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4 Realistic Expectations to Have from Today’s Modern Supply Chains

The last two years have drastically altered supply chain efficiency. The effects of nationwide lockdowns, global shortages, and international tensions have deepened a shared reliance on automated systems to stay ahead of mounting consumer demands and fulfillment challenges. However, amid recurrent and new obstacles, many businesses have shared positive workplace changes such as:

  • Improved worker conditions – Automated systems and enterprise robotics alleviate the stress placed on human workers while also requiring less muscle effort to meet demands.
  • Implemented easy technology – To truly be considered successful, a modernization solution should value user-friendliness to diminish training expenses.
  • Increased wages and bonuses – Around 45% of workers noted an increase in wages as warehouses and distribution centers sought to retain long-term employees.

Changes such as these can help foster more seamless workflows and satisfied employees. As new technologies are developed and integrated into the fast-moving supply chain, it is imperative to maintain realistic yet optimistic goals in the warehouse to correctly track KPIs overtime. Zebra’s newest 2027 Warehouse Vision Study showcases four of the most common goals today’s warehouse managers:

  1. Improving individual worker productivity – It has been estimated that nearly a quarter of warehouse operations were managed through paper-based systems. This means that workers had to spend a bulk of time updating reports, verifying stock counts, and imputing updates manually at the risk of entering the wrong data.
  2. Streamlining workflows in a standardized fashion – As fulfillment tasks became more complex with same-day shipping, higher return rates, and direct-to-customer transactions, businesses needed a way to ensure workflows were accurately tracked from door to dock. Consequently, 41% of companies began to optimize mobility in 2022 to ensure new and permanent workers stay organized through one trackable workflow managed through their handheld device.
  3. Maximizing asset visibility – From mobile devices to centralized printing stations, your warehouse assets play an intricate role in sustaining productivity across the warehouse. Consequently, maintaining device availability through real-time asset tracking systems has become a goal of nearly 70% of warehouses worldwide. Clear operational visibility further empowers warehouses to prepare for challenging demands since decision-makers have a better picture of the resources available to them at a moment’s notice.
  4. Collecting and leveraging data via intelligent automation – The prevalence of sudden changes has created a need for multiple data capturing systems to ensure nothing is ever missed. Therefore, systems featuring technologies like autonomous robots, fixed industrial scanners, and even RFID portals have proven beneficial to drive automated decision making based on real-time insights. This means warehouses can ensure the correct orders and reaching the correct customers, stock quantities are current, and workers receive the assistance they need when and where they need it.

How to make sure these goals are met

E-commerce transactions continues to be one of the largest forces behind modernization, impacting nine out of 10 warehouses by increasing shipping volume. To meet expectations within a dynamic omnichannel ecosystem, experts recommend…

  • Assessing warehouse space to target challenges in the RFID implementation process such as high ceilings, dense walls, etc.
  • Supporting migration plans to adaptable operating systems like Android to make sure new updates and patches are accommodated into current workflows
  • Consolidating workflows into wearable devices to alleviate weight and pressures from your workers while cutting back on management plans for multiple devices.

Navigating through several modernization challenges becomes simpler with a team at your side. To get a closer look into how supply challenges are continuing to affect modernizing warehouses, reach out to our modernization specialists and approach optimization with a confident yet adaptable strategy.

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Meet Customer Demands or Lower TCO? See How Sustainable Warehousing Does Both.

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Energy consumption can account for a substantial part of your operation’s total expenses. However, the push for sustainability goes beyond lowering operational costs. Sustainability has gathered the attention of most North American consumers as studies indicate that nearly 70% of consumers prefer brands that integrate eco-friendly practices into their supply chains. In addition to fulfilling customer expectations, sustainable warehousing can help in the following efforts:

Establishing cost-effective traceability

Establishing Cost Effective Traceability

80% of consumers wish to know the origin of their purchased products

Studies conducted by IBM and the National Retail Federation, at least 80% of consumers wish to know the origin of their purchased products. Moreover, today’s changing compliance standards have also increased the need for fast and accurate traceability down the whole supply chain. 

Sustainable traceability solutions built with RFID tracking can help eliminate errors by providing real-time insight and data throughout a product’s lifecycle from production to checkout. By monitoring operations in real-time, your team can reduce wasteful labor and ensure compliance on the go without adding new devices or complicated steps into your workflow.

Allocating limited resources efficiently

Allocating Limited Resources Efficiently

By streamlining crucial tasks through one platform, operations can reduce the number of deployed devices

High turnover rates continue to be a prevalent issue in today’s supply chains; plus, new worker safety measures require warehouse managers to be mindful of high-density areas. This means your workforce as well as your digital devices must be intelligently distributed where needed most without overcrowding. While equipping workers with more devices can solve this problem, it may lead to future e-waste that results in a larger carbon footprint

By streamlining crucial tasks through one platform, operations can reduce the number of deployed devices while empowering the workforce to do more.  Modern enterprise-grade technologies, such as Zebra’s line of mobile computers, can help minimize purchasing and/or leasing new equipment since they can combine data capture, data sharing, connectivity, and visibility all into one platform.

Reducing upgrade costs

Reducing Upgrade Costs

Zebras’ most recent Warehouse Vision Study shows that nearly 77% of warehouses worldwide have moved towards automation

Zebras’ most recent Warehouse Vision Study shows that nearly 77% of warehouses worldwide have moved towards automation to meet customer demands without exacerbating costs. However, inefficient cheap upgrades can contribute to the production of e-waste, which capped at 53.6 million tons last year alone.

To make modernization equally available to everyone, Avalon Integration partners with Zebra Technology in the GO Zebra Trade-In Program. Instead of just purchasing new upgrades, we recommend trading in outdated devices to prevent them from ending up in landfills that could later damage the environment as well as your brand’s values.

When choosing between remaining competitive or lowering expenses, Avalon eliminates compromise by creating a sustainable modernization solution that minimizes waste while meeting consumer demands. To measure the efficacy of your workflow’s current sustainability efforts, meet with one of the specialists for a step-by-step assessment of your operations.

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Top Technologies to Look for in 2020

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Ride-hailing apps, 4K television, interactive smart speakers, online streaming services, and self-driving cars are just a few of the ground-breaking technologies that did not exist ten years ago. As a matter of fact, access to LTE services and 4G network speed has only been popular since 2015. While the world of efficient automation has redefined the past decade on the consumer front, it is also reshaping the industrial landscape.

Using a Zebra Tablet While Loading a Pallet into a Delivery Truck

Using a Zebra Tablet While Loading a Pallet into a Delivery Truck

Working closely alongside warehouses of all shapes and sizes, Avalon Integration has implemented the most revolutionizing technologies of this decade. From rugged mobile computers to intuitive printing software, modern-day enterprise-technology has integrated greater degrees of accuracy, productivity, and visibility from packing to shipping. However, we know well there is no limit to innovation. That’s why we look forward confidently towards the opportunities the new decade will bring. While we can’t predict the future, there are several technologies worth keeping an eye on within the coming years.

Revolutionizing the World of Modernization

TC77 Warehouse Technologies

The TC77 from Zebra Is Used to Improve Warehouse Technologies

Research conducted by Zebra Technologies has outlined numerous challenges modern warehouses can expect in the future, such as:

  • Technology usage
  • Efficient labor
  • Capacity utilization
  • Integrating quality warehouse management systems
  • Inventory management within omnichannel shopping

Standing as a practical and cost-effective solution to these issues, warehouse automation brings the promise of streamlined operations, efficient labor, and lowered operational costs. A few examples of successful automation tools include:

  • RFID Technology – Expanding visibility beyond the four walls, RFID tags, and readers allow workers to track moving assets throughout the warehouse floor. Furthermore, RFID scanners minimize scan time by correctly documenting several codes with one trigger pull, allowing your workforce to process more orders accurately.
  • Internet of Things – Much like the consumer world, enterprise technology can also be connected and managed at a large scale through the Internet of Things. This means your warehouse can manage devices, battery life, security updates, and much more without impacting workflow.
  • Power Carts – Omnichannel retail brings the opportunity for more complex supply chains, ultimately demanding more from your workforce. Mobility solutions such as Newcastle’s Power Cart alleviates bottlenecks and long travel routes while also reducing labeling errors by 90%.
  • Wearable Technology and Voice Picking – Further boosting worker mobility and versatility, wearable technology such as Zebra’s WT6000 wearable computer increases productivity by 15% and can be easily paired with Bluetooth technology to create an efficient voice picking solution.

Get a head start in efficient modernization with Avalon Integration. Count on 20 years of experience when you contact us to learn more about how these and other technologies can maximize productivity and ROI within your operations.

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