Written by: Craig Rother, Solutions Engineering Executive at AHS

As humans, many of us try to improve ourselves every day to become better people. In Business, we must improve every day to be successful and make money. Your distribution center is no different. There are ways to improve your DC to make it smarter, faster, and better. The bottom line, it will help your company stay competitive with the market.

Here is are 4 ways that can help you streamline your processes, save labor, and improve efficiencies in your warehouse or distribution center:

1. Inventory Tracking:

• RFID tags and scanners track where inventory currently resides in the supply chain.
• Sensors in the physical storage locations track when the product is ready for replenishment.
• Scanning drones or other devices autonomously complete cycle counts in physical storage locations.

2. Predictive Analytics:

• AI analyzes sensor data (temperature, vibration, etc.) to accurately predict when maintenance is required on equipment and machinery.
• AI analyzes historical sales data to predict operational volumes allowing managers to plan more effectively.

3. Connected Robotics:

• IoT Robots can assist in order picking as well as other distribution processes. Using AI, these order picking robots can learn the most efficient routes. Coupled with a WES optimization software to ensure robots and humans are where they need to optimize the picking process, users can see tremendous ROI in picking productivity. 

4. Condition Monitoring:

• “Cold chains” and/or pharmaceutical companies can see benefit from end-to-end temperature tracking via IoT sensors to ensure perishables are staying fresh through inbound, storage, and outbound processing.

There are many ways you can make your distribution center smarter. Through AHS’s strategic partnerships, we offer “Smart Distribution” solutions. Our goal is to help companies like yours cut their costs and improve processes.