Automating Fulfillment
Automation is the way of tomorrow, but how does it fit into your business' fulfillment strategy today?
Before we answer this question, let's first refresh on what a fulfillment center is.
In the not-so-distant past, fulfillment centers included a warehouse fueled by human workforces unloading containers, organizing inventories on shelves, packing orders received online and shipping them out for delivery.
Many eCommerce merchants who don't have the physical space to store and ship products depend on this service as a lifeline for their growing businesses.
Top Benefits of an Automated Distribution Center
After several years of improvements in shipping and logistics technology, many businesses are now changing to automated storage and retrieval systems for the benefit-rich opportunities they provide to brands and customers everywhere.
An automated fulfillment center significantly reduces order processing times by replacing human material-handling with a fully-automated system instead.
Beyond lowering operational costs, updating from a manual to automated fulfillment system significantly improves the accuracy, efficiency, and productivity.
The below statistics further articulate the powerful benefits automated technologies offer your business:
- When operations upgrade their pick/inventory systems from paper-and-pencil to a more integrated form of order processing, they enjoy on average a 25% gain in overall productivity, a 10-20% gain in space use, and 15-30% more efficient use of stock.[1]
- The average order picker can pick between 60 to 80 picks per hour, compared to a pick rate of up to 300 picks per hour when leveraging sorters and conveyors.[2]
- Automated Storage and Retrieval Systems (AS/RS) have the potential to increase order accuracy levels to above 99.99%.[3]
EasyPost's automated fulfillment services bundle together a suite of customizable solutions designed to lower operating costs and increase output.
This means reducing the amount of time between customers completing orders on your website to placing products on a truck for delivery.
We enable businesses to meet their supply and demand needs through our tech-focused distribution centers spread across the country.
Interested in learning what you could be saving? Click below to get a quote.
[1] Essential of Supply Chain Management (PDF)
[2] The Trend Towards Warehouse Automation (PDF)
[3] Automated Storage/Retrieval Systems (ASRS)
About the Author
Paul Vinuelas is the Chief Logistics Officer at EasyPost
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