3 of the Biggest Challenges Facing Warehouse Management Now

Supply Chain Channel

2 years ago

Leading warehouse automation solution provider Bowen Storage shares the three biggest challenges facing warehouse management now and how you can optimise your warehouse capacity through automation.

In a review of operational interests in 2022, the biggest challenges facing warehouse management in 2023 and beyond, the three most often cited issues are:

Warehouse Layout
Picking Optimisation
Labour Costs

Each of these challenges is intrinsically linked to the other. Without the right corrective measures, businesses can struggle to deliver to their customers and maximise profitability. Companies are facing these challenges head-on now to improve their operations.

The implementation of warehouse management systems (WMS) has assisted companies in reducing costs associated with receiving and dispatching goods as manual processes have become redundant. But it does not go far enough to optimise the warehouse fully.

Let’s look at each of the challenges individually.

Warehouse Layout

Your warehouse layout impacts your business on several levels. Commonly, the warehouse layout is associated with the utilisation of available space and inventory flow through the facility. However, the layout will also impact the safety of your employees. Safety issues are often nestled in improperly stored materials and products and poorly designed workflows from dated warehouse layouts.

With the rise of the use of Automated Guided Vehicles (AGVs), Autonomous Mobile Robots (AMRs) and other robotics, warehouse layouts quickly become dated and expose companies to even greater risks in employee safety. Investing in these improvements without making changes to the layout of your warehouse, racking requirements, or aisle widths can preclude you from realising an increase in inventory storage density of 80-400%.

The bottom line is that warehouse layout optimisation is the first step toward shifting to AGVs and AMRs.

Picking Optimisation

Implementation of a WMS will improve picking optimisation by generating picking lists and providing inventory availability on a real-time basis. In addition, the WMS system informs pickers of the status of orders as they come in and gives insight into increasing order numbers.

Warehouse managers agree that picking is where most problems occur in their facilities. However, if you consider warehouse layout within the picking process, it is easy to see how a poorly set-out facility can interrupt even the best-informed pickers by having to walk further and backtrack over areas due to constraints within the layout of pallet racking and shelving.

The continuous improvement of warehouse picking practices takes companies to the implementation of AMRs. The AMRs can improve picking rates to near 100% accuracy within hours of implementation. These goods-to-person AMRs reduce the need for wide aisleways and positively impact the reduction of safety risk associated with employees.

Some AMRs report that they can increase picking rates to over 220 units per hour, depending on inventory profiles. As a result, the pick rate is very appealing to eCommerce businesses.

For efficient use of AMRs, the warehouse layout needs to be redesigned to optimise the capabilities of the new equipment.

Labour Costs

Labour costs are increasing, and the cost can be directly related to picking. People walking and picking orders can account for more than 50% of time, according to Conveyco. Increasing productivity while reducing labour costs is a balancing act for many warehouse managers.

The ability to not only cap picking costs but also minimise them will only come through the implementation of AMRs and AGVs. They follow digital paths through a warehouse and offer the ability to load and unload pallets, boxes and other containers efficiently and provide cost-effective goods handling. In addition, using automated systems to take on repetitive manual tasks ensures employees can focus on more important, strategic tasks.

Another shift is forklift trucks that are centrally controlled and operate autonomously or driverless, providing further productivity and efficiency and lowering costs. This assists businesses in achieving ﬂexible transportation of larger volumes of goods and building digitally operated warehouses.

For many warehouse managers, digitisation of the warehouse is the next step in the process of operating a fully optimised warehouse and cost management.

The more digitisation and implementation of automated equipment, the layout of the warehouse needs planning and adjustments to avoid unnecessary disruption and lack of full use of the equipment investment.