Warehouse labor constraints continue to plague many companies, impacting production levels and causing delivery delays. With a 49% turnover rate in the sector last year, businesses are straining to attract and retain talent.
Those looking to secure talent should expand their hiring pools and offer potential workers opportunities to learn new skills or advance in their careers, experts say.
Effective inventory management can be an invaluable asset for any organization.
With the right management system, a business can improve inventory visibility, optimize its supply chain and navigate shortages.
A growing number of businesses are using AI to make their inventory management systems even more effective. This is how an AI algorithm can create an ultra-efficient inventory management system.
Once a futuristic vision of what warehouse work could look like, the ergonomic exoskeleton has since begun to make its way into facilities nationwide. These suit-like structures are a mechanical extension of an operator, often wearable and used for assistance in a range of motion.
It is often used as an aid to walking, for example. It can be battery-powered or not; using a small motor or other lift assist technology, it can support muscles used for lifting, providing a push that may avoid pushing a worker’s body past its limits.
Made in China is more than just a label, and it’s been an era in American manufacturing ripe for disruption with looming geopolitical tensions and regional challenges. The latest Covid-driven lockdowns have fueled speculations about the resiliency of supply chains and their ability to bounce back into a pre-pandemic JIT (Just-In-Time) model. With staggering wait times and shortages running headlong into the mounting outcry among consumers, supply chain leaders are asking themselves if there is another way?
Rerouting supply chains is complicated
Outsourcing of manufacturing and logistics processes has empowered the global enterprise to meet the American appetite for years. But now, there’s no silver bullet for fast, cheap, or easy—any of those perks that lured companies in just decades ago. China is known for being a high-quality provider of manufactured goods and supply chain services and organizations have had a challenging time finding comparable outsourcing alternatives poised to produce on the same scale and level. Now, with growing concerns about timeliness, more organizations are reopening searches for a reliable, consistent alternative that’s more predictable for long-term supply chain growth and planning.
What is the most challenging aspect of your job?
Supply chains are the lifeline of any business model. They are either a crucial strategic advantage or an obstacle that stands in the way of success.
The supply chain challenges for companies are growing. Recent global factors like component supplies, the pandemic and global shipping issues have further challenged supply chain leaders and us as a solution provider to find new and innovative ways to adapt and perform. Not only is it hard for them to recruit employees, but they also have to keep up with the greater expectations around choice, convenience, speed and price.
With product moving through the world’s warehouses faster than ever, labor shortages persisting and customer preferences continually changing, more companies are turning to technology for help managing these and other realities. An operational area that’s ripe for improvement, in many cases, the warehouse or DC floor is one place where organizations are applying technology to help eliminate bottlenecks, enhance efficiency and make jobs safer and easier for their employees.
For help on the order-picking front, companies are turning to one of the warehouse’s long-time allies: voice picking. Used in warehouses and DCs worldwide, voice combines real-time communication, interactive voice response and speech synthesis to create a hands-free and eyes-free picking environment.
PwC report into requirements of modern supply chains says uncertainty and disruption means networked connectivity and automation are now all important
A report from PwC concludes that the uncertainties of the modern world mean it's time for organisations to move away from linear-style supply models and towards a digitally driven integrated network.
Battersea Power Station
Though I've never been there, one of my favourite pieces of industrial architecture is the old Battersea Power Station in London. The closest I can think of here is the Huntly Power Station in the north Waikato. I asked if they do tours once but sadly said they don't anymore.
Huntly Power Station
What about warehousing? There are some great examples such as the new Foodstuffs North Island Distribution Centre, but lately there's an emerging trend of fabric warehouse structures.
Foodstuffs North Island Distribution Centre
Easier, cheaper and faster to build, they are seen as a key response to increasing space capacity (along with other measures to deal with current supply chain shortages).
With tension fabric a mainstay of stadium and other civic building design, perhaps fabric warehouses can look similarly compelling one day
Carrara Stadium
Cloud Events Centre
Read on for more warehousing innovations to ongoing shortages.
The American wholesale store giant is due to open its first New Zealand store on Gunton Drive at Westgate in Auckland in September.
For days, customers have queued in chilly conditions for membership, and the wait for some today was up to 90 minutes.
The logistics and warehousing markets are growing and changing fast. For 3PL providers, this change presents some serious opportunities. With the right business strategy, third-party logistics providers can likely secure significant competitive advantages right now.
At the same time, however, 3PL providers that adopt ineffective strategies may fall far behind their competition. As the market continues to adapt to changing consumer preferences and ongoing supply chain disruptions, these strategies will help 3PLs grow and expand their customer base.
By understanding the business conditions that drive complexity you can become proactive, rather than reactive, in your distribution strategy
With over 4500 customers worldwide, the Korber team has successfully delivered solutions that conquer the 5 Drivers of Distribution Complexity:
1. Customer Compliance
2. New Channels
3. New Product Introduction
4. Value Added Warehousing
5. Fuel Optimised Supply Chain
> DOWNLOAD THE WHITEPAPER The 5 Drivers of Distribution Complexity for tips to help you find a system to address your unique warehousing headaches that will increase operational performance and keep pace with an ever-changing business environment
New Zealand’s e-commerce market is projected to reach $12.4 billion by 2025, increasing 38 per cent as consumers prefer alternative payment methods, according to a report by FIS.
Buy now, pay later (BNPL) is the fastest-growing online payment method accounting for 10 per cent of e-commerce transaction value last year. The payment method is estimated to represent 17 per cent of New Zealand’s e-commerce transaction value by 2025, marking the highest share in Asia-Pacific.
Warehouse and DC managers are feeling the pressure of e-commerce growth, high order volumes, as well as deep concerns around labor availability and international supply chain snarls. In response, our survey found that they’re ramping up spending for automation—but also spending more on their labor force to ensure an adequate pool of workers to keep goods flowing.
“The trend is toward more optimism and use of automation,” says Donald Derewecki, a senior consultant with St. Onge, who along with Saenz reviewed the survey findings. “The survey shows that a cross-section of companies of different sizes realize that they have to keep up with automation and information technology to stay competitive.
Hotbeds of activity in any business conditions, warehouses have been getting a lot of attention lately. The uptick in e-commerce sales, ongoing supply chain disruptions and the labor shortage are just a few of the forces exerting extra pressure on global warehouses and distribution centers (DCs) right now.
As mainstays of the supply chain, warehouses depend on technology to help them keep their inner workings running smoothly, quickly and efficiently. For many, a warehouse management system (WMS) is command central—that core machinery needed to make that happen.
In the first part: Impact of hydrogen on logistics Part 1: Road Transportation, we considered truck transportation and the production of hydrogen. But often in logistics, one shipment is completed using multiple modes of transportation. So, we need to look at all transportation options. Furthermore, we should not evaluate transportation options only in terms of time and cost alone, but also in terms of the efficiency and sustainability of the means of transport.
Sure, making logistics processes resource-efficient and environmentally friendly has been the goal of many companies for years – a process that is still ongoing. The most common reasons why companies decide to invest in energy-efficient and environmentally friendly measures include rising energy prices, pressure from stakeholders such as competitors, employees or customers, or political and legal requirements.
Reliable supply chains are the backbone of industry, but they have been repeatedly disrupted in recent months. Companies that keep an eye on technological developments and push ahead with their digitalization find it easier to defy the growing challenges in logistics. INFORM, the optimization specialist from Aachen, Germany, lists the most important things to look out for.
German companies’ supply chains have been under pressure for months and the likelihood of this changing in the short term is rather low. INFORM explains which developments can help make supply chains more robust and sustainable and how they will shape the year of 2022:
Super Retail Group reported first-half results delivering $1.7 billion in revenue, supported by a strong inventory position despite supply chain disruptions.
The strong rebound position in the second quarter saw gross margins lift to 46.7 per cent above pre-Covid levels. The group’s like-for-like sales grew 3.6 per cent in the final 10 weeks, and online sales of the business increased 64 per cent – generating $389 million representing 23 per cent of total group sales.
Online shoppers spent a “staggering” $7.67 billion last year, setting a new record for online spending, the latest New Zealand Post eCommerce Spotlight report says.
But state-owned postal service company has begun preparing for a sustained Omicron outbreak, to ensure parcel deliveries will continue while people are self-isolating.
Many supply chain challenges can be overcome by working more closely with partner companies. Of course, to achieve this, you need to bring suppliers on-side and prove that your suggestions hold water.
There are a number of strategies to follow and arguments to make in this context, so here is a look at a few of the most compelling points to put across when discussing workflow integration with suppliers.
Two large warehouses for food and retail goods worth more than $250 million are to be built south of Auckland as supply chain strategies change to counter the pandemic.
Sorted Logistics and Cardinal Logistics are building the facilities on a 9.8ha site at Drury South Crossing.
Sorted Logistics director Kris Webster said that the "fast moving consumer goods" sector was changing from just-in-time to just-in-case, which was driving demand for storage and distribution facilities.
