NuminaGroup

Author: Jennifer Maloney

  • Benefits Gained from Mobile Powered Carts

    Benefits Gained from Mobile Powered Carts

    Four Big Benefits Gained from Mobile Powered Carts – Part II

    Jennifer Maloney
    September 21, 2020

    This is Part II of a two-part article examining the value of deploying Mobile Powered Carts in the warehouse.

    See Part I here.

    Sometimes simpler is better. This blog explores how mobile powered carts can be a very efficient solution at a lower cost than many other technologies for improving your warehouse productivity.

    Mobile powered carts have become more valuable to a warehouse operation in part because of the advancements made in battery technology.  Batteries are now smaller, lighter and have a much longer charge life.  In addition, mobile carts are so flexible.  They can be easily moved to wherever they are needed. 

    Part 1 of this blog discussed how carts can be used as mobile powered workstations and as batch picking carts. In part 2, we will discuss the use of mobile powered carts as mobile pallet labeling and wrapper stations for mixed case order shipments and as mobile shipping and manifesting stations.

    Streamline Mixed Case Order Picking with a Mobile Pallet Labeling and Wrapper Station

    Mixed case picking processes are famously resistant to optimization. Going mobile, however, can help streamline and accelerate this process. In these applications, a mobile powered cart, managed by RDS™ can use voice or a Workstation Display with a Zebra large format label printer to move the cart to the pallet build location. 

    Equipped with an RDS™ workstation and Zebra wide label stock, the operator can wrap and label the pallet, applying one or more 6”x 6” or 6”x 8” order and pallet content labels. The mobile pallet wrapper and labeling system can wrap and label a pallet at a comparable speed to an auto pallet wrapper. The mobile technology is lower cost and eliminates the need for multiple fork truck pallet moves required when using an auto-pallet wrapper.

    Numina’s WES/WCS system, via voice-directed or mobile workstation technology, guides the staff to:

    • Move the cart to a pallet.

    • Scan the order pick ticket or pallet license plate barcode.

    • Validate items/quantity picked for accuracy.

    • Ensure accuracy by printing individual case retail compliance or customer-specific labels such as Amazon labels and the pallet content label(s) on-demand while the operator wraps the pallet.

    Mixed Case Picking Benefits

    • Lean-up and improve LTL and truck load shipping processes and dock space utilization.

    • Provides 99.9% accuracy by validating that the correct items and quantities are picked for every order.

    • Enables you to easily move your picking process to wherever it is needed and quickly adapt space utilization needs in the warehouse.

    Gain Productivity with Mobile Shipping and Manifesting Workstation

    Even in highly automated shipment processing environments, exceptions arise, due to no-read and damaged barcode labels and oversized case shipments. Staff can gain productivity and resolve exceptions with more flexibility using a mobile manifesting station barcode scanner, scale, and printer on a powered cart. Without a mobile powered shipping and manifesting station, operators spend time walking back and forth from the printer for each unexpected error.

    You can take advantage of the capability to batch pick oversized case shipments for 12-15 customers at a time. After picking the pallet, of “like SKU items” are dropped next to the carrier shipping lane at the dock area. Then the operator with the mobile manifesting cart scans the pallet ID barcode, and scans and weighs one of the cases. This triggers RDS™ to manifest all of the cases and batch prints the pallet quantity of customer carrier shipping labels. The operator applies the individual customer labels to each case and moves the pallet to the carrier shipping lane.

    Working at the mobile station, staff can:

    • Scan the order ID to look up shipping details in the WES/WCS system.

    • Identify and resolve the shipping issue.

    • Process the shipment of the batch order pick by printing and directing the operator to apply the required carrier shipping labels.

    Mobile Manifesting Station Benefits

    • Reduces staff time spent walking to other locations to look up order details and re-process the shipment.

    • Reduces potential for time delays that can affect customer delivery dates.

    • Makes it easy to handle exception and move the workstation to the warehouse work area.

    • Streamlines batch case or pallet quantity case picking and shipping manifesting operations for UPS, FedEx or other parcel carriers.

    Summary

    For most facilities, the mobile-powered cart is still a new innovation that has not been explored in depth for its potential applications. In order to be successful, businesses have always had to be able to adapt to changing market requirements. Mobile powered carts provide tremendous flexibility for an order fulfillment operation. 

    They allow a DC to make the most efficient use of their warehouse space because they are easily moved to areas where they are needed most. Because they improve efficiency in operations they also compensate for the labor shortages that many operations are currently facing. 

    About Newcastle Systems

    Newcastle Systems is the recognized innovator of mobile powered workstations and portable power systems specifically designed to make warehouses, manufacturing facilities and retail floors more efficient. Its extensive customer list is a who’s who of successful global companies that thrive on continuous improvement to separate themselves from the competition.

    Contact us

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  • Mobile Powered Workstations & Carts

    Mobile Powered Workstations & Carts

    Four Big Benefits Gained from Mobile Powered Carts – Part 1

    Jennifer Maloney
    August 27, 2020

    Companies today have access to a plethora of technologies for automating and streamlining warehouse operations. So much so, that it is sometimes easy to overlook how a lean simple technology can be combined with other technologies to impact daily labor savings while returning a huge efficiency boost in manufacturing and warehouse operations. That device? The mobile battery-powered cart!

    Mobile Workstations Move Technology to Where the Work is Performed

    Mobile batteries have come a long way in the last 18 months. As the power density of Lithium-ion batteries goes up, the price and recharge cycle time have gone down.  

    A mobile-powered cart equipped with a scale, presentation barcode scanner, Zebra label printer, and laser printer can last ten or more hours without recharging. 

    This frees up employees from wasted travel time by bringing the technology to the warehouse area where the work is performed.

    A mobile-powered workstation or a batch order picking cart can eliminate pre-printing batches of order and shipping labels and picking and packing sheets. Weight check scales and dimensioners can be added to the station to perform order fulfillment tasks faster, more efficiently, and accurately.

    Powered carts eliminate wasted walking time and save the operator from having to sort batches of pre-printed pick sheets or work instruction documents by changing the process to on-demand printing. Productivity is improved, unnecessary operator steps are eliminated, errors are reduced, and orders are processed faster through an inexpensive investment.

    Four Ways to Leverage Mobile Carts in Warehouse Operations

    This two-part blog will explore four very effective uses for the mobile powered cart in optimizing warehouse operations, where mobile powered carts are driving a fast ROI by increasing operational efficiency:

    • Mobile receiving workstation

    • Mobile batch cart for high-volume small-item piece picking

    • Mobile shipping and manifesting workstation

    • Mobile pallet labeling and wrapper station

    Faster, More Accurate Receiving

    Replace fixed receiving workstations with a battery-powered mobile workstation, loaded with Numina’s warehouse execution and control software (WES/WCS), a bar code scanner, Zebra label printer and a mobile dimensioning scale and vision capture system.

    If many warehouse facilities, workers need to walk to a stationary printer to retrieve the labels needed for an incoming shipment. This not only creates waste from unnecessary steps, but often results in less accuracy in receiving. Instead, a mobile cart can be moved to the receiving dock door or pallet to validate the entire receiving process by:

    • Scanning or entering the incoming order to verify the product and quantity.

    • Capturing case and each product weight, dimensional measurements, and sending the image to the ERP/WMS.

    • Capturing and recording errors or damaged goods with a time-stamped image of the errors to reduce costs for processing claims

    • Generating a barcoded label for the received pallet to direct put away to the storage location 

    Benefits of a Mobile Receiving Work Station:

    • Increases accuracy by eliminating manual processes such as item look up and keying of data.

    • Reduces costly walking to and from static printers by 50%.

    • Increases labeling accuracy to 90+% by printing and applying directly at pallet.

    • Reduces lost staff time due to walking inbound shipments to a fixed receiving station.

    • Immediately validates that product received from suppliers is correct (even if packaging has changed).

    • Enables you to safely move expensive equipment – such as a dimensioning system – to where it is needed, increasing utilization across multiple doors.

    • Provides flexibility to move receiving operations as space utilization needs change.

    Higher Speed, Accurate Small-Item Piece Picking

    Mobile powered batch carts combined with Numina’s voice-directed picking solution accelerate and improve speed and accuracy in piece part counting. 

    The cart is equipped with a scale and printer managed by Numina’s WES/WCS RDS™ Voice Picking Suite. 

    Example: 30% Productivity Boost 

    For example, at a leading automotive parts and assembly kit supplier, the combined technologies on the powered batch pick cart direct the manufacturing kitting and order pick applications, driving a 30% productivity boost compared to the former processes.

    Voice picking has several advantages, including directing the operators in an optimized travel path with voice commands and hands-free barcode scanning, replacing reading work instructions from paper, or a mobile RF terminal. 

    Barcode scanning, using a mobile scanner, verifies the location and item and quantity picked. This results in efficient, hands-free, eyes-focused picking and pack operations process, improving overall performance by 30% with an accuracy rate of 99.9%.

    Efficiently Pick Multiple Orders At a Time

    Adding a powered batch cart that can be used to pick 12 or more orders simultaneously that includes a high-precision counting scale and Zebra label printer on the cart speeds up the entire operation, especially when orders contain multi-piece loose parts of 30 to 200 or more counts of washers, screws, bolts and other components.

    Voice directs the pick validation, and the piece weight scale performs the count validation.

    Combined Small Item Piece Picking Technology Process:

    • The scale transmits the weight/piece count message to RDS™ Software

    • RDS tells the printer to print a product order identifier label

    • Voice commands direct the operator to apply the label and seal the bagged components

    • Voice commands direct the operator to place the bag into the right order carton or tote

    Integrating the scale and labeling on the powered cart with the latest power source technology allows picking to operate over the two shift order fulfillment operation with only a few charges performed during work breaks.

    Benefits of Voice + Mobile Powered Batch Cart Picking

    • Combines pick and pack into a single process, eliminating secondary touches in packing and QC.

      • Loose piece items are weighed, counted, bagged and an order-specific label is printed at piece count validation.

      • Increases throughput by eliminating the need for operators to move products to a central scale station, perform piece counting, and return the product back to the primary storage location.

    • Operations happen in real-time with product and quantity picked data updated to the ERP/WMS to adjust location inventory records.

    • Reduces staff walk time by up to 50%.

    • Eliminates the possible error of returning product to the wrong location.

    • Provides 99.9% accuracy by validating that the correct items and quantities are picked for every order.

    Combining voice-directed picking and mobile-powered carts allows for fulfillment of products that require additional labeling such as small medical devices that require additional compliance labels on every piece. 

    In many cases, staff can manage the labeling with wearable printers, but a mobile picking cart offers additional versatility. It is a matter of simply adding another printer to the cart and re-purposing it for other types of picking.

    Summary

    These examples illustrate just a few of the ways mobility delivers measurable improvements in efficiency and accuracy for manufacturing and warehouse operations. Mobile powered carts are highly effective in helping companies make better use of their existing warehouse space. 

    Mobile power carts make it possible for workers to use technology where and when it is needed – resulting in a more efficient work force and operation. 

    Please check out our next blog for more tips about how adding mobile-powered carts to your DC can streamline pallet labeling and exception manifesting processes. 

    Coming in Part II: Faster Shipping, Manifesting, Outgoing Pallet Handling and Prep

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  • 8 Steps to Prepare your Omnichannel DC for Peak Season

    8 Steps to Prepare your Omnichannel DC for Peak Season

    8 Steps to Prepare your Omnichannel DC for Peak Season

    Jennifer Maloney
    August 18, 2020

    It’s mid-August and summer is coming to an end. In a normal year, big box retailers would be setting out their fall and winter clothing displays, and ramping up for the cyber sales and holiday shopping season. But this year has been far from a normal year.

    The cold weather holidays, Halloween, Thanksgiving and Christmas are filled with uncertainty. One thing that is certain, consumers will be spending significantly less time in crowded retail shops, and more money online shopping. Already this year online orders have seen over a 200% increase 1.

    Marketing Technology News cited a recent study surveying consumers sentiment regarding the 2020 holiday season. 

    “Despite the impact of Covid-19, shoppers do not plan to significantly change their holiday spend compared to 2019. However, the data did reveal a stronger preference for online shopping, with 66% of shoppers anticipating they will increase their online purchases during the 2020 holiday season.”

    Managing significant spikes in online orders will require a strong omnichannel fulfillment strategy. This means that ramping up for peak season will be even more important to a successful and profitable 4th quarter. 

    If your DC has seen a large percentage of orders moving to e-com shipments and you have not prepared for the increase in this year’s cyber season, you could disappoint customers with delayed shipments. Missing deliveries due to the inability to process order surges can lead to losing a customer forever.

    One of the most challenging elements for an omnichannel or B2B distribution operation is the growth in shipping a larger percentage of parcel orders. To accommodate parcel orders, it is critical to focus on lean, low touch, efficient processes to manage pick, pack and ship e-com orders.

    Take steps to prepare your distribution centers for today’s higher volume parcel shipment demands and the upcoming cyber holiday spike. This year, consider the spike in demand for direct-to-consumer parcels, and plan to shift more resources towards the e-com fulfillment aspect of your DC.

    Re-working omni-channel fulfillment to prepare for a significantly larger percentage of e-com orders seems like an insurmountable challenge; we’re here to help. It is the perfect time to schedule a “Brainstorming Zoom Meeting” with one of our application experts to discuss ideas on how to optimize your warehouse processes and incorporate automation in the future to streamline the order fulfillment process.

    To learn more about how to implement automation to optimize distribution efficiency, view this infographic, or read this how-to guide for implementing well designed automated processes in your operation.

    8 Steps to Prepare for Peak Season

    Improve Slotting Practices

    You don’t have to redesign the entire DC for e-commerce and B2B parcel shipments, but there are steps to take to make certain that travel and order picking in your warehouse is optimized.

    Blog: What is Slotting in a Warehouse? Tips for Optimization

    An effective slotting process will result in getting your highest movers stored in the most optimal locations in your facility with easy accessibility – placement in carton flow, shelving or pallet positions based on the SKU movement velocity.

    Consider how you are adjusting for peak season inventory in your warehouse. Slot to keep travel time down and the number of touches as low as possible.  Slotting is key to making the picking processes more efficient and accurate.

    Consider incorporating a batch order picking strategy – where the picker picks multiple orders (batches) at the same time, instead of discrete picking – where the operator picks only a single order at a time.

    Lean-up the Packing Operation

    Have the most popular shipping carton sizes pre-made and staged at the packing stations or pack lines.

    If you can eliminate the pack operator’s task of manually building cartons, you’re eliminating 20 to 30 seconds from every carton shipment.

    Limit Congestion

    Because the volume of product being shipped will increase, there will be more products on the floor. It is important to limit congestion, which may impede workflow.

    More frequent replenishment often helps to keep the aisles unobstructed. Also, clear signage directing pickers to different areas is very important, especially if you hire temporary workers who may not be familiar with your DC.

    Calculate Your Staffing Need

    Calculate your labor cost per order, and if you are going to rely on temporary or seasonal work, factor in the inefficiencies of new hires and the training costs to cover increased demand.

    Start hiring a few weeks earlier and train them before the season starts. Think about how much time is wasted by having your best workers training or directing temporary workers during peak periods.

    Increase E-com Packaging Supplies

    Consider the spike in demand for direct to consumer goods when it comes to packaging materials. 

    Create a stocking plan with your packaging supplier for cartons, void fill, tape, and padded bags so you don’t run short of packing and shipping materials when direct to consumer orders spike.

    Update Your Maintenance

    Make sure you have spare parts on hand. While unexpected downtime on an essential piece of equipment is never good, it can be much more of a headache during peak season. Now is the time to plan for the unexpected.

    • Stock up on spare parts that have the greatest potential to break.
    • Practice preventative maintenance tactics for all systems.
    • Make sure your support agreement is active and up to date.

    You want your people and technologies to perform at peak performance levels when experiencing higher order throughput demand. That’s why it’s critical to take the time now to ensure that your equipment will be able to perform under increased stress from the holidays.

    Update Training Procedures

    It is important to have best practice processes in place.

    Finalize and test new training initiatives before the stress and confusion of peak season hits.

    Today’s advanced voice picking systems, use a speaker-independent voice engine that requires no voice training, so that new hires and seasonal workers can be productive in minutes.

    Key Data to Capture

    • How many cartons/padded bags were shipped during peak season?
    • Number of pickers during an average shift compared to peak season?
    • Number of shifts on average compared to number of shifts during peak season?
    • What is the average order cycle time during peak?
    • What were the highest number of customer complaints? Accuracy, missed delivery dates etc.?

    Once the season is over, start planning for next year, identify the bottlenecks and issues at your facilities that better processes and automation could resolve! The changes to consumer and B2B parcel order behavior is a permanent shift.

    Investing in automation that streamlines e-commerce and B2B rapidly pays for itself throughout the year by creating a more efficient distribution process.

    Numina Group can help you choose the right blend of automation that will scale with your business, such as voice picking, scan-weigh-dim, and print and apply labeling. Integrating automation and process improvements is the best way to iron out inaccuracies, cut labor costs, and remove dependence on temporary workers.

    Advanced voice picking technology makes training time practically nonexistent. Voice, especially speaker- independent voice technology can make your best workers 25-30% more productive. 

    Voice can also make temporary workers productive in minutes,  the best way to improve accuracy and reduce your reliance on temporary workers.

    Blog: The ROI of Voice Picking

    Numina Group’s order fulfillment automation solutions are modular, allowing you to focus on the right blend of automation technology to realize benefits that drive a rapid ROI.

    We have more than three decades of experience as system integrators, designing and implementing automation in new and existing distribution centers. Contact us to schedule an on-site warehouse assessment before peak season responsibilities fill your calendar.

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  • Road Map to Lean Optimized Distribution Processes

    Road Map to Lean Optimized Distribution Processes

    Road Map to Lean Optimized Distribution Processes

    Jennifer Maloney
    July 13, 2020

    CNBC reports that due to the e-commerce boom, the U.S. may need another 1 billion square feet of warehouse space by 2025.

    ProLogis, a real estate firm that is Amazon’s largest landlord, estimates that e-commerce companies require 1.2 million square feet of distribution space for each $1 billion in sales. 

    Clearly, the US and the worldwide supply chain have gone through dramatic changes due to Covid-19. E-commerce sales have boomed, resulting in both B2B and B2C distribution centers (DCs) now handling substantially increased parcel shipments. 

    This is especially true in the growth of essential goods shipments that have shifted from brick-and-mortar stores to e-commerce fulfillment. This trend, while accelerated by Covid-19, is likely to be a permanent shift in behavior in consumer and business purchasing habits.

    What Does this Mean for Distribution?

    If you are responsible for warehouse operation profitability, you need to operate a lean, lower cost per touch order fulfillment center that can ship a single case or single re-packed line item at a cost comparable to the fulfillment costs of Amazon or Walmart. 

    This operating performance is not possible without adapting leaner, more efficient pick, pack, and ship processes that are managed and enforced with the right blend of warehouse automation software and technologies. It’s either adapt, automate, or die off like the dinosaurs over the next few years!

    The Role of Warehouse Automation Integrators

    A skilled warehouse automation integrator is a true subject matter expert (SME), bringing application expertise, knowledge, and experience in process improvements. They will evaluate the multitude of automation technologies suited to increasing warehouse efficiency and productivity and choose the technologies best suited to that individual customer’s needs. 

    The right integration partner is consultative and provides strong engineering, mathematical and analytical skills to understand operational requirements, order profile, and business needs. 

    Clients are best served by a partner with in-house engineering skills who will evaluate, analyze data and recommend the proper process improvements and blend of warehouse technologies best suited to improving DC operations while generating the fastest ROI.

    Warehouse Design Services to Establish a Roadmap

    The warehouse design engineering study starts with the warehouse automation integrator and customer team focusing on a business-first approach to align labor, technology, and operations with business strategy and corporate vision. 

    To ensure the final solution matches the company’s order fulfillment requirements, three factors need to be evaluated and aligned – workforce, workplace, and the work to perform.

    A well-developed warehouse design study is data driven, based on a year or more of past order data. It should have the ability to project a future 3 to 5-year period for growth, factoring in order profiles, SKU movement velocity, peak periods and how future growth will impact facility capacity. 

    For example, many e-commerce businesses see a spike in orders over the weekend, resulting in 40% or higher order volumes on Mondays. The data must account for daily and time window order volume fluctuations. 

    Once the entire warehouse design team is aligned, the data essentially becomes a single version of the truth by which all processes and technologies can be evaluated, contrasted and selected to improve an existing operation or design a new DC

    If you have questions about developing a DC roadmap, the Numina Group offers expert warehouse design services to help you choose the right technologies, and how to benchmark metrics for improvement, we’re here to help.

    Please contact us today to arrange a complimentary consultation with our warehouse automation specialists.

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  • Considering Warehouse Robotics?

    Considering Warehouse Robotics?

    New to Warehouse Robotics? Key Terms to Know Today.

    Jennifer Maloney
    June 10, 2020

    In 1961, the first humans, Alan Shepard of the USA and Yuri Gagarin of the USSR made the first manned flights into space.

    Another significant technological advancement occurred in 61’ that has revolutionized manufacturing. This was the year General Motors brought the first Unimate robot, invented by George Devol, into an assembly line at its New Jersey facility.  

    These early robots were crude by today’s standards, with minimal safety features, lacking sensors to detect people or objects.  Their purpose was to eliminate dangerous work by reducing repetitive manual heavy work tasks, not only in the automotive industry but throughout all manufacturing industries.

    Fast forward almost 60 years – robots have evolved tremendously and can be found in virtually every industrialized manufacturing operation. Their top use remains eliminating heavy material movements, but they are far nimbler and more intelligent, able to perform complex machining, high speed assembly and inspection tasks. Robots are also able to perform in inhospitable environments – hot, cold, and toxic conditions. 

    Robots are the path to re-building manufacturing in the US.

    Robots are now quickly revolutionizing distribution and supply chain operations. Businesses are seeing the great impact warehouse robotics can have on improved productivity, accuracy and employee satisfaction by eliminating wasted time performing manual material movement in warehouse operations. 

    Advancements in software and technology are enabling more sophisticated, yet cost-effective next generation robots to emerge. These robots handle a wider range of load capacity and perform multiple work tasks independently or in cooperation with a supervisory automation system to coordinate with employees to boost productivity in receiving, replenishment, and order picking applications.

    When considering the deployment of warehouse robotics, here’s a brief overview of roles and technical advancements driving their rapid adoption in warehouse operations.

    Artificial Intelligence (AI) – AI has been around since the early 80‘s – computer programs modeling human intelligence used AI to enable adaptive learning and make better decisions. 

    AI, combined with LIDAR, 2-D barcode and camera sensors integrated with low cost embedded computers and AI software allow the newest robots, Autonomous Mobile Robots, (AMR’s) and the latest generation Automated Guided Vehicles, (AGVs) to continually adapt and navigate safely around obstacles and to work cooperatively with people within warehouse operations.

    Automated Guided Vehicle (AGV) – Transport robots that can use a basic guidance system such as following either a magnetic wire located on the surface or buried in the floor. The AGV can trace its history to the 1950s, developed first by Barrett Electronics of Northbrook, Illinois. At the time, it was simply a tow truck that followed a wire in the floor.

    Wire guidance is still very useful for many basic applications, including point to point, and narrow aisle pallet and tote storage and retrieval applications. 

    More sophisticated guidance systems are lasers and Lidar, which uses light in the form of a pulsed laser to measure distance. Also, today’s more sophisticated applications typically use vision based cameras, magnets, or lasers for navigation. 

    Automated guided vehicles or (AGV) are focused on automating material movement. Applications include pallet movement from receiving to put away and full pallet picking applications.

    However, a myriad of new, smaller, lower cost auto-guided carts are emerging for use in E-Com and B2B order fulfillment applications.  These smaller auto-guided carts are designed to automate order movement in picking and packing and to replace order transport duties which are currently the domain of fork trucks and conveyor systems.

    These more sophisticated AGVs use a combination of Lidar and camera based vision technology to detect, maneuver and map beams, walls and permanent objects throughout the facility.  The AGV’s sensors combined with AI software create maps of the DC travel paths, so the vehicles can continue to learn warehouse paths for performing the movement of pallets and materials, including rolls, and other unit load movements throughout a manufacturing operation and between adjoining manufacturing and warehouse facilities. AGVs can be extremely useful for tasks such as moving inventory in the warehouse and freeing up employees to handle other work.  Pallet and unit load AGVs are most cost-effective when deployed round the clock, in 6-7 days a week operations, eliminating fork trucks and associated labor costs.

    Autonomous Mobile Robot (AMR) – These robots appeared on the scene in the last decade and are the latest generation of vehicles, evolving rapidly due to the use of the latest onboard intelligence, vision and LIDAR sensor technologies. They have the capability to sense and learn the warehouse environment, detect objects and safely cooperate with people. 

    They are designed to integrate with WMS and WES-WCS systems to obtain supervisory commands and self-navigate throughout the warehouse, executing work instructions. The WES-WCS manages and directs the order fulfillment pick, pack, and ship processes and the AMRs and workers’ work tasks.  Order picking, packing and transportation of orders operated are combined in a coordinated single integrated operation.

    An excellent application for AMRs is in E-Com or B2C order fulfillment picking applications requiring intelligent order zone routing. The AMRs are ideally suited to the task of automating the transportation and movement of batch picking carts throughout the pick, pack, and ship processes. 

    In this application, the WES-WCS receives order information from the ERP or WMS, creates and releases optimized batches of orders, and calculates the cart capacity and order carton sizes using cartonization rules based on SKU cube and weight. 

    Orders are then prioritized and a group of orders are assigned to the pick cart. AMR’s have the ability to move loads of 700 LBS and can easily handle large batches of 20 to 25 orders, with a mix of pick to carton, totes, and full case picks on the same cart.

    The WES directed solution combines the advantages of AMRs and voice-directed batch picking with the WES directing the AMRs to automatically pick-up the batch pick cart and transport the cart throughout the required picking zones. 

    The AMRs are doing the heavy lifting and automating the cart movement throughout the order pick zones and dropping off the pick completed orders at a series of packing stations along an automated pack and ship conveyor system. 

    Both the operator’s movement, picking instructions, and the AMR’s travel route to the required pick zones and storage location are managed by a single WES software application. 

    The results – the operators spend more time picking instead of time wasted walking, and fatigue is eliminated while safety is increased due to the elimination of pushing around a 500 lb pick cart. 

    AMR picking is a hybrid goods-to-person process. It brings the prioritized work to the person, executes a more efficient order picking process and order transport to packing without human guidance. They can also be used to move products from receiving to order put-away zones and can be configured to include powered conveyor on the top platform for pallets, cases, and tote transport or pick up AMRs with new or existing conveyor systems.

    Collaborative Robot (Cobot) – Cobots are designed to work safely alongside employees. AMRs and Cobots are many times referred to by the same name. They emerged in 1996 from Northwestern University, developed due to employee safety concerns in manufacturing assembly, tool changing, and machine tending applications.

    Like the AGV, Cobots have rapidly evolved with greater dexterity. They can sense and react to unexpected objects or movements. Some models can move up and down, pull and load heavy products onto their base transport carts and move without operator assistance, reducing the number of employees needed for picking.  

    They are still limited to specific SKU sizes or full case or tote picking applications. However, the combining of Cobots with AGV’s is essentially the definition of today’s Automated Storage and Retrieval System (AS/RS). 

    This technology is well established and continues to advance. It’s use is growing throughout the world.  The same growth can be expected in Cobots, combined with AMRs, they will evolve and will be coming to a warehouse in your neighborhood soon!

    Summary

    The WES-WCS can play a critical role in managing AGV’s and AMR’s in warehouse and distribution center order fulfillment operations. It receives order details from the ERP or WMS, performs order release management and executes the duties of calculating the total cube and weight of orders, identifies and directs vehicles to order picking locations, and establishes the most efficient movements of workers to the workflow, by directing  product picking and validation and optimizing the order flow across the pick, pack, and ship processes.

    How Numina Group Improves Robot Functionality

    Numina Group’s Real-time Distribution Software (RDS™) Warehouse Execution and Control Software (WES-WCS) platform optimizes, manages, and tracks AGV and AMR activities. RDS’s software modules extends their capabilities, using its voice picking application so both the workers and the autonomous vehicles’ movement is coordinated throughout the pick, pack, and ship processes.

    RDS includes order release and prioritization, cartonization, pick to carton, put to light order consolidation, and labor and order tracking performance metrics reporting. As an industry top tier integrator, Numina Group works with clients on defining improved automated warehouse operations. 

    Based on leaner, low-touch processes, we then select the right-cutting edge warehouse automation technologies managed and controlled by RDS™, our highly flexible and scalable WCS-WES platform. 

    The result – clients gain a warehouse order fulfillment operation enhanced by automation technologies that optimizes distribution practices and dramatically lowers operating labor costs to gain improved profitability. To find out which robots are the right fit for your facility contact us today.

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  • Selecting DC Automation for E-Commerce

    Selecting DC Automation for E-Commerce

    Taking a Phased Approach to Selecting DC Automation

    Jennifer Maloney
    May 26, 2020

    Has your organization experienced a surge in e-commerce orders?

    Due to the surge in e-commerce sales, companies in a wide range of industries are interested in making process and technology improvements to more efficiently operate their shipping operations. 

    Companies that had previously experienced 10% to 15% in annual e-commerce growth are now struggling to handle a 3X to 4X surge in business-to-consumer (B2C) order volume. 

    Additionally, many companies that were primarily shipping full pallet or mixed case pallets a few years back, are now challenged with shipping single cases or single SKUs due to exponential e-commerce sales growth.

    However, steps can be taken to handle these challenges and streamline your business-to-consumer order (B2C) operations with flexible, scalable and efficient warehouse technology solutions.

    The question is, where to begin?

    It is well-documented that order picking is often a DC’s most costly and labor-intensive process, making it the obvious first place to evaluate. However, for B2C order fulfillment, efficiency is often more limited by the bottleneck in the packing, documentation, manifesting, and labeling process.

    That’s why the Numina Group offers a phased, modular solution for warehouse order fulfillment automation. Numina’s RDS™ WES-WCS Real-Time Distribution Solution, includes a full family of pack and ship automation modules that can be used to solve a DC problem area or, if needed, automate the entire warehouse operation

    Phase 1 – Evaluate and Plan Before You Act

    Many integrators offer minimal advice on how to add productivity to your DC. The Numina Group can help you evaluate your entire fulfillment process and define a warehouse automation solution. 

    During the evaluation step, we assess on all the components of your fulfillment operations. We can help you streamline the pack and ship area as the initial phase, or if your current picking process lacks the tools to operate an omni-channel operation, we can help you define complete requirements for e-commerce pick, pack, and ship processes. 

    The Bottleneck in the Final 100 Feet of the DC

    Numina’s family of advanced automatic print-and-apply labeling solutions maximizes order throughput to lower labor costs and increase operational efficiency. Our flexible and scalable labeling solutions are used in both manufacturing and warehousing facilities to automate the application of product identification, retail and e-commerce compliance, carton content, packing slips, and shipping labels.

    We can help you replace manual operations with an in-motion high-speed print and apply labeling conveyor line to automate scan-weigh dimensioning and the application of pack sheets or removable packing slips and shipping labels. 

    Efficiency Gained: A print-and-apply labeling system can eliminate the cost of four to five operators per shift, saving $28,000 to $30,000 a year per employee.

    The automated pack line incorporates an in-line weight and vision audit scale, an auto pack sheet print, fold, and insert (PFI) station, an operator at a semi-auto void fill machine, and a semi-automatic or fully automatic adjustable taper/sealer to pack and seal cartons at rates of 6 to 12 CPM.

    At the exit of the taper, the carton travels to the lowest cost and most proven robot for the distribution industry – print and apply label applicators. Print and apply labeling of compliance, packing slips/sheets, carton content, return labels, and shipping labels eliminates unnecessary manual touches and fully automates manifesting and shipping.

    Efficiency Gained: The pack line allows a single operator to perform what is typically the task of 2-3 people in a manual packing process.

    Implement a Speed Pack Station

    If your business ships a high volume of single-line e-commerce orders, you can double order packing throughput by implementing a speed-pack station. 

    In this configuration, orders are batch-picked to the speed-pack station, then scanned directly to a padded bag. The pack sheet is printed and inserted into the bag, and the carton is sealed and placed on a conveyor.  

    The bag is automatically weighed with scan-weigh-dim technology. The weight is passed directly to the carrier’s manifesting system for rate shopping, and the shipping label is printed and applied directly to the bag. The label is scan verified with RDS’s FDA rated level of tracking and validation software, then sorted directly to the gaylord.

    Efficiency Gained: Speed-pack padded bag lines can achieve rates of 18 to 24 cartons per minute with a single print-and-apply applicator.

    Print and Apply Labeling Tunnel

    If your operation has a large percentage of full-case e-commerce shipments, you may benefit from a solution that automates outbound case shipping. In this scenario, at pick completion, pallets of the product or a pick-to-conveyor line transports the cases to the print-and-apply labeling tunnel.  

    Efficiency Gained: Automated labeling systems process from 650 to 3000+ cases per hour to increase the DC throughput, and minimize manual handling, and improve order documentation and shipment accuracy. 

    The labeling tunnel also includes a camera-based scanner and scales which capture the case SKU barcode and actual weight to verify picking. The case identification data is then used by the software to automatically assign the case to an e-commerce order. The series of print-and-apply label applicators applies the required shipping labels and packing sheet documentation to match the customer shipment rules for each case.

    Labeling tunnels can also automate the shipping requirements for retailers such as Amazon, Wayfair, Home Depot, Lowes, and Walmart and for third-party carrier manifesting requirements such as UPS, FedEx, or LTL. 

    Efficiency Gained: When ready-to-ship cartons and cases are placed on an automated labeling tunnel conveyor line in the shipping area, you can eliminate 3 minutes or more of manual labor from every case e-commerce shipment. At $20 an hour labor cost burden – that’s over a dollar labor savings per shipment.

    Solve Your Warehouse Optimization Needs with the Numina Group

    Whether you envision your operation benefiting from our voice-directed picking solution, or an automated labeling tunnel to alleviate the current pack and shipping bottleneck, think Numina Group. 

    Our warehouse technology solutions extend well beyond order picking automation. We’ll work with your team as a partner to evaluate and recommend the right blend of warehouse automation and tailor a solution for your specific requirements and ROI objectives. 

    Imagine the impact and benefits that higher productivity, reduced labor needs, and happier, safer and more motivated employees would do for improving customer satisfaction and profitability. Together, we can make this happen. 

    Contact us today to discuss phase one of defining the right blend of automation to accelerate your DC’s performance.

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  • Warehouse Productivity and Technology Advancements

    Warehouse Productivity and Technology Advancements

    Is Outdated Voice Picking Technology Holding Your DC Back?

    Jennifer Maloney
    May 13, 2020

    Refresh your knowledge on warehouse technology advancements that are now light years ahead of first-generation picking technologies!

    All of us who have experienced the computer revolution over the last 30 to 40 years remember Moore’s Law, which projected that the historical trend of advancement in microprocessor technology would lead to the doubling of computing power every 18 months. It may not have been exact, but it wasn’t that far off, considering that the 8 bit Zilog Z-80 microprocessor was state-of-the-art when I got out of college in the 70’s.

    Similar to Moore’s law, in the last 18 months, the Android operating system has taken over 32-bit processes for an evolution in the warehouse/distribution computer market. Today, the latest generation mobile wireless wearable computers are equipped with Quad-core CPU’s, 4-8 GB of memory and a multi-tasking operating system that executes software transactions in milliseconds!

    These rapid and continual advancements are revolutionizing warehouse productivity.

    Warehouse applications such as picking, pallet building, staging, trailer loading control, and data tracking productivity have advanced seven-fold when the latest wearable computers, blue-tooth wireless camera-based barcode scanners and voice picking headsets are used to direct warehouse work activities. They are light-weight, high performance and include long life, hot swappable batteries for extended shift warehouse operations. 

    If your handheld equipment is more than 5 years old, you may be missing out on huge warehouse productivity gains.

    Is your DC operation still using a hand-held barcode terminal that resembles a brick and has a green screen terminal-based user interface? Does it force the operator to make repeatable stops, switch screens to read instructions, and manually key in data? If the operator needs to scan a barcode, it probably takes both hands and wastes 4-5 seconds for every pick transaction. If so, it’s time to investigate the latest advancements in mobile computing technology.

    Zebra Technologies Latest Generation Wearable Computers

    Zebra’s entire family of ruggedized mobile computers are designed to work reliably for years with minimal downtime, and they add speed, ease of use and reliability that can’t be overlooked in the quest to improve the DC operation’s productivity. Zebra’s latest generation Quad- Core Android powered wearable computers such as the WT-6000 offer built-in “tap to connect” wireless technology combined with the 5000 series camera based 2-D ring scanner for hands-free pick and pack validation.

    Compared to scanners released just six months ago, the new scanners are faster, more accurate, accommodate a range of barcode formats and an extended distance scan range, making the work faster and easier, so more time is spent working.

    Zebra’s arm-mounted WT6000 and RS51000 Ring Scanner – 22% lighter weight than previous generation hardware.

    New Voice Recognition Technology is Transforming Picking

    Pick to voice is another example of a rapid technology advancement in managing warehouse operations, compared to just two years ago. DCs were still investing in first generation voice-only systems that required workers to talk as part of the process, repeating shelf storage location check digits to confirm locations and use other voice responses to acknowledge. This resulted in a poor long-term acceptance by the operators due to voice fatigue and a high occurrence of repeating responses that affected accuracy. These DCs are now upgrading their picking process to multi-modal real-time pick by voice solutions.

    Numina Group offers a much more intuitive and reliable picking solution that is built on the latest in voice picking technology and wearable computers. Numina Group’s Android-based voice engine is based on superior technology that uses 8th generation speaker-independent voice recognition software that requires zero operator voice training, so a new operator can be productive in picking within 5 to 10 minutes. 

    The voice system takes advantage of Zebra’s wearable computers by improving the operators’ work experience with higher productivity and ergonomics. The WT6000, ideally suited to multi-modal, combines voice commands with a wearable arm-mounted color touch screen for viewing and hearing work instructions. This solution, by providing both voice instructions and allowing the operator to check instructions and view the product SKU identifier or special value add instructions, increases picking performance 30% to 35% when compared to barcode terminals from just 3-5 years ago. Several studies have found that keeping the operator’s eyes focused on the picking task and integrating voice picking technology with hands-free barcode product and lot scan validation results in pick-and-pack validation processes that operate at near 100% accuracy rates. 

    Multi-modal voice picking delivers a rapid 12-to-18-month ROI in piece picking, mixed case pallet picking, kitting, medical device, pharmaceutical and nutraceutical and frozen food applications due to its ability to direct the required lot, serial barcode and sell by date capture in real-time with minimal additional labor.

    Assessing the true value of equipment investments – old and new

    I’ve visited warehouses that still rely on paper or 10-year-old handheld terminals that are no longer manufactured or supported for more than 5 years. It’s understandable to want to maximize the return on even the oldest equipment investments, but if your workforce is relying on obsolete processes and technology, it’s like having them work with one hand tied behind their back!

    Labor is expensive and accuracy is king for customer service and profitability. The cost of an error can be $200 or more per incident. In today’s internet world, considering both the cost of errors and the risk of losing customers, no order fulfillment operation can stay in business or compete with faster, more accurate companies.

    How a DC Refresh Can Pay for Itself through a Rapid ROI

    You owe it to your firm to investigate which leaner, lower-touch process improvements, managed with the right blend of advancements in warehouse technologies will enhance your operation’s performance. When you’re considering warehouse automation, it’s worth having a discussion with an established leader with 30 plus years of warehouse automation expertise, know-how, software and a full family of automation solutions. Numina Group can perform an assessment of your current operation, make warehouse productivity recommendations and implement the right blend of technologies to increase your DC’s productivity and profitability.  Contact a Numina Group expert today!

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  • Balancing Work Across Multiple Pick Zones

    Balancing Work Across Multiple Pick Zones

    Balancing Work Across Multiple Pick Zones

    Jennifer Maloney
    April 30, 2020

    The RDS™ Order Release Module balances the order mix across the split case and full case pick modules along with the order flow to the pack area, print-and-apply labeling, ship sorter and pallet build operations.

    Does your DC have the right tools to manage the B2B and B2C customer delivery experience?

    Today’s warehouse distribution operations are increasinlgy acting as online retail stores and shipping critical items, including laptop computers, electronics, HVAC components, and repair parts for both consumer and business customers. Their mission is to connect manufactured goods to the customer with a high percentage of same-day shipments. 

    Today’s dynamics are influenced by several factors. COVID-19 is a disruptive force. In many cases, the DC’s potential workforce is fearful of contracting the virus, reducing the ability to attract new workers. 

    As a result, many DCs are operating with a reduced staff and a higher demand for same-day order shipments. This creates pressure to optimize and prioritize orders that have priority shipments while balancing the picking tasks with a smaller labor pool. 

    With more than three decades of experience in helping companies create leaner operations, Numina Group understands how DCs without the right automation tools are adversely impacted. 

    We work with clients to identify operational constraints and develop an order fulfillment solution that optimizes order release to balance work across pick zones. 

    The foundation of our solution is the Numina’s RDS™ WES-WCS warehouse automation solution, a warehouse execution and control system that includes automation software modules that manage the entire order release pick, pack, and ship order fulfillment process.

    Identifying the Problem

    A manual order release process that relies on tribal knowledge applied by staff cannot accurately and efficiently account for DC order picking rates within multiple pick zones.

    Instead, it often results in too much work in certain zones and a lack of work in other zones. Overloaded zones with excessive orders result in worker congestion and picking conflicts with both batch cart-based and zone routing conveyor system picking automation systems. 

    When conveyor zones become overloaded, the system becomes jammed and workers are forced to double-handle cartons and start and stop the conveyor, leading to inefficiency and higher chances of picking errors.

    What are the Effects of Inefficient Picking?

    Order picking is the costliest and most labor-intensive task in a warehouse’s four primary activities of receiving, storage, order picking, and shipping. 

    Roughly half of order picking is still being processed manually because human operators are more responsive to changes and unique pick/packing instructions.

    However, operators do not always perform flawlessly, especially in congested pick zones.

    Relying on a manual, paper-based, or outdated wireless handheld barcode terminal to direct a discrete order picking process wastes time and drives up order processing time due to higher error rates and costs per shipment.

    The above factors increase the demand to improve order flow and automate the operator movement and picking tasks.

    Zone Picking

    Zone picking, when managed with picking technology such as a pick-by-voice system that is designed to manage and optimize zone picking, will efficiently manage a mix of order types. 

    Zone picking can manage several order types such as pick-to-carton orders and batch picking of single SKU orders at the same time. The zone picking process can reduce picking travel time and increase the operator’s pick per hour performance.

    Order Consolidation

    Orders that require SKUs picked from multiple zones need warehouse automation software to efficiently consolidate the picks originating from multiple zones at an order consolidation area. 

    A put-to-light consolidation put wall shelf managed by the warehouse control system is a cost-effective and rapid means to consolidate the picks from across the warehouse and manage the packing operation.

    How RDS WES-WCS Balances Work Across Pick Zones

    RDS WES-WCS connects with your existing WMS or ERP system to bolt on more efficient order fulfillment processes, technologies, and material handling automation.

    RDS includes pre-developed software modules to enable order release to prioritize critical shipments, and optimize workflow and operator pick and pack tasks, thus balancing picking tasks across multiple pick zones. This allows you to allocate labor efforts to where it’s needed most.

    How RDS Simplifies and Increases Picking Efficiencies:

    • RDS Voice – Directs workers to pick multiple orders in multiple zones, synchronized across the DC to reduce travel time in the most efficient pick path. 

    • Pick and Put to Light (PTL) – PTL can be used to pick in the high-velocity SKU zones in combination with voice picking. It is ideally suited to managing the put wall order consolidation for managing picks from multiple zones in a zone-based picking application.

    • Zebra Wearable Technology – The RDS order picking automation suite gets superior productivity and operator performance when the operator is equipped with the latest mobile wearable computers for directing hands-free picking and other warehouse activities, such as receiving, replenishment, and shipping consolidation tasks. Zebra’s enterprise-grade mobile and wearable computers equip workers with the right tools to streamline the entire order fulfillment operation.

    • Lower Cost of Ownership – Numina Group partners with Zebra to bring you affordable upgrades through the GO Zebra Trade-In Program, where you can trade in legacy devices from any manufacturer for cash rebates towards your upgrade.

    Without controlling and balancing order release, worker inefficiency will result in higher missed priority same-day order shipments and poor customer satisfaction. 

    Intelligent continuous or batch order release automation balances work across the DC to keep everyone busy and get last-minute orders out within shorter time windows. An Automation investment pays for itself with huge increases in productivity and accuracy.  

    Experience the power of 99% order accuracy. Talk with our warehouse automation specialists today for a free assessment of your current workflows.

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  • How to Navigate Business Disruptions with Collaboration Tech Tools

    How to Navigate Business Disruptions with Collaboration Tech Tools

    Embracing Change

    Jennifer Maloney
    April 23, 2020

    At Numina Group, we’ve been challenged like so many others to find our way through the major disruptions we’re all facing today.

    At Numina Group, we’ve been challenged like so many others to find our way through the major disruptions we’re all facing today. But we’ve found new ways to keep business moving forward – using tech tools that don’t require a major investment or require advanced training.

    In particular, Numina Group has adopted three tech tools that enable us to collaborate from anywhere – between our team members and with our clients.

    Video conferencing software – Like Everyone, we’ve replaced face-to-face meetings with videoconferencing meetings that are proving to be highly productive. In fact, they’ve quickly become a daily meeting point for our team. Following are a few tips we’ve learned along the way.

    • Set up the call with an agenda.
    • Get your materials organized and if there are multiple presenters, designate a slide owner to advance everyone’s slides for them.
    • Let attendees know if you require video or not. It’s not always necessary but can be beneficial for building rapport and keeping members engaged, especially if you’re not able to meet face-to-face for weeks at a time.
    • Know your audience – make sure that whenever you invite new people, they are prepped in advance in how to use the software.
    • If the group is large, make sure you have someone monitoring questions – not the presenter – in order to let them focus on leading the meeting.
    • If there are action items to be followed up on after the call, close the loop via a follow up summary email.
    • Schedule the next meeting while you’re on the call.
    There are several video conferencing platforms available such as Zoom, GotoMeeting, and Basecamp, all either free or with a minimal month cost. One note, “free” sounds good, but make sure it meets your needs and does not limit meeting times or present security risks.

    Numina Group now conducts internal meetings for training purposes as well as business planning via video conferencing. We are also working with clients and prospective customers on ongoing projects that we would previously meet onsite to complete. This has made it possible to keep projects moving, even in a shelter-in-place world.

    Smartsheet – Ultra User-Friendly Cloud-based Project Management Platform

    Our team has also recently, and quickly, adopted SmartSheet as a collaborative project tracking platform for our internal teams and with our clients. At first glance Smartsheet looks like a spreadsheet or project management tool, but it is so intuitive and easy to learn that we’ve been able to accomplish much more, faster. Our clients are even able to log in and collaborate with us. It has proven to be effective for novices and advanced Excel users.

    We’re now collaborating with our clients via Smartsheets, which is much more efficient than passing email reminders back and forth on project tasks and deadlines. Our team members and customers can quickly log in to a Smartsheet and view project milestones, due dates, attached documents and more.

    Cell phones cameras and Webcams for remote visibility–

    We all rely on setting up low-cost webcams or cell phones for connecting with client teams. This allows us to provide remote support and troubleshooting to assist our support services and keep projects moving. Recently, our software development team set-up web cams at the customer’s start-up site to supply visibility to our Autonomous Mobile Robot (AMR) partner, Waypoint. Their New Hampshire based software and support team was able to observe the robot’s pick-up and transport activities of batch pick carts. With the ability to watch the action, they provided a few pointers to the Numina Group development team, allowing us to optimize the AMR travel path in the DC’s pick zones and reduce the cart pick-up and drop times by a few seconds.

    Expanding the use of cameras is proving to be a valuable window into our customers’ facilities and a real-time diagnostic tool. This is incredibly helpful in troubleshooting and is a tool we will use going forward on our “go-live” warehouse automation projects.

    New World Opportunities: Completing Warehouse Installations Without Being Onsite

    At another client’s recent “go live” of a new conveyor and sorting system, due to the client’s health risk concerns related to the coronavirus, the client was hesitant to have the installation crew working during the main work shift at the same time as their staff in the facility.  To accommodate our client, and keep Numina Group employees and our customer’s employees as safe as possible, we arranged to shift install to second shift.  Working in combination with the client’s excellent teamwork, the Numina Group’s team was able to test over a weekend and go live on Sunday with 1,000 order shipments using the new pack and ship conveyor and parcel sorting system.

    Key Steps Taken to Facilitate Successful Start-Up:

    1. Relied on videoconferencing to have live team discussions for problem solving, status tracking, and facilitating the next steps that need to be tackled.
    2. Project was made available to internal team and client’s team via Smartsheet.
    3. Installed Numina WES/WCS via remote software tools.
    4. Even though majority of our team was remote, we were able to fully assist and train the client’s team over the weekend. When questions arose – we were on-line real-time with phone and Zoom using wireless tablets to support the client’s team.

    Overall, the project went live on time and was successfully implemented, thanks to everyone’s commitment and the availability of technology that enabled connectivity.

    The Silver Lining Amidst Disruption

    Based on the positive outcomes we’ve gained with these new technologies, we’ll continue to use these tools even after the COVID-19 crisis is just a bad memory!  Our willingness to embrace change and the can do attitude of our team, allowed us to develop new methods to save time, keep project communications moving, and improve customer site visibility support. Despite the demanding circumstances that we are all facing, Numina Group is well-equipped to handle all of challenges facing you in your distribution and material handling operations.  If you have warehouse challenges that you would like address, speak to one of our knowledgeable warehouse automation experts.

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  • How Automation Intelligence Improves Order Fulfillment Efficiency

    How Automation Intelligence Improves Order Fulfillment Efficiency

    How Automation Intelligence Improves Order Fulfillment Efficiency

    Jennifer Maloney
    April 14, 2020

    We have been fielding inquiries from interested customers regarding the impact machine learning and Automation Intelligence can have in the material handling industry, and how these concepts actually relate to real world distribution operations.

    This blog will give you a brief overview, but don’t hesitate to give us a call anytime to discuss these concepts in more detail. We love to talk about our technology!

    Advancements in machine learning and software analytics are driving more informed decision making across all business sectors. Manufacturing and distribution control systems are no exception, with the right control system, your DC can greatly benefit from Automation Intelligence.

    Studies conducted by KPMG estimate initiatives like artificial intelligence and machine learning can bring as much as $300 billion to the retail industry alone. Furthermore, market researchers at IDC suggest as much as half of all manufacturing supply chains will boost productivity 15% through intelligent automation by 2021.

    As leaders in software development and automation control in warehousing and order fulfillment for over three decades, Numina Group can assist in implementing Automation Intelligence into your DC.

    We explore and invest in research to develop and apply machine learning and Automation Intelligence software tools that improve performance in distribution material handling applications. Numina Group has pre-developed software modules within our RDS™ WES-WCS platform that automate decision making in conveyor control systems, order picking processes, and material handling technologies such as ASRS and autonomous mobile robots (AMR).

    A control system that makes more intelligent decisions can improve order release and reduce travel time. Intelligent control systems enable more intelligent transport and order routing decisions within pick zones and assignment of ready to ship work to packing lanes. To accomplish this, the software needs to take into account several variables that can be measured in real-time to effect order flow and balance labor requirements in distribution operations.

    Automation Intelligence or machine learning techniques are embedded prebuilt modules within Numina Group’s Real-time Distribution Software, RDS™ WES-WCS. The modules take into account numerous conditions. For example, when controlling a conveyor system in a goods to man order zone routing pick module, several variables are measured in order to make decisions, such as:

    • Total cartons and totes actively being picked in a zone
    • Releasing orders based on zone visit logic
    • Zone picking performance history/standards
    • Number of pickers within the zone
    • Available inventory slotted in each pick zone 
    • Conveyor speed, zone accumulation capacity, etc.

    These are some of the variables used to balance and manage order release. In real-time, the control system can re-route an order to the best zone based on available SKU inventory to eliminate congestion and balance picking in the multi-zone conveyor pick module. RDS™ Automation Intelligence takes traditional automation and makes it smarter. It keeps bottlenecks from occurring, and keeps the order fulfillment process operating at peak design rates.

    RDS™ Automation Intelligence software modules enable the warehouse automation control system to make decisions, freeing up the supervisory task of selecting and making manual order release decisions to balance work and decide when to release priority shipments.

    For example, RDS™ learns the order throughput capacity rate from order start throughout picking, packing, and shipping. Web screens provide the ability to set the carrier shipment pick-up times. At a set time, RDS™ will move the priority order to the front of the line and release these shipments to ensure that they are processed within the known time-window to ship based on the carrier pick-up time.

    In an age of increasingly complex supply chains that require a larger percentage of same day orders shipments, having the RDS™ software tool-set constantly measuring order volume, adjusting, and automating order release based on priority, travel path, picking time while accounting for order per hour shipment rates is critical for customer service and your enterprise’s success and profitability.

    RDS™ WES-WCS, and its integral RDS™ voice picking suite makes your workforce more productive by:

    • Directing picking with voice commands and hands free barcode scanning to boost productivity 25-30% while increasing primary pick accuracy rates to over 99.98%.
    • Capturing SKU lot and pick by FIFO to minimize missed expiration dates.
    • Directing workers in the most effective pick paths across parallel order fulfillment processes.

    The addition of RDS™ Automation Intelligence to DC operations provides many productivity benefits, including: optimized order release and order balancing, improved picking with RDS™ pick by voice and pick to light, high speed print and apply labeling, and efficient sortation solutions.

    We assist clients in defining and implementing solutions that optimize every aspect of the DC order fulfillment operation. Our clients benefit from our design team’s expertise in deploying cutting edge automation and enterprise-grade hardware sourced from leading manufacturers like Zebra’s latest Android based wearable picking automation technologies, and TGW conveyor solutions.

    To see Numina Group’s automation in action, check out our video from this year’s Modex 2020 Tradeshow.

    Find out more about the power of Automation Intelligence with Numina Group’s RDS™ by you speaking with our automation experts. Unite accurate order picking systems and durable enterprise-grade hardware, with RDS™ Automation Intelligence to build an optimized warehouse automation solution that transforms your operations from good to great.

    Souza, Kim. The Supply Side: Artificial Intelligence is slowly shaping the future of retail. TBP. Feb 15, 2020. 

    Souza, Kim. The Supply Side: Artificial Intelligence is slowly shaping the future of retail. TBP. Feb 15, 2020. 

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