The ASRS revolution in the warehouse

Customer demands, from faster shipping throughout the year to consistent order accuracy, are increasing despite the long – and evolving – list of challenges facing warehouses, including reducing costs and increasing productivity in the face of labour shortages and supply chain disruption. To meet these demands, some warehouses are replacing their laborious, manual order fulfilment processes with automated robotic storage and retrieval systems that increase productivity and efficiency, while reducing costs and providing employees with more ergonomic working conditions.

Robotic Automated Storage and Retrieval Systems (ASRS) are no longer an ‘add-on’, and are now becoming essential for businesses to remain competitive now and in the future. This is borne out by projections which estimate that the size of the global market for automated storage and retrieval systems will reach $10.5 billion by 2027.

Companies that fail to implement automated storage and retrieval systems will inexorably face higher costs, reduced productivity and lower customer satisfaction than their automated counterparts. Ultimately, warehouses that do not adopt automated storage and retrieval systems may struggle to remain competitive in a rapidly changing market.

Five warehouse operations tasks transformed by ASRS

Order preparation

Order picking is the most labour-intensive, resource-intensive and costly element of the order fulfilment process in most warehouses. It also has a direct correlation with customer satisfaction by influencing key aspects that customers value, such as order accuracy, speed and stock availability. As a result, order picking is widely regarded as the most crucial aspect of the order fulfilment process and a fundamental element of overall business success.

In manually-operated warehouses, order picking generally involves employees travelling many kilometres every day in search of the goods they have ordered. It also means that they have to bend over and lift loads repeatedly, which can lead to fatigue and injury.

ASRSs, in turn, improve warehouse productivity by reducing the time taken to prepare orders, thereby speeding up order processing and shortening delivery times. They do this by using innovative hardware – including autonomous mobile robots – and warehouse software to transport ordered goods to ergonomic picking stations. From these stations, employees can safely and efficiently transfer ordered goods to the next stage of the fulfilment process, without risking the hazards associated with manual order picking, such as slips, trips and falls that are common when crossing the warehouse. Labour dependency is also reduced, allowing warehouses to allocate employees to higher value-added tasks.

Replenishment of stocks

Like order picking, stock replenishment in manually operated warehouses is usually complex, physically demanding and time-consuming. However, this process can be made more productive and efficient by implementing ASRSs that use robots to move between ergonomic replenishment stations and high-density storage racks. This relieves employees of the most laborious and time-consuming aspects of the process. It’s also a far superior option to relying on shelving that can only be used as high as employees can reach.

These days, optimising the vertical storage capacity of a warehouse is a major concern. Demand for warehouse space in France remains high and shows no signs of declining. In addition, the shift to online shopping during the pandemic has intensified competition for warehouse space. Against this backdrop, ASRS can help free up valuable warehouse space. They do this by maximising the use of vertical space through high-density, high-bay racking. As a result, companies can operate in smaller spaces without having to expand their operations into additional buildings.

Returns

Returns handling has become a common problem, with 20-30% of all online orders being returned (an even higher percentage during the holidays). This process can be labour intensive and increase inventory costs due to its unpredictable nature and slow stock turnover. However, ASRS offers an optimal solution by simplifying the process of sorting and storing returns. For example, the Exotec® Skypod® system uses a Bin Interface, which automates the input and output of 320 bins per hour to and from high-density storage racks. This ensures an efficient flow of goods while significantly reducing the risk of stock mishandling.

Order buffering

Order buffering involves storing completed orders in a storage system for later retrieval. It is a key element in ensuring fast order turnaround times in a wide variety of sectors, including food suppliers, manufacturing, healthcare, 3PLs and retail.

Exotec’s Skypod system enables companies to buffer orders efficiently by transporting completed orders from stations to bin interfaces via a modular conveyor system called Skypath®. As with stock replenishment, the bin interface ensures an efficient flow of 320 bins per hour in and out of the warehouse. Outgoing completed orders are sent from the bin interface to the Skypath conveyor and on to the next stages of the order fulfilment process.

Inventory tracking and accuracy

ASRS improves order accuracy by reducing the risk of human error. Intuitive workstation interfaces and tools such as pick-to-light and put-to-light provide employees with more predictable and manageable working environments than searching for ordered goods in endless rows of shelves.

With intelligent software, inventory information can be tracked throughout the system, providing on-demand access to accurate and easily analysed data. This data can be used to quickly and accurately convey a wealth of relevant information to managers, enabling them to make better, more informed inventory decisions.

Transform your warehouse for the future, today

With the complex challenges facing modern warehouses, finding ways to get the job done faster and more efficiently is crucial to success. Exotec’s Skypod system can help you transform the most fundamental aspects of your warehouse with elegant robotic people storage solutions.

The Skypod system is fully modular, enabling customers to deploy it in a matter of weeks and easily expand it without interrupting production by simply adding robots, stations or racks. More than 30 leading brands, including Carrefour, Decathlon, Gap and Uniqlo, rely on Exotec to improve their operations and cost-effectively navigate rapidly changing business models while meeting customer expectations.

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