Page 4 - Warehouse Annual 2022

FOREWORD

The Times They Are A-Changin’

BY MARTIN BAILEY, INDUSTRIAL LOGISTIC SYSTEMS

Way back in 1964, Bob Dylan sang about The Times They Are A-Changin’, and that’s certainly
true about warehousing worldwide. What is driving these changing times?

irstly, customers are changing. There is pressure supply chain struggled to suddenly spring to life. So now,
on faster and more accurate deliveries. The world many imported goods are delayed somewhere between
Fhas bought into the ‘I want it now’ philosophy. manufacturing and an international freight system that is
This means warehouses have to rethink their route to experiencing large delays.
market. Faster order assembly, faster transport and more
accurate deliveries. For the warehouse, this means better With all this chaos, we have added all sorts of new
processes, better equipment, longer hours and possibly technology to manage our warehouses. Better data
more automation. gathering, better data analysis, more digitisation of
processes. All very exciting, but it often leads to a lot more
Customers also want a lot more variety. They demand bureaucracy. More data often means less useful data and
a bigger and broader range. For the warehouse, this means a loss of gut feel about what is best. And still to come
more SKUs and mostly smaller volumes for each SKU. This are machine learning and artifi cial intelligence, which will
drives more (different) equipment, different processes, improve our forecasting and make lots of daily decisions
different packaging and different routes to market. for us.

Then we add more e-commerce – and a digital demand For the warehouse, automation is also a game changer.
system – and the warehouse has become a lot more Lots of warehouse processes are easy to automate, so
complex. The total network from source to customer (and warehousing has become a home for automation. But,
lots of reverse logistics) has radically changed and the along with automation comes a whole new world of
warehouse needs to adapt accordingly. processes and a different world of intensive maintenance.

Then came COVID-19. Around the world, governments The Times They Are A-Changin’ is certainly valid in our
put a multitude of businesses to sleep and then when warehousing industry. The best of luck to all of you in
they decided to wake them, they were surprised that the these changing times. •

PHOTO BY CLEYDER DUQUE FROM PEXELS

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