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White paper: Preparing Your Warehouse for Robots

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In this white paper, Preparing Your Warehouse for Robots, produced in association with Geek Plus Robotics, we look at the types of robotics and automation technologies available to warehouse managers and how they can prepare for the implementation of these technologies.

We can provide a brief answer right now to one of the first questions that many people ask about buying robots and increasing the level of automation in their warehouse: “Is it expensive?”

And that answer is, as ever, “It depends.” [Read more…] about White paper: Preparing Your Warehouse for Robots

How Automation has Transformed the Delivery Process

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The world of logistics has, in recent years, been radically altered by automation.

More than ever before, the process of getting a package from one location to another has been put into the hands of machines, and the change is behind many of the recent improvements in packaging and distribution that even small businesses can enjoy.

But exactly how does automation impact the delivery process, and what changes might we continue to see in the future? Let’s take a look. [Read more…] about How Automation has Transformed the Delivery Process

Nippon Express to construct new Shanghai warehouse

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Nippon Express Global has begun construction on a new warehouse in Shanghai Qingpu Industrial Park.

Situated in the western part of Shanghai, Qingpu Industrial Park was opened in 1995 as an industrial park receiving key municipal-level industrial support, and its location within 50 minutes of central Shanghai has attracted electronics, biotech, and hi-tech companies.

The industrial park is located adjacent to a highway linking Shanghai with cities across Jiangsu Province, which is now developing into a major production area, and growing attention on this strategic logistics location is driving warehouse demand higher.

[Read more…] about Nippon Express to construct new Shanghai warehouse

Augmented reality, artificial intelligence, and smart glasses: ‘VIEW’ technology for the 2019 holiday season

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By Seth Patin, founder and CEO, LogistiVIEW

Warehouse workers can be faster, safer, and more accurate this holiday season.

LogistiVIEW’s “Visual Input Enabled Wearable” (VIEW) technology improves workforce productivity and job satisfaction by making processes hands free and eyes focused.

Intuitive voice and visual instructions make work easy and training rapid. These benefits can all be accomplished in time for the 2019 holiday season thanks to LogistiVIEW’s Connected Worker Platform. [Read more…] about Augmented reality, artificial intelligence, and smart glasses: ‘VIEW’ technology for the 2019 holiday season

The Benefits of Automatic Truck Loading Systems: Reduce loading and unloading times to a few minutes

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By Jack Smylie, North America sales manager, Ancra Systems

As 3PLs (third-party logistics) companies, distribution centers, and warehouses all get ready for the all-important holiday picking, packing, and shipping season there is a fundamental flaw in how space utilization is conceived.

Most warehouse managers are sure if they had double the number of loading and unloading bays, their operation would be twice as efficient. Nothing could be further from the truth. The efficiency of truck unloading and loading occurs when that process is automated.

Fully automatic loading and unloading always require two combined systems: one system in the truck or trailer and a fixed installation on the loading platform or in the warehouse. Truck loading conveyors and other automated solutions allow increased efficiency. [Read more…] about The Benefits of Automatic Truck Loading Systems: Reduce loading and unloading times to a few minutes

Logistics and supply chain: An overview of ‘goods-to-person’ and ‘last-mile delivery’ technologies

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The term “goods to person” in the context of the logistics and supply chain sector refers to technology that brings items from locations within, for example, a warehouse to a human picker while he or she remains in one place, also within the warehouse. 

And while “logistics” and “supply chain” are terms that are often used interchangeably, logistics usually refers to moving goods along public roads or out in the wider world, whereas supply chain refers to the entire journey that the goods make, as well as specific parts of it, such as their processing through a warehouse.

One of the technologies most readily associated with medium- to large-scale warehouses is the conveyor, which has been around for more than 100 years. But in the past few years, warehouse robots have been eroding the total dominance of conveyors by offering what are offering described as “flexible” supply chain systems, in contrast to the “fixed” nature of conveyors. [Read more…] about Logistics and supply chain: An overview of ‘goods-to-person’ and ‘last-mile delivery’ technologies

Warehouse automation for the holidays starts with optimized flexible space utilization

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By Frank Charles Cozza, founder and CEO of Gondola Skate

More square footage is not the only solution to maximizing space utilization; nor are second-level mezzanines. Even C-Suite executives, inclined to expand the DCs and warehouse footprint, quickly discover there is so little space availability.

According to Jennifer Smith, the logistics reporter for the Wall Street Journal, the hunt for warehouse space in the US and abroad will not get any easier in the coming years.

Smith reported that the availability of warehouse space fell to 7 percent in the fourth quarter of 2018, the lowest point since 2000, and real-estate brokerage CBRE Group said the tight capacity that has driven up the costs of warehousing in recent years will remain a challenge for companies for the remainder of 2019. [Read more…] about Warehouse automation for the holidays starts with optimized flexible space utilization

There’s an app for that: Automating the moving of parts from warehouses to field service technicians

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By Travis Smith, founder and CTO, WithoutWire Inventory Sciences

A typical process to move parts from a warehouse to a field technician generates a 77 percent reduction in barcode scans using automated optimization

Field technicians are paid to do their job, not to study software manuals. Many field techs are under 40 and have spent their lives using Android and iOS apps. These solutions are easy to install; with a minimal learning curve, automating, tracking, and replenishing truck inventory in real-time is now possible.  [Read more…] about There’s an app for that: Automating the moving of parts from warehouses to field service technicians

Deliver: Cost-effectively navigating the last mile is crucial to e-commerce growth

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The second and final day of the Deliver event has seen sponsors and attendees ask each other many questions about the future of e-commerce, or rather “e-logistics”.

And some of the most crucial questions concern the critical last mile of the journey a product makes before it reaches the customer’s door.

The answers appear to be many and varied, and involve new hardware and software, but there does seem to be a general feeling of consensus, even if the details of the technologies underpinning that consensus is yet to be fully articulated, let alone realised. [Read more…] about Deliver: Cost-effectively navigating the last mile is crucial to e-commerce growth

Locus Robotics and Manhattan team up for retail and 3PL customers

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Locus Robotics, a leader in autonomous mobile robots (AMR) for fulfilment warehouses, has announced a strategic integration partnership with Manhattan Associates, a supply chain and omnichannel solutions provider.

The partnership makes Manhattan a licensed reseller of Locus’s autonomous, multi-robot solution for warehouse fulfillment and will facilitate the development of integration tools to improve productivity and efficiency for shared retail and third-party logistics (3PL) customers.

“The sustained massive growth in e-commerce has left the supply chain industry at a turning point. Retailers and 3PLs are seeking autonomous mobile robots to solve their productivity, efficiency and labour challenges,” said Rick Faulk, CEO of Locus Robotics.

[Read more…] about Locus Robotics and Manhattan team up for retail and 3PL customers