WAREHOUSING, HANDLING & STORAGE
FIVE KEY TRENDS IN SMART WAREHOUSING FOR 2021 AND BEYOND
By Tim Wright, managing director of Invar Systems 2
020 was a year like no other. So what are the implications for warehousing and fulfilment in 2021? Tim Wright, managing director of Invar Systems looks to the future of the smart warehouse. Here are five key trends.
1. THE ECOMMERCE DILEMMA AND MICRO-FULFILMENT CENTRES Ecommerce has boomed during the pandemic, but what will happen when restrictions are lifted? Will shoppers return to the high street in the same numbers? Retail’s dilemma over where to invest, or how to best serve the customer whilst leveraging advantage from real estate commitments, is likely to result in the rise of micro-fulfilment centres. These will be small, highly automated facilities placed within urban areas, close to the customer, and may well be located within existing retail stores. Low-cost, scalable automation will allow the retailer to be far more responsive to customer demand, facilitating rapid two-three hour home delivery or pick-up. Similarly, micro-automated facilities for consolidating parcel deliveries are being planned by carriers or municipal authorities to rationalise ‘last mile’ deliveries in urban areas. These local consolidation hubs will require close collaboration between stakeholders, but would enable customers to pick-up a number of parcels ordered from different retailers using a pin-code at an ‘ATM’ style service point. Rising environmental concerns over clean air and congestion will drive a radical transformation of urban logistics. Micro-fulfilment technology is set to accelerate in 2021 as it can be easily replicated and deployed as a network solution.
2. AGILITY, RESILIENCE AND SPACE After the shocks of 2020, large retailers and manufactures will be looking to build greater resilience into their supply chains by sourcing from a broader base of suppliers, many of which may be much smaller, more local businesses. These suppliers will need to adopt systems and agile processes that allow them to perform to the exacting standards
26 FEBRUARY 2021 | FACTORY&HANDLINGSOLUTIONS
demanded by large retail clients. For many, this will mean upgrading warehouse management systems and creating agility through the use of flexible and scalable automation.
Creating resilience inevitably also means holding more stock, which translates into needing more warehousing. Pressure on available warehouse space due to Covid-19, Brexit and the inexorable rise of ecommerce will be a major issue for businesses in 2021 and beyond. A 2020 report published in the autumn by estate agents, Knight Frank, predicts that a rise of online retail sales will drive demand for 92 million sq ft of UK warehouse space by 2024. Getting the maximum use of the cube will be an imperative; so careful warehouse planning and the intelligent use of automation could provide a cost-effective solution to finding more space in an existing facility. Businesses will need to design automation cleverly for peak, allowing for scalability, and invest in low-CapEx projects that create value immediately – as opposed to focusing on large-scale projects that deliver over a protracted period.
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Creating resilience inevitably also means holding more stock, which translates into needing more warehousing
3. DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION
A business’ competitiveness depends on its access to, and analysis of, critical data. And smart business will be developing smart warehouses where robots, pickers, packaging machines and sorters are seamlessly integrated to produce, not only optimum performance, but valuable data that is shared in real-time with wider systems in order to deliver competitive advantage. Warehouses and fulfilment centres will become more integrated, more
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