The main goal of any businesses engaged in manufacturing, warehousing, and logistics is to improve the accuracy of order fulfilment, minimise operational costs, and optimise resource allocation.
The advent of digitalisation and other disruptive technologies in warehouse management and logistics, which we’ll be discussing shortly, have paved the way for businesses in the sector to increase revenues and improve operational efficiencies across the board – among other things.
Here’s a look at some of the disruptive technological trends that are impacting warehousing, manufacturing, and logistics:
Blockchain technology
Blockchain technology has the potential to significantly improve transparency, security, and efficiency in end-to-end warehouse operations. It can enable secure, tamper-proof recording and sharing of both data as well as transactions, leading to far better trust and collaboration among the various supply chain partners.
Blockchain technology is already being used by warehouse and logistics managers to optimise inventory management, improve regulatory compliance, and reduce fraud.
Digital inspections
The latest technological trends in warehousing have also impacted the way inventories are managed. By having access to real-time stock information and big data analysis, for instance, warehousing managers can improve the way they order, hold, and handle stock.
Technology has, in fact, made it easier to break down products into their unique SKUs, or to address variations in supply and demand concerns, for example, keeping end users happy. It also affords manufacturing, warehousing, and logistics businesses a unique opportunity to identify or extract specific trends and patterns from historical customer buyer history, in order to estimate and/or predict future trends based on such buying behaviours.
Remote collaboration
Tasks once confined to the aisles are now delegated among different team members working remotely from different locations.
Disruptive technological trends in warehousing have opened the doors to much greater collaboration between multiple supply chain points, where input is gathered from various locations within the geographical confines of the operation, irrespective of anyone’s physical location.
Through handheld mobile devices and innovative cloud computing solutions, remote working is becoming an accepted way of working, particularly for the sake of collaboration between everyone from logistics teams and warehouse workers to sales reps and warehouse managers – ultimately, leading to better communications and real-time data updates where everybody is on the same page.
Interestingly though unsurprisingly, this has also led to a significant reduction in order errors or stock issues, for example, while resulting in a major customer satisfaction boost as well.
Augmented reality (AR)
The potential for AR to improve warehouse operations is currently being looked into, with use cases not just involving augmented reality headsets, for instance, but also those where interactive screens and digital information via a platform is provided to warehouse workers – allowing them to tap into the order system directly, thus, creating records and streamlining or scheduling cargo movements on the go.
Such hands-free solutions may also enable pickers to make faster decisions around which boxes need to be moved. Similar technologies are already being used, such as barcode scanners, although software-powered AR may take this to a new level entirely.
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