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Automation is at everyone's disposal, yet investing in it doesn't
mean it will solve every goods-handling issue or be the right fit.
Humans are still better at a lot of things. To understand where
automation can be best applied, let's look at some of the areas
where it is (and isn't) useful.
The successful deployment of automation in the warehouse or
distribution center environment relies on close integration with
a warehouse management system (WMS) to help direct,
simplify and track all the transactions going on in the facilities.
Even without the addition of automation, a WMS enables
trained warehouse staff to achieve fast and highly accurate
shipments by choreographing the most efficient pick paths and
prompting specific actions each step of the way during picking
and/or prior to shipment.
An article on NPR's All Things Considered recently, discussing
the growth of distribution centers over the past decade thanks
in large part to the online retail boom. For people in the
industry, this isn't a surprise, but it certainly is a good
demonstration of the changes in our industry that modern
automation has enabled.
Automation originally referred to the use of largely automatic
equipment within a manufacturing process or production line.
For automation to be effective, it needs data. This can come in
the form of barcodes as well as other methods for tagging
inventory, such as radio frequency identification (RFID) tags.
Whether the WMS solution relies on barcodes or RFID for
inventory management, the constant pressures to stay ahead
of e-commerce demand have driven many larger companies
like Amazon to double down on automation with very
sophisticated robotic implementations that can handle an
assortment of activities that supplement human pickers in the
warehouse.
In today's warehouse environment, automation can more
accurately be called "physical automation," which includes all
the methods used to bring inventory right to the order picker,
