Blog
What are the difficulties in transforming traditional warehouses into automated warehouses?
2021-11-18 17:26
Automated warehouse, also known as automatic access warehouse, refers to a system that can automatically store and remove materials without direct manual processing. It is widely used in machinery, home appliances, automobiles, food, tobacco and other industries. Automated warehouse is a product after World War II, initially only in the United States, and gradually developed to Japan and Europe. Until now automated warehouse in our country began to spread, the major enterprises want to convert the warehouse into automated warehouse, in order to save costs.
Amazon, Wal-Mart, Nike and some other domestic foreign-funded enterprises, their warehouses are automated, automated warehouses brought convenience for many enterprises to follow suit, but in fact to decide whether a warehouse to be automated by many factors, so what are the factors affecting the implementation of warehouse automation?
After a long period of experience accumulation and summary, the factors affecting the implementation of warehouse automation can be summarized as the following 9 points:
1. Cost
Labor costs are relatively low, equipment investment is huge, and investors are more willing to get high returns with low investment. Foxconn, which last year chanted to fully launch robots instead of artificial manufacturing, also suspended its "robot army preparation plan".
2, the company size and storage volume.
If the size of the company and the amount of storage can not reach a certain level, a large number of purchases of automation equipment and professional management personnel will lead to waste of investment; so such as Nike, Wal-Mart and other large market share and stable business enterprises, automation is a relatively better choice.
3, Experience and Awareness of Decision Makers
If the company's management does not have a comprehensive understanding and grasp of the advantages brought by automation, it is difficult to promote the implementation of automation within the company. Especially for manufacturing enterprises, the main work place is in the production line, and the warehouse (raw material warehouse, finished product warehouse) usually receives little attention. Even if attention is paid, it is generally in the direction of speeding up turnover and reducing the area. Naturally, the necessity of automatic investment is not given priority.
4. Industry characteristics
For example, tobacco, alcohol, beverages, medicine, automobiles, clothing and other industries, packaging is relatively single or standard, large consumption of fast-moving consumer goods or a single finished product with higher added value, the implementation of automation brings greater benefits, small batches of multiple varieties, customized products such as irregular packaging size are more suitable for artificial operation.
5. Uncertainties in the future
Automation equipment is a fixed asset with huge investment. If the forecast for the future is inaccurate and the quantity of storage orders declines, it will inevitably lead to waste of project investment, an increase in the quantity of storage orders, and the scale of equipment is too small to meet the needs. It will directly face a larger amount of automation expansion expenditure. Compared with the flexibility that labor can come and go as soon as it is called, the advantage is not obvious.
6, the company's existing links of the system.
Order systems, inventory management systems, conveyor systems, forklift navigation systems, etc. and their data exchange network connections, including whether signal strength (especially under pressure) can always maintain real-time transparency, and emergency plans. Whether it is possible to strategically foresee the future long-term environmental patterns and strategies in the current production environment and requirements, the tolerance of the load-bearing/size of the conveying system, the handling of reverse logistics, the upgrading space of the system, etc., all test the designers and implementers.
Some people have visited a private enterprise logistics center that uses AS/RS. This set of equipment is tens of millions. The boss is using analog video to show you the degree of automation of his storage center. He feels that the enterprise is "not short of money, but quite rich." However, after walking around, the actual situation is very different. The equipment is really advanced. The picking is automatic and fast. For bulk cargo that needs to be unpacked, the workers and equipment cooperate well. However, the trucks of the freight company can't keep up with each other and the delivery dock is very few. The picked goods are piled up in the delivery area. The equipment has to stop and the workers can only wait for loading while chatting, therefore, automation equipment cannot be allowed to rise suddenly on a certain beat of the warehouse, and the rhythm balance of the entire warehouse is also very important.
7. Facilities and equipment management capability and supplier management capability
Such as response time, service costs, coordination and coordination. The more automated the library, the more potential bottlenecks there will be. Compared with the regular maintenance that usually only requires the construction manufacturer, daily preventive measures and testing have become necessary homework. At present, the ability and range of options of such service providers in China will also become a challenge.
8. Personnel training, maintenance and discipline enforcement
Automation is a double-edged sword: on the one hand, it requires trained skilled hands to operate, on the other hand, it requires people to make repeated mechanical actions, and requires people to have the same frequency and range as machines when operating. Judging from the characteristics of the post-90s labor force, finding a suitable operation team is a big challenge for managers.
9. Awareness of safety
Mature and established enterprises in Europe and the United States believe that "safety" is always the first consideration in the storage center. Some domestic European and American enterprises, even if the calculated return on investment is very ugly, some multinational enterprises set up storage centers in China, no matter how much they design or operate, they will bring the shadow of the warehouses of foreign headquarters, referring to the design standards and requirements of their global storage centers. For example, Nike's logistics center design in Taicang was designed according to LEED green standards, and also obtained platinum certification. The return on investment "takes a back line" in front of safety ".
To sum up, the nine points mentioned above are the main reasons that restrict the transformation from traditional warehouses to automated warehouses. When each enterprise restores the automated warehouse, it is necessary to judge whether there are sufficient mature conditions for warehouse transformation according to its own actual situation.
Latest recommend
Contact Us
Headquarters Address: 1801, Floor 18, Building 6, Jiayue Plaza, Yard 9, Hongye Road, Daxing District, Beijing
Hotline:139-1033-6413
Contact E-mail:lixiulan@jwrack.com
Get in touch with our team in time and be happy to help you
COOKIES
Our website uses cookies and similar technologies to personalize the advertising shown to you and to help you get the best experience on our website. For more information, see our Privacy & Cookie Policy
COOKIES
Our website uses cookies and similar technologies to personalize the advertising shown to you and to help you get the best experience on our website. For more information, see our Privacy & Cookie Policy
These cookies are necessary for basic functions such as payment. Standard cookies cannot be turned off and do not store any of your information.
These cookies collect information, such as how many people are using our site or which pages are popular, to help us improve the customer experience. Turning these cookies off will mean we can't collect information to improve your experience.
These cookies enable the website to provide enhanced functionality and personalization. They may be set by us or by third-party providers whose services we have added to our pages. If you do not allow these cookies, some or all of these services may not function properly.
These cookies help us understand what you are interested in so that we can show you relevant advertising on other websites. Turning these cookies off will mean we are unable to show you any personalized advertising.