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Lean practitioners are probably aware of the “Water Spider” which is an important role on the floor of the manufacturing shop. And you may also know that it, like many other lean terms like “Kanban,” “Gemba” and “Kaizen,” it originates from the Japanese language, where lean got its start.

Despite the fact that ‘Sophia’, a humanoid robot, was granted citizenship by Saudi Arabia and the growing fear and trepidation among retail and warehouse workers in the past decade, the integration of robotics and automation into warehouse processes is hardly the job “Robot Job Stealing Apocalypse” it has been made out to be.

The most essential core component of any good warehouse efficiency strategy begins and ends with quality control. Your team may not be responsible for the quality of the products you deliver, or for the commitment to customer satisfaction that comes from products, but they are just as responsible as the manufacturer when it comes to the quality of their work. Each product is handled by your team as it passes through your distribution center on their way to retailers, consumers, or to another destination.

There is nothing quite as satisfying in a distribution center as a well-balanced inventory. Orders arrive, orders are shipped, and your fulfillment and delivery flows consistently like the tides. Inventory does not become overstock to take up space and have a negative impact on cash flow. With excellent inventory control, being out of stock of any item is a rare occasion.

Sadly, the perfectly balanced inventory is somewhat of a Zen-like ideal: The moment you identify the inventory as ‘balanced’, it morphs. The best you can do to manage the factors that affect inventory to control overstock or short-stocked items on the warehouse floor.

With some careful planning and a few deft adjustments to inventory management processes, you eventually establish a balance that you can maintain.

How can this be accomplished?

I’ve been a business owner in the warehousing industry for more than a decade now, and the labor shortage issue has never been more prevalent.

At the beginning of the year there was more than 12.5 billion square feet of industrial space across the U.S., and this will only grow as an excess of 200 million square feet is currently under construction. Add to that the growth in ecommerce, which is expected to grow to $4 trillion by 2020. As warehouses grow and expand, the need for workers becomes increasingly critical. But who's going to do the work if your business is not ready to heavily invest in automation and robotics?

How well does your receiving process flow? Where is your warehouse at its strongest and what needs improvement?

Today we want to share four processes that include common shipping and receiving actions found in most businesses. We break down into three rating tiers:

• Marginal
• Average
• Oustanding

I often see areas of inventory which have no visibility in a system due to poor processes. For example, inbound goods sitting in trucks is very common.  When a formal receiving schedule does not exist, it is easy to get variances in arrival times. Consider these scenarios when inventory can become invisible:

"That Looks Cool! Wonder How I Can Use It?"

For the true gadget lovers, we have the experience of being in a store full of gadgets and machines and occasionally see something that compels us to say, "I am not sure what it is, but how can I find a way to use it?"

If you haven't seen one yet, dimensional scanners definitely fall into that category. No one will be surprised if a true distribution center process nerd brings it home one day for personal use. 

What is a "Dimensional Scanner"?

A dimensional scanner is a specialized equipment that will scan and record the dimensions of an object - of any shape. When paired with a scale, the complete shape, weight and dimensions of any product can be recorded to a database and be the source of efficiency in multiple areas of the business.

...but how can we use a dimensional scanner?

There has been much written about finding and retaining happy warehouse workers. These issues are not going away as eCommerce is expected to grow.  But, who is going to do the work? It has never been more important to have the right equipment which includes an advanced warehouse cart with portable power.

It's a common challenge during peak Holiday season. Every year, thousands for warehouses across the world ramp up for an explosion of shipping that challenges even the most sophisticated warehouse managers. By some estimates, Catalog and E-Commerce businesses generate nearly 60% of their annual sales in the last four months of the calendar alone.

One common "challenge," which might be considered a "good problem to have" is the "hit product" where there are hundreds or even thousands of orders every day for a single product that everyone wants...or wants to give as a gift. When there are so many single-item orders for the same item like this, it seems wasteful to run all of them through the standard picking, sorting and packing process that a typical order would go through.