Long before the pandemic, e-commerce had already proven to be a massive disruption in the global market. Increasing demands for speed and accuracy, e-commerce has helped reshape warehouses with new complex picking operations and dynamic inventory tracking. Now, as warehouses readjust to order fulfillment standards, such as safety compliances and shorter delivery timeframes, modernization plans must tackle the five factors below set to continue impacting supply chains within the years to come:
- Limited Skill Set – Over half of warehouse managers have stated that finding experienced talent in warehousing has become more difficult compared to two years ago.
- High Turnover Rates – Due to greater job opening variety and high demand, labor turnover rates have reached as high as 30% in most American warehouses.
- Increasing labor costs – Onboarding costs can amount to as much as $50,000 per worker after accounting for job posting, interviewing, employment tests, and training. To resolve this issue, modernization should be easy-to-adopt to minimize training.
- Sudden demand surges during peak seasons – End of the year demands starting at September can boost throughput four times the average fulfillment level.
- Labor’s physical effects for individual workers – As demands for faster fulfillment increase, warehouses must also prioritize worker safety and comfort to prevent germ spread and injury.
To properly address these factors, warehouses must be able to precisely pinpoint growth areas within their operations to best leverage technologies for seamless modernization.
And That’s Where AbeTech Steps in
Effective modernization strategies should strive to be as seamless as possible to prevent disruptions. While there are many high-level systems such as intelligent tracking and voice technologies that can revolutionize the warehouse, not every operation is ready to begin with drastic changes. AbeTech and Zebra Technologies minimize disruptions by helping warehouses assess where they are on their modernization journey within the following segments:
- Phase 1 – Warehouses are still learning to achieve basic controls over everyday operations through user-centric devices such as rugged scanners and Android’s familiar OS.
- Phase 2 – Operations are ready to start connecting workers within the four walls with widespread digitization and push-to-talk connectivity.
- Phase 3 – Current devices can be leveraged to integrate real-time visibility to track inventory in the warehouse.
- Phase 4 – Intelligent tracking can go a step farther beyond the four walls by favoring visibility in the yard and delivery routes.
- Phase 5 – Complete operational visibility is now ready to be converted into actionable intelligence and predictive foresight to secure maximum uptime despite future workflow interruptions.
To learn more about each phase, download our e-book.
The future of warehousing is closer than you imagine.
Take the first step towards efficient modernization when you take AbeTech’s Modernization Quiz to see which phase your operations are in and how you can get ahead to the next level of competitive warehousing.
