Combat Labor Scarcity with Reliable Robotic and Automation Solutions
The answer to the labor scarcity in the face of overwhelming productivity demands? Robots and automation. Vanderlande explains how case picking and item picking robots can supplement a limited workforce while improving productivity, throughput, and working conditions.
Warehouse labor shortages continue to plague beleaguered operations managers throughout supply chains. In spite of rising wages, manual handling jobs remain unappealing due to their strenuous, ergonomically demanding, and injury prone nature. And, with the increased inventory and throughput volumes throughout omni-channel retail, e-commerce, and grocery distribution, productivity demands have skyrocketed. In short, operations need to pick more orders, faster, and with fewer people.
The answer to the labor scarcity in the face of overwhelming productivity demands? Robots and automation.
Implementing either case picking or item picking robots (or both) can supplement a lack of available workers while increasing overall productivity, elevating throughput, and improving working conditions. Employees who previously picked cases and built pallets for retail and grocery store replenishment no longer have to handle the heavy, repetitive lifting. Workers picking items for e-commerce order fulfillment spend less time walking the aisles to locate products. Both groups can shift to more interesting, value-added tasks.
Despite the benefits, some retail and grocery companies hesitate to invest in robotic solutions to augment their workforce. They have questions about what is — and what isn’t — possible with case pick and item pick robots, as well as how they can ensure a successful implementation. Further, some organizations have concerns that robots aren’t capable of running continuously. They may also need additional cost justification points to calculate the business case for a robotic investment.
Vanderlande’s latest white paper, “Combat Labor Scarcity in Your Warehouse with Reliable Robotic Solutions,” answers all these questions.
Discover how today’s robots dependably deliver value by learning:
- Secrets for robotic implementation success
- Factors that enhance robotic dependability
- Cost justifications to support the business case
Download this white paper for details about how today’s case pick and item pick robots dependably improve productivity in workforce challenged operations.
Robots don’t work alone.
Case or item picking robots’ reliability hinges on the total, end-to-end system design. Indeed, whether deployed in an omni-channel, e-commerce, or grocery operation, they work best in conjunction with an automated storage and retrieval system (AS/RS) equipped with goods-to-person workstations. Leveraging robots as part of a holistic automated solution is often the next phase of an operation’s evolution from manual picking.
As an experienced, reliable warehouse automation partner, Vanderlande offers the next generation of scalable solutions that integrate seamlessly to future-proof your picking operations: evolutions. This integrated portfolio of innovative systems, intelligent software, and life-cycle services allow your operation to successfully meet its challenges.
Easily transition from goods-to-person to goods-to-robot.
The FASTPICK AS/RS for order fulfillment improves picking performance with its new Goods-to-Picker 2.0. Vanderlande’s second generation modular workstations provide exceptional ergonomics, reduce picking errors, and require only minutes for operator training. They easily convert to robotic piece picking as throughput demands and labor limitations require.
FASTPICK also incorporates Vanderlande’s advanced ADAPTO roaming shuttles for product storage and retrieval. Driven by intelligent software that integrates and orchestrates myriad systems, people, equipment, and item picking robots throughout an operation, ADAPTO roaming shuttles sort and sequence items by order for delivery to human or robotic pickers. Fast, efficient, flexible, and adaptable to handle unpredictable shifts in order volumes, FASTPICK supports both e-commerce and omni-channel fulfillment.
Build store-ready pallets effortlessly with automated case picking.
STOREPICK is an end-to-end automated robotic case picking solution that optimizes the entire value chain and helps to facilitate store replenishment. It utilizes a modular design for operational redundancy while allowing for flexibility and future expansion. Vanderlande’s proven Load Forming Logic (LFL) software guarantees that the case picking robots build store-friendly deliveries across multiple store formats.
Learn why the world’s leading retailers choose Vanderlande to future-proof their warehousing operations.
It starts with listening. Vanderlande believes that the driving force behind market leading solutions is asking the right questions. Our design and engineering team focuses on asking the right questions to gain a deeper understanding of the complex problems faced by the world’s leading brands and retailers. By listening, wondering, exploring, and learning, we realize insights that underscore the foundation of breakthrough robotic and automation solutions. Whatever the warehousing question, Vanderlande is the answer.
Get your warehousing robotics and automation questions answered.
To learn more, visit Vanderlande in person or virtually in Booth S603 at ProMat, or schedule a meeting with Vanderlande’s automation experts by contacting [email protected].
