Page 8 - Logistics News April 2018

Distribution

Emerging technologies

Courtesy SupplyChainBrain

New technologies are changing the way we solve distribution challenges.

EMERGING TECHNOLOGIES are off ering new can help solve some of distribution’s greatest
ways to solve today’s distribution challenges – challenges. Forward-thinking companies are
disruptions caused by a shortage of labour, higher embracing them and seeing promising results from
customer expectations and the shift to smaller, their pilot eff orts:
more frequent, just-in-time orders that are driving • A vision picking solution that increased
more each picking in the distribution centre. These productivity by as much as 22 percent.
innovations are making it possible to increase • Autonomous bots that are achieving return on
productivity and effi ciency, reduce dependence investment (ROI) in 18 to 24 months.
on labour and provide greater fl exibility to scale • Each picking bots that have helped increase
operations up or down as the needs of the business productivity by 30 percent.
change, according to Roger Counihan, Emerging There are also some more mature technologies
Technologies Strategist, Fortna. that are currently being underutilised, including
New technologies, including material movement robotic depalletizers, palletizers, truck loaders,
robots, collaborative robots (co-bots), autonomous right-sizing solutions and multi-shuttle goods-to-
picking bots, augmented reality for vision picking, person systems.
drones for inventory cycle counting and others, Behind these new and very promising

22 April 2018 | Logistics News