Every company approaches automation differently. Some fill their distribution centers with high-tech goods-to-person systems, autonomous vehicles, and robots that imitate human abilities, while others don’t even use simple barcode scanners.

If you haven’t dabbled much with automation yet, no worries; you can improve your processes gradually to create a delivery experience that outshines the competition. Kevin Gaul, product manager at RF-SMART, explains how to get started.

What does the ideal warehouse look like? According to Kevin, the answer is different for every organization.

He says, “There is no ideal warehouse. The same solution that works really well for commoditized CPG is not the same solution that's going to work well for very fragile, one-off, niche items, which is not the same solution that's going to work for the healthcare vertical.”

Kevin recommends automating your shipping first and foremost. He gives two reasons:

• Cost savings. “Shipping costs are going to eat almost all of your other costs bar none. So you're going to get a much bigger return on your time and technology investment [with shipping automation].”
• Delivery experience. “Shipping … is your last opportunity to touch your customer before you let that package out into the universe … and put it in the hands of whoever your elected carrier is.”

Leaders, take note: to truly understand how your facilities operate and what automation tools you need, you should spend time observing how things work in the warehouse.

Kevin points out, “All too often … shipping automation projects … are done from offices, from conference rooms, from on high. And yes, that's one of the cardinal sins of product management, but it's certainly one of the cardinal sins of warehouse management too. So the moral of the story here is get out, spend time on the floor.”

• Connect with Kevin on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kevin-gaul-14166a41/
• Visit RF-SMART’s website: https://www.rfsmart.com/