Making the List: ASRS Strategic Advantages that Smart Supply Chain Leaders Can’t Afford to Ignore
The advanced technology of Automated Storage and Retrieval Systems (ASRS) provides warehouses that adopt automation a variety of strategic advantages. To see the ways ASRS can streamline operations, MHI’s ASRS Industry Group organized a list and asked Andy Lockhart, Director of Strategic Engagement at Vandelande North America, to guide supply chain managers through it. Here’s how ASRS technology can support innovation and growth in your warehouse.
1) Labor
Business leaders often cite the labor market – or lack of people in the market – as their most difficult warehouse issue with hiring, training, and retaining people as top priorities.
“The labor problem is not going to go away,” says Lockhart. “Labor has always been a crunch and it’s staying a crunch.” ASRS can address this issue from several different angles.
Hiring: ASRS can cut down the number of people a warehouse needs. If an ASRS is handling all the item picking, fewer people are needed to work in that warehouse.
Training: If warehouse picking uses manual labor, more training must happen for that warehouse to run. Training includes learning where items are located, how to retrieve items, and where they need to go. For people, learning those things takes time. However, warehouse layout and SKU location can be programmed into automated equipment, so employees only need to train for their specific packing or picking stations instead of the entire warehouse.
Retaining: This may be the most difficult employee issue of all because warehouse work is often physically taxing, leading to higher turnover. If your warehouse requires employees to do a lot of walking and heavy lifting, or work in extreme temperatures, that is not only uncomfortable for employees, it can be dangerous. ASRS equipment handles the intensive work of lifting and moving items around, making the employees’ work easier and, most importantly, safer. Safe, comfortable employees will stay in the job longer. It also works in difficult temperature environments. For example, in grocery warehouses ASRS can work in chillers or freezers or for warehouses in the summer months, ASRS technology works in hot conditions while employees stay at cooled workstations.
2) Service Levels
Like it or not, Amazon has trained the US consumer to expect products quickly – two-day, overnight, and even same day. With ASRS solutions, warehouses can deliver products faster because they cut down the amount of time it takes to pick products, whether it’s individual items for e-commerce or palletized items for retail stores.
“This gives [warehouses] a better customer service promise,” says Lockhart.
Manual pickers spend between 60 to 70 percent of their time simply walking the warehouse limiting their picking to about 30 items per hour and that’s without workplace distractions. However, a goods-to-person ASRS shuttle system, for example, can deliver anywhere from 500 to 700 items an hour. Depending on the warehouse (size, product types, etc.), picking efficiency can increase 10 or even 20 times what can be done manually allowing the fast delivery times consumers want.
3) Flexibility
Flexibility is always a good business strategy and ASRS can set your warehouse up for success by taking the guess work of issues like layout, SKU allocation, space, and scalability.
“With ASRS, you don’t have to worry about [these issues] because the system itself can do that,” says Lockhart.
Layout: Because consumer goods are a dynamic business, a layout that worked when the warehouse opened might not work today. Or, as seen in the fashion industry, items that were hot last season are forgotten this season. ASRS technology can make those product placement decisions for you because it’s clever enough that it can put fast-moving SKUs at the front so they come out quicker or, in the case of a goods-to-person shuttle, you can put SKUs anywhere in the building because the system can retrieve all SKUs quickly.
Space: ASRS takes advantage of a warehouse’s full height (volume), not just floor area. It doesn’t matter if you have a 1-story building or a 5-story building, ASRS can be stacked vertically using all the space a warehouse has.
SKU allocation: Sometimes called SKU churn, SKUs for products can come, go, or change with astonishing speed. Having ASRS allows warehouses to keep up with businesses that have SKU churn. It also allows warehouses to handle more SKUs. For example, some SKU differences are subtle, like a grocery warehouse that holds both a ketchup brand’s regular ketchup and low salt ketchup. Sometimes the same product will have different SKUs depending on if it’s for an individual e-commerce order or going wholesale to retail store. ASRS knows every SKU and picks accordingly.
Scalability: Because ASRS equipment is built vertically, when a system is installed, it frees up space elsewhere in the warehouse for more systems. This means that ASRS can grow along with the business without having to build a new building or add space to an existing one.
4) Security
The security of a warehouse’s products is also a high priority. However, warehouses without ASRS are vulnerable to products getting damaged, lost, or stolen.
“Once stuff goes into the ASRS, it’s secure,” says Lockhart.
The only time a product comes out of storage is when it’s being picked reducing inventory shrinkage from theft or damage. ASRS also tracks all products, so nothing gets lost.
5) AI Technology
The ASRS industry is making great strides in incorporating machine learning technology, also called AI, into systems so that warehouses can work more efficiently.
“AI is going to make (ASRS) more sophisticated,” Lockhart noted. “AI will give you the ability to be dynamic in almost real time.”
Currently AI in ASRS works best for predictive maintenance. Instead of taking all the equipment offline for routine maintenance every six months, ASRS AI technology will tell you specifically when a piece of equipment needs repair and what that repair is. For example, it can tell you that Shuttle A’s rear sensor is failing or that Crane B’s arm needs maintenance. Single issues can be repaired while the rest of the system continues to operate.
However, as AI continues to improve in speed and computational ability, ASRS’ AI technology can organize a variety of system data points to help with issues like optimal warehouse layouts, scheduling, smart pallet packing, and tracking SKU movements.
Putting all these advantages together leads to the most important ASRS strategic advantage of all:
6) Reduced Costs
“Everything we’ve talked about gives you that ROI,” says Lockhart. “That’s ultimately what you’re trying to do.”
Fewer employees, faster delivery, increased flexibility, high efficiency, stronger security, and useful AI data points all lead to optimal warehouse environments that will reduce costs while increasing value and profits.
“Ultimately,” says Lockhart, “somebody who goes down the automation road is going to get a competitive advantage to somebody who doesn’t … That’s what ASRS allows companies to do, to deliver those things so they aren’t falling behind in the market.”
For more information about the AS/RS group: mhi.org/as-rs
For further articles from the Automated Storage/Retrieval Systems (AS/RS):
As Good as New: Installing ASRS in Existing Warehouses Pays Off Over New Builds
Add it Up: The 5 Calculations of ASRS ROI
How ASRS is Changing the Industry for Better
Act Now to Beat Seasonal Order Picking Peaks: Your Complete Guide to Warehouse Success
Adding Robots to the Cold Chain
March 4 MHI Tech Talk Explores Integrating Racks With Automation
