Thoughts, Articles, and Outlooks on the Industry

Modern warehouses and distribution centers do what warehouses have done for millennia – receive, store, process, and ship goods. For thousands of years, these jobs were done without automation – unless you consider automation to include the wheel and pulley. Still today, warehouses aren’t required to be automated – all of their primary jobs can be done without it. Of…

Ours is a trying time for technophobes, and for them the future must look bleak. For technophiles, on the other hand, everyday must be like Christmas. The world has embraced computers and automation, and our contact with them is becoming increasingly intimate and subtle. They are in our purses and our pockets, on our wrists, and even in our shoes.…

What are robotic palletizers? Robotic palletizing systems automate the process of stacking product onto pallets. They can also be programmed to depalletize – an essential part of many production lines. Robotic palletizers solve some issues that their older counterpart – conventional palletizers – could not. Conventional palletizers have been around for more than half a century. They consist of a…

What is an Automated Storage and Retrieval System? At its most basic, an Automated Storage and Retrieval System (abbreviated AS/RS or ASRS) consists of an automated Storage and Retrieval Machine (SRM), a storage area, and computer controllers that both archive product data and guide the system. AS/RSs date back to the 1960’s and were designed for large and heavy loads.…

What is an automated guided vehicle? Automated guided vehicles (AGVs) are, put simply, driverless vehicles used to move material. They can look very much like traditional forklifts, though they may lack a cockpit. Depending on the application, they can also take less traditional shapes. Low-profile AGVs may look like industrial Roombas and move material by jacking up shelving from below.…

Data management systems enable all of the complex parts of a warehouse, distribution center, or manufacturer to work together. As important as they are, they are unseen, and perceived as mysterious forces. To understand them, consider an analogy to an ant colony. Ants all have different jobs – hunting, building, and defending the colony, to name a few. Ants perform…

What is storage and picking automation? Too often, order fulfillment facilities and systems aren’t upgraded because of the industry myth that the often publicized and expensive automated storage and retrieval systems (AS/RSs) are the only way to automate picking processes in competitive markets. However, warehouse automation can be any upgrade to a paper-based order fulfillment system. Automated picking can mean…