Author: Tess van Bochove, Consultant Logistics at Protime
Logistics centres usually run like a well-oiled machine. Unfortunately, seasonal peaks, unexpected order fluctuations or a suddenly dropped colleague still regularly cause workloads to rise and processes to falter or even get stuck. Smart Warehousing promises the opposite: a smart warehouse where people, machines and data work together in real time, so that no peak is too high. No more order delays, system errors or unacceptably high workloads. That sounds ideal. But how do you make it happen?
Human: flexible and skills-based
No matter how automated warehouses and logistics centres become, people remain crucial to keeping operations running smoothly. But how do you make sure you use employees optimally? That requires insight into the skills, preferences and availability of your staff. With a system that shows this in a single view, team leads can allocate tasks according to their employees' preferences and strengths, creating a powerful team. It also helps to give employees a variety of tasks. Think of a forklift-certified warehouse employee who is flexibly deployed in the transport department at peak times.
The use of dynamic rosters is important here. With real-time insight into staff scheduling, you immediately see how many shifts are needed at a given time, so you can scale up or down in time. By giving your staff the possibility to swap shifts independently, pass on preferences or take on extra hours, you take their wishes into account. An important consideration in today's tight labour market, where staff retention is at least as important as productivity.
Machine: making automation work smartly
When staffing is in place, it is time to focus on smart technology. In modern distribution centres, conveyor belts, order picking stations and sorting machines are standard warehouse equipment. However, their efficiency depends entirely on real-time order data, maintenance and human support. A sorting machine, for example, only works efficiently if the supply of products is also correct and faults are signalled immediately. And if the planning does not see a necessary maintenance or possible malfunctions coming, the whole chain gets stuck. By having a good overview of maintenance schedules, fault reports and machine capacity, possible disruptions can be anticipated in time.
The role of humans remains indispensable here. Machines, (collaborative) robots and Automated Guided Vehicles (AGVs) can take over a lot of work, but only if they are synchronised with the deployment of employees. An AGV driving around needs to coordinate its route with the rest of the work process, and a robot packing boxes still needs supply from employees. It is therefore crucial to embed human-machine cooperation in planning to avoid delays and errors. After all, human flexibility, adjustment and quality control cannot simply be replaced by technology.
Data: the connecting link and flowing system
Finally, data is the last important link in this process. This is really the connecting factor between man and machine. All information from the warehouse, from staff rosters and skills to machine capacity and fault reports, should come together in one smart dashboard. This allows everything to be effortlessly coordinated and helps team leads to be actively at the helm and anticipate any situation. In case of a sick call, the shift is easily distributed among available employees or an on-call employee with the right skills can be scheduled immediately. If a conveyor belt fails, the system immediately shifts the order flow to alternative lines and adjusts staff deployment accordingly. Workforce management is thus no longer an independent HR tool, but an integral part of the logistics operation.
The future of Smart Warehousing
Smart Warehousing is not about individual puzzle pieces, but about the combination of human, machine and data in one. Thanks to AI and predictive algorithms, Smart Warehousing will only become more autonomous in the future. For instance, it will help team leads to see order peaks and staff shortages coming more and more clearly, to steer more often preventively on machine maintenance or capacity allocation, and to make increasingly autonomous decisions. Those who bet on Smart Warehousing today will not only create a logistics centre that effortlessly handles peaks and troughs, but will also be ready for the warehouse of tomorrow.
