Industrial Automation Magazine India

With ever increasing scale of operations, there are limits to human capacity

Published on : Sunday 05-05-2024

Purushottam Tatkar, Head of Contract Manufacturing IMEA, Henkel.

What are some of the latest advancements in material handling technology that have significantly improved efficiency in warehouse operations?

Buzzwords of various technological tools for warehousing have already started finding a physical place in warehouses for real time implementation now. The latest ones like automated guided vehicles, AI enabled warehouse management systems, drone technology for stock take management, AI warehouse simulation software tools, IoT based sensors tracking real time inventories and equipment status, receipt process through hand held device scanners and real time system entries through tablets are few to name. Warehouses are becoming Industry 4.0 compliant with the help of various above tools. These tools have made warehouses not only smart but efficient, agile and accurate as well.

To cite an example, the use of technology for the receipt process has significantly improved truck turnaround time for many huge scale warehouses.

Automated storage and retrieval systems have also started finding real time implementation showing positive RoIs.

Overall when warehouse automation is driven with right vision, it positively contributes to various warehouse indicators like throughput, labour productivity, safety parameters, cost per tonne of storage, various turn around time indicators, inventory accuracy, etc. But the biggest caution is automation needs to be driven with vision, solid pre-analysis, change management and most importantly, people skill development, to realise benefits shown on business case documents in reality. 

Can you provide examples of how optimising warehouse layout and flow paths can enhance material handling efficiency?

Warehouse simulation software applications have become very handy to design efficient warehouses for all movements and storage scenarios. These tools simulate to a large extent the expected bottlenecks for throughout expectations of the proposed warehouse. These software tools very nicely and with a data driven way highlight potential traffic and cross movements. Certain decisions related to civil infrastructure cannot be changed later without huge cost implications. This is where simulation comes very handy. In my personal experience we change a number of docks for proposed warehouse based on simulation, which otherwise would have become huge bottleneck for real operation.

The right planning for holding, pre-batching, preparation areas considering throughput and flow expectations is possible with the help of automation. This ultimately helps achieve cost and efficiency targets set for the warehouse.

How do automated storage and retrieval systems (AS/RS) contribute to space utilisation and productivity within warehouses?

AS/RS systems significantly reduce the footprint requirements of the warehouse accommodating almost 100% more pallet positions in the same land footprint. AS/RS also significantly reduce civil construction costs by way of utilising clad-rack kind of structures. Due to no human interference in the physical movement, pallet throughput can be significantly enhanced, ultimately helping warehouse throughput. But AS/RS systems also come with risk of downtime challenges if the service provider is not strongly capable or equipment is not well commissioned. This risk can easily blow away the benefits of efficiency gains of automation.

What strategies do companies employ to integrate material handling equipment with inventory management systems for better tracking and control of stock levels?

Use of Automated Guided Vehicles (AGVs) has already started making in-roads in mammoth warehouses. Many 3PLs now operate mega warehouse spaces and deploy automation solutions beyond manually operated pallet trucks to keep the speed of operation. Unless these automated vehicles are linked to WMS systems providing real time commands for the tasks, operations can never achieve required speed, efficiency and intelligence.

The biggest challenge of achieving RoIs in all these automations lies in achieving maximum utilisation delivering peak output and savings.

In your experience, how does the integration of robotics and automation impact labour efficiency and overall operational costs in warehousing?

Labour and automation for me is never OR option like labour losing at expense of automation. It is rather AND situation where labour and automation go hand in hand. Automation of the warehouses is significantly helping improve labour productivity, safety and quality of the job. With ever increasing scale of operations, there are limits to human capacity. This is where automation comes in as support to help labour. It is imperative for management from a social obligation perspective to provide a working environment for human capital which is safe, health focussed, not stressful as well as physically over demanding. Automation helps deliver such obligations for the human workforce for management. With proper skill development initiatives, skill levels for labour are improved which in turn will improve job satisfaction and employee engagement as well.

When the right balance of automation and manual intervention is defined, warehouse costs are at lowest level achieving highest deliverables. Warehouse cost becomes a problem only when either automation or manpower deployment is reckless without recognising their interdependencies.

What are some key safety considerations and best practices in material handling and warehouse operations, particularly when implementing automated systems?

Safety aspects are of paramount importance in selection of any automation system. Any warehouse operation is a high risk operation considering various hazards each activity carries inherently like fall, collision, spillage, wrong chemical compatibility, etc. Each hazard has the potential to inflict human injuries. Therefore it is imperative that interlocks and safety measures are well thought through in both hardware as well as software for automation. This can be achieved only when safety is considered as an important top priority right from the design stage. Risk assessments and FMEAs are required to be done for each process step and based on risk priority numbers mitigation actions need to be defined and implemented thoroughly.

Right balance of hardware and software measures need to be incorporated as mitigation actions. For example, chemical storages; chemical compatibility of storage of materials is super important which can not be left to human decision making. In case of automated warehouses, software can be built with inbuilt programs which will assign locations only based on chemical compatibility based on surrounding already stored materials.

Another example would be use of AI for location allocation to material based on FMS classifications, which reduce time to retrieve fast moving materials and improve warehouse throughputs.

(The views expressed in interviews are personal, not necessarily of the organisations represented.)

Purushottam Tatkar is a Supply Chain and operations leader with experience in all supply chain functions ranging from operational level to strategic level in various multinational companies. Key skills are S&OP, Demand Planning, Supply Chain Modeling, Procurement, Logistics, Warehousing & Distribution, Production Planning and Control as well as team management and leadership.

Purushottam has strong experience of handling supply chain teams to effectively manage operations at the same bringing in long term improvements raising overall supply chain standards to next level. He aspires to reach highest level in General Management through Supply chain route in a progressive organisation by utilising his skills and competencies

Specialties: Demand Planning, supply planning, contract manufacturing Procurement, Logistics, Supply Chain Modeling, supplier and Customer relationship management, Warehousing, Budgeting, Production Planning and Control, Team Management, delivering results.

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