Warehouses are seeing spikes in traffic with instant online access. They need the ability to run with the trends and automate their manual warehouse management processes. On top of that, a global pandemic has disturbed the supply-chain industry, re-emphasized its importance, and created entirely new goals and outlooks for years to come. Is your warehouse ready for these new challenges? Below are 6 trends that you should be aware of.

6 Warehouse Management Trends:

1. AI: Continued focus on Artificial Intelligence (AI) Automation has been a trend in almost all industries for some time now. Automatic visual inspection of process decision-points is the great frontier of process control. Stronger artificial intelligence can save a large amount of time and helps with issues caused by human error, thus making the operations and product quality/safety more accurate and efficient.

2. Telemetry: Warehouse telemetry is also a trending data collection solution currently. This sensor data collection tool is used to collect automated signals and potentially use them to trigger transaction processes on the shop-floor. Otherwise, as a stand-alone sensor value collector, it is invaluable in monitoring a shop-floor without the need for a user.

Telemetry service-based software can collect and record sensor and telemetry data across a series of networked devices to automate routine environmental data collection, provide better data fidelity and free employees to complete more valuable tasks. It helps provide and supplement trend-analysis, log sinks, and alerts.

3. Analytics: With the development of powerful, budget friendlier, data analytics solutions adding and upgrading data collection and tracking tools have become an important warehouse management trend. For a warehouse to run effectively, it has to fully utilize big data to know how their processes are working and how to improve them. Advancements with these solutions allow more insights into their business as well as boosting predictive analytics.

4. Blockchain: Adoption of blockchain, local and enterprise visibility across all aspects of the supply chain has become a very important trend. Also, the price points for these solutions have become much more affordable to the smaller warehouses making them an attractive solution.

Simply put, the primary use of blockchain has been to improve transparency. Its applications can be used in a variety of industry solutions and can streamline how processes work linking them all together in a way that makes sense to an organization.

5. Robotics: Because of the current pandemic workforce challenges, robotic automation is a growing trend in warehouse technology. Any operator reliant machinery can be reduced without the employee issues and lack of talent pool. Companies are looking to robotics and how their processing, data collection and reporting will enhance their warehouse performance.

6. Paperless: Going green is a popular trend for warehouses that are investing in technology. They are embracing digital data collection in an effort to eliminate paper and time waste. Being digital can save a company a ton of money and make a drastic impact on the earth by eliminating the amount of paper used and thrown away. Speed and efficiency are some strong byproducts of this trend as well. Going green can actually enhance the bottom line.

Don’t Get Left Behind

As technologies in the warehouse continue to grow and become more advanced, we will see many of these trends and more. Coolearth’s Warehouse Management Solutions continue to keep up with the ever-changing market and have done so for over 20 years. Also, Coolearth can integrate with pretty much any ERP allowing you to focus on improving processes and speeding up shipments. A win-win partnership.

Coolearth solutions automate manual processes and also enable centralized control and visibility of all warehousing procedures. We help a company’s warehouse to realize their potential to be transformed from a cost center to a growth center. For more information and a tailored demonstration of our suite of solutions contact us at Coolearth Software.