a variety of technologies to detect and separate things, guiding these items to specified places for returns processing, picking zones, or packaging stations. Sortation systems also help direct products to the right locations or to the relevant bins.

Pick-to-Light Systems

Pick-to-light systems assist employees in finding the right items to satisfy orders by using LED lights and barcodes. Pick-to-light systems supplement human labor by minimizing walking and increasing efficiency by quickly identifying an item’s location for pickers.

Automated Storage & Retrieval Systems

Automation can be used to store and retrieve items via automated storage and retrieval systems, or AS/RS systems. Automatic guided vehicles that travel along wires or magnetic strips can be found in many warehouses. Robots that are autonomously mobile and equipped with laser guidance systems may maneuver through more-complicated warehouse environments, including those that may have more frequent foot activity in general. Systems for automatically categorizing inventories are also employed to help assist in delivering goods to the appropriate areas.

Benefits of Warehouse Automation

Some of the prominent benefits of warehouse automation are given below:

• Increased contentment among employees by reducing boring, repetitive, or dangerous tasks
• Improved data analysis and accuracy
• Fewer instances of stockouts
• Optimized warehouse layout
• Improved inventory management
• Enhanced workplace security
• Fewer shipping mistakes
• Reduced loss from inventory
• Enhanced coordination of material handling
• Increased accuracy of order fulfillment

Applications of Warehouse Automation

The following is just a very small sample of the industries employing warehouse automation technologies along with a basic understanding of why, or where, this automation is used by these industries:

• Automotive- from making various automotive components to delivering parts to workers
• Food packaging- for increasing quality and hygiene standards by removing workers from stages of production
• Medical- for monitoring product expiration dates and providing more accurate picking
• Construction- by storing, sorting, and retrieving the equipment needed for a job
• Plastics- for reasons ranging from removing staff from dangerous environments to helping make delicate parts