News Feature | March 13, 2015

Survey Underscores ROI Of Warehouse Technologies

By Ally Kutz, contributing writer

Manufacturing And Warehousing IT News For VARs — January 7, 2014

A survey shows warehouse software solutions including warehouse management systems (WMS), labor management systems (LMS) and voice systems have significant benefits for your IT clients.  

Survey author Steve Banker of Logistics Viewpoints reports 21 percent of respondents to indicate the solutions are the reason for overall improved performance over the past five years. Other areas respondents say use of the software resulted in improvements are perfect order metric (75.9 percent), average warehouse capacity used (63.3 percent), and order cycle time (60 percent).

According to Banker, the various technologies “make picking errors far, far less common.”

Business Solutions cited an Aberdeen Group report that states “companies using voice technology in the warehouse are 1.62 times more likely to achieve pick accuracies of 99 percent or higher than non-voice users.” In addition, voice technology can route employees to their next pick, improving accuracy, and the hands and device-free environment reduces safety risks within the warehouse.

Accidents in warehouses are also seeing a decrease through these technologies.

Banker quotes VP of Industry Strategy at JDA Tom Kozenski who adds turnover decreases. He says WMS provides a fair way to calculate labor performance, and “Workers like the system-directed concepts of a WMS. The WMS tells them where to go, what to do, what to do next … The WMS leads them thru their workday.”

According to principal analyst at LNS Research Mark Davidson in an article for AutomationWorld, LNS Research’s manufacturing operations management survey last year showed the top three objectives related to serving customers better. He says, “In today’s market, customer expectations are higher than they’ve ever been. With the dynamics of supply and demand, unpredictable supplier delivery schedules, and fickle consumer tastes, the manufacturer that can respond the fastest and most efficiently to changes with consistent quality will win.”