Where to start with distribution center automation
Distribution centres are still the beating hearts of most logistics operations. While the basic principles haven’t changed much, in recent years, we’ve seen massive improvements in automation-related technologies. Here, we explore some effective ways to strategise your automation journey, from starting with tangible problems to avoiding some common pitfalls.
Begin with problems
Before you look at specific robots or conveyors, write down the three problems that are costing you the most money: for example, that could be missed cut-offs, picking errors, or doors tied up for half an hour per trailer.
Put tangible numbers against each of these issues (such as orders that are late, error rate, and door minutes). Automation should fix one (or more) of those, fast. If you can’t quantify the pain, you won’t know whether a specific intervention has actually helped.
Map one real shift
Walk a representative shift end-to-end. Time every aspect of the process: goods-in, putaway, replenishment, pick, pack, load. Note queueing, rework, and walking distance.
You’re looking for bottlenecks – maybe it’s slow cartonisation, maybe it’s congestion at the dock. That’s your first target. Improving a non-constraint just moves the queue somewhere else, likely even making an existing bottleneck even worse.
Clean your data
Fancy dashboards won’t rescue you if your basic approaches to data are too messy. Standardise barcodes, units, and pack hierarchies (each/inner/case/pallet). Fix the item master and location naming. Ensure that every move is scan-started and scan-completed, so that the WMS is actually a representation of warehouse-floor reality. A tidy approach to data makes small automations pay back more effectively, because they’re able to run based on clean inputs.
Start small & modular
Pick one solution with a clear estimated ROI and no prerequisite building redesign: handheld scanning at every hand-off, put-to-light for split case accuracy, pick-to-cart routes to cut walking, or loading automation from somewhere like Joloda Hydraroll where loading speeds are holding you back.
Avoid huge systems that require massive investment and complete warehouse redesign, unless you’re absolutely certain they’ll have the effect you’re looking for.
Design the human layer
Most improvements come from removing friction for people. Co-design SOPs with the team who will actually end up using the solutions you choose to implement; make sure that stations are set at the right height; make screens readable, at arm’s length; put scanners on retractors.
Train your employees using effective strategies (watch, do, coach) and appoint some expert users per shift, to help others out during those initial stages. If associates invent workarounds and the system fails, the design team must have missed something.
Getting automation just right is a bit trickier than just opening a stock book of the latest industry innovations and picking the most expensive option. In practice, effective automation is modular, data-driven, and human-centred. Identify the actual constraints you’re working with first, prove it in weeks (not quarters), then test the system you implement to ensure that it’s actually having the effect you want it to have. That process turns these kinds of experiments into a resilient, scalable operation.
