Most businesses believe that digitisation is the way to improve the efficiency of picking, packing and dispatching processes. There are many vendors offering to provide a complete digital solution. It is difficult for warehouse owners to know which system is best, so try starting small.
Before deciding, a business needs to ask what problems the technology needs to solve then find a solution for this. If a standard product is not available, go for a bespoke solution.
Ask a developer to create a quick app to handle a small part of the operation. For example, a simple app running on a tablet could demonstrate if an item is available and which warehouse shelving location it is stored at.
The app could be connected to a carrier tracking website to track delivery progress. If the app has some bugs, this does not matter as long as it demonstrates how useful it could be, and how it improves existing systems. If the app proves its worth, development can continue and other functions added.
One of the most expensive solutions to picking items is to purchase robots with artificial intelligence. This is fine for large logistics centres owned by Waitrose and Amazon, but can be beyond the budget of small companies.
Sensors and handheld scanners operated by human workers could be the next best thing for locating items. In a similar way to software, digital picking systems can be tried out as an experiment in one section of the warehouse.
