Automated Microfulfillment Solutions

Consumers want to be able to order goods online, and when they do they prefer to have options in how and when their goods are picked up or delivered. Microfulfillment solutions are enabling stores to meet these often competing needs.

Microfulfillment allows stores to offer curbside pickup in under an hour or to deliver goods the same day. It does this by maximizing efficiencies in both the storage and retrieval of merchandise. Instead of the labor-intensive and mistake-prone process of having employees manually pick goods from the sales floor, microfulfillment uses automated systems like vertical lift modules to store goods in the densest possible configurations and retrieve them

Microfulfillment operations are usually defined as being between 10,000 and 45,000 square feet. Anything smaller might be considered a nanofulfillment solution, and anything larger has operations that are better controlled by traditional warehousing solutions.

Microfulfillment enables companies to maximize the use of space. As more and more commerce shifts to online markets, traditional stores are either adapting to the changing landscape or closing their doors. Stores built decades ago, that find themselves with space they aren’t using as their consumers shift to the internet, can reclaim that territory by developing an omni-channel business model that gives consumers the options and delivery speeds they want.

At the same time, startups that lack warehouse space or that are looking for innovative business models can look to convert under-utilized real estate. Instead of investing multi-millions of dollars in expansive warehousing space and all of the robotics required to enable it, more affordable, primely situated space can be found and its throughput maximized.

The proverbial last-mile – the distance between a distribution center and a delivery point – accounts for over half of the cost of delivering goods. Missed delivery windows, inadequate routing, long distances between stops in rural areas, and heavy traffic in cities are just a few of the issues that plague the final delivery.

While they don’t completely solve the last mile challenge in logistics, microfulfillment solutions do address many of its pain points. They are small and affordable enough to be located near the end user. In many use-cases, they give consumers the option to pick up their goods on-site instead of having them delivered. And they give consumers better visibility into where in the fulfillment process their purchase is.

Microfulfillment creates a more agile, increasingly distributed logistics solution that puts merchandise near the consumer so that orders can be delivered, or picked up on-site, in as little as an hour.

Established retailers can designate part of their square footage to micro fulfillment solutions that can automatically pick and process orders for local customers. And startups can use software with predictive modeling to forecast and keep stocked the goods consumers will want, so that their operations remain lean and flexible.

Microfulfillment solutions can be incorporated into a facility’s existing space in a way that optimizes its use. More SKUs stored more densely and retrieved automatically means that space can once again be dedicated to shoppers without the need for picking operations to happen in the same space.

Microfulfillment solutions are modular and flexible, and easily scale with an operation’s changing needs. Capacity can be increased and expanded so that fulfillment operations are aligned with consumer expectations.

Microfulfillment solutions are designed for urban areas, either to occupy part of an existing retail store or to reclaim underutilized real estate in dark stores. With increasing rates of urbanization, and increased demand for fast delivery, having solutions that can meet the needs of today and scale with the needs of tomorrow is key to economical growth.

In order to maximize the use of space while staying accurate, smart storage and retrieval solutions are needed. Manual slotting and picking is too inefficient and error prone, and to accommodate the necessary speeds and precision for microfulfillment, companies need innovative, automated solutions.

A key to accurate slotting and picking in the densest possible configurations is the software used to synchronize the operation’s equipment and processes. Warehouse management software can direct orders to be picked in a way that minimizes wasted motion and maximizes the use of resources.

One goal of microfulfillment is to meet the need of getting goods to consumers as quickly as possible by maximizing the use of underutilized space. By incorporating microfulfillment solutions into existing operations, stores can meet consumers where they are at, while also fulfilling their expectation for fast online processing.