As the labor shortage is being felt by industries across the nation, warehousing and distribution face a unique risk as any disruptions could cause shockwaves through the nation’s supply chain. Fortunately, the right technology solution can mitigate these risks by reducing the costs and time required to train new employees, and increase the efficiency of the workforce.
If you are already feeling the crunch as positions remain unfilled, or if you are simply interested in preparing for the future, understanding how the right tools can make 1 + 1 = 3 will help keep your operation running smoothly regardless of the current or any future labor situation.
More Technology Information means Better Choices
Adding additional automation to your warehouse will give you the ability to decide which picking, packing, and storage methods are the best choice for your facility. This goes beyond optimizing inventory placement and routing, advanced solutions can even determine the strongest members of your team. Taking into account factors like skill levels, proximity to the task, and workload, automation can assign tasks to each team member and boost efficiency.
Many warehouse managers are already leveraging technology to decrease the skill requirements of jobs to reduce training times and turnover costs. Many devices have their own onboarding software included for training new users without having to commit other personnel to the process.
Leveraging the Internet of Things
The Internet of Things (IoT) is revolutionizing warehousing and logistics. Long gone are the days of pen and paper tracking. IoT makes it possible to have real-time tracking, accurate visibility into your inventories’ big picture, and the location of every item through the supply chain.
Those at the forefront of this leap forward are already using active and passive RFID tags to increase the amount of product data that can be accessed remotely. This technology allows warehouse operators to know where their inventory is and where it is going in real-time. This location tracking is improving the speed of order processing by leaps and bounds as it secures reliability to planning.
Add Resiliency to Your Workforce
After the strains and stress put on the supply chain throughout 2020, everyone is talking about adding resiliency. But adding resilience to your procurement, transportation, or even storage will not mitigate the devastation caused by a lack of personnel. Having a technology solution in place that increases the efficiency of every employee, reduces training time, and cuts down on the effects of turnover might just be the wisest layer of resiliency you could add this quarter.
Don’t wait for the labor shortage to begin affecting you to take the appropriate action. Update and upgrade your technology now so you can keep operating smoothly as your competition shudders.
Contact us online or call OCR Canada at (800)853-7226 to start modernizing your operations and prevent the next disruption from impacting your operations.