What’s more, it could take four operators about one hour each to build their clusters. ACB, which is driven by arti cial intelligence, accelerates the learning curve. One supervisor now spends about 90 minutes creating all four clusters, using the ACB to identify the optimal size and con guration of products. This frees employees’ time and cuts downtime. Using a 3D model of the warehouse, the ACB solution maps out how employees can most ef ciently traverse the space, cutting the distances they travel by about 4% “The solution goes through a shortest-distance calculation and nds the most ef cient picking path,” says Philip Fisher, regional distribution center warehouse manager. Robotics also play a critical role in enhancing ful llment operations. Amazon, for instance, recently launched Sparrow, the rst robotic system in its warehouses that uses AI and computer vision to detect, select, and handle individual items. Plus One Robotics, Kindred, and several other companies have deployed a total of approximately 1,000 such robots globally, says Rueben Scriven, senior analyst at Interact Analysis. However, Amazon’s announcement likely will prompt other companies to implement this technology.
Technology
is also improving the procurement function. CALA, a fashion operating system is improving CALA, operating that that uni es the product creation process within one digital platform, recently announced a partnership with SEKO Logistics, and the launch of a pricing engine that incorporates a total landed cost calculator. “Our advanced pricing calculation system utilizes a proprietary algorithm announced partnership SEKO and the a pricing that incorporates system utilizes proprietary creation within platform,
Robotics are playing a critical role
As supply chain organizations aim to streamline and accelerate ful llment operations, many are turning to technology. Automation can help organizations tackle the labor shortage by taking on routine tasks to free employees for more strategic work, and by making many jobs more appealing. Werner Electric Supply, which offers electrical products and services, recently integrated into its picking process an augmented cluster builder (ACB) solution from Tecsys, a supply chain management solutions provider. “We saw an opportunity to improve productivity and decrease our reliance on staff expertise,” says Mark Mueller, Werner’s regional distribution center continuous improvement team leader. Previously, operators would manually sort and determine which products needed to go to which of Werner’s 10 branches and on which routes. This required extensive product and organizational knowledge, so many new hires needed three to six months to become pro cient.
that leverages a vast amount of data to accurately and consistently determine prices,” says chief executive of cer Andrew Wyatt. The pricing engine is fueled by more than 80,000 data points, including product type, price breakpoints, materials, and origin countries, he adds. To run its calculations, CALA’s engine uses predictive analysis tools that are similar to linear regression. (Predictive analytics makes predictions about future outcomes using historical data combined with statistical modeling, data mining techniques and machine learning.) CALA can break products into their key elements and extrapolate pricing based on the data collected. “This allows us to con dently offer pricing for any item at any scale,” Wyatt says. Even within a single company, the procurement process can require gathering information from multiple areas. In particular, sourcing direct materials has often required a reliance that leverages a vast amount
Automation solutions like Plus One Robotics help mitigate the manual labor shortage and allow workers to focus on high value work rather than monotonous tasks.
96 Inbound Logistics • January 2022
Powered by FlippingBook