Unlock the Value of Digital Fulfillment: Real-Time Systems to Optimize Distribution Operations

The transition to digital fulfilment has many business executives looking to automation in the distribution centre to help streamline processes, increase productivity and create a competitive advantage. However, automation is simply one piece of the larger transformation puzzle. Distribution centre operators must begin to rethink the underlying systems that run inside a distribution centre, especially in relation to the broader systems to which they interconnect.

In today’s real-time streaming environment, distribution leaders are placing a greater emphasis on the Warehouse Execution System (WES)—a robust platform that orchestrates people, machines, processes, and orders in today’s automated DCs.

WES is the central nervous system for the distribution centre, providing business leaders with a real-time view of the entire distribution operation while dramatically improving workflow optimisation, prioritising work, and balancing resources.

Historically, distribution centres were built on fixed parameters: limited space, heavy equipment and inefficient manual pick, pack, and ship methods. At the time, these did not pose a business problem because consumer demand was also generally fixed. Order flow could be easily projected, and orders could be grouped into larger quantities supported by planned workflows.

Consumer demand today, by contrast, operates on a different principle. A sudden trend for small-batch coffee beans leads to a surge in online orders with the promise of next-day delivery. Retail stores are practising just-in-time inventory fulfilment and replenishment to minimise costs and to react to consumer trends with more flexibility.

Additionally, today’s orders have fewer line items and order-to-delivery cycles are shorter, leaving distribution centres busier than ever before. This shift requires highly dynamic, real-time workflows with continuous order streaming, or waveless order release, where workflow is planned as orders are received.

Distribution centre leaders are increasingly investing in automation and software-driven processes to help them make this transformation. Technologies such as high-speed unit sortation, transportation and replenishment bots, voice and light picking solutions, AS/RS and automated goods-to-person solutions help maximise space utilisation and more efficiently employ labour resources in the distribution while improving throughput capacity.

However, automation technology is not simply “plug and play.” Combined with changing consumer order profiles, implementing automation solutions into the distribution centre’s operating model can be a complex process. If a warehouse changes the underlying mechanisms by which it operates, it must also change the software that orchestrates it. In other words, in highly automated environments, the underlying systems that run a distribution centre—especially the software that powers it—must be able to orchestrate the execution of the work by both humans and machines. And in semi-mechanised operations, software helps smooth and optimise workflow.

Published/Updated 1/11/21