White Paper Downloads

12 Factors Driving Food and Beverage Warehouse Automation

This white paper identifies 12 factors - from bio-mechanical injuries and harsh working environments to space utilization and strategy for slow movers - which are driving the need to increase the use of automated systems.

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A Comparison of Rack-Supported vs. Conventional Buildings

The decision to construct a new warehouse often includes endless hours devoted to site selection and the type of material handling equipment and technology to be used to support the new facility. Often, it becomes a foregone conclusion that the facility will be a steel frame structure with freestanding rack. This conclusion, however, deserves greater debate.

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Applying Warehouse Management Technology Within A Manufacturing Environment

Today's modern supply chain typically focuses the application of Warehouse Management Systems (WMS) technology on the automation of the outbound finished goods process. Industry leaders, however, have realized significant returns by applying that same WMS technology to more efficiently and accurately manage the inbound flow of raw materials through the manufacturing process.

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ARC Advisory Group: A New Generation of Conveyors

A new generation of conveyors has arrived. These conveyors handle greater dimensional and weight diversity, maintain a user-selectable spacing (which has numerous advantages), and are more flexible. These new conveyors have added importance because logistics personnel are in an environment where they are seeing increased SKU proliferation; the growth of the direct to consumer channel; and increasing demand for more frequent but smaller shipments.

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ARC Advisory Group: Mastering Flow Through

Manufacturers, distributors, and retailers talk a lot about Flow Through but few practice it. Flow Through (also known as Crossdocking) involves flowing goods directly from receiving to shipping without the laborwasting steps of putting the goods away and later picking them. SAKS Inc. is one company that has mastered this advanced logistics process.

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ARC Advisory Group: Voice in the Warehouse

Voice Recognition is a warehouse technology that has come of age. It can drive dramatic gains in picking productivity. Voice is being combined with scanning in "multi-modal" applications much more frequently than a few years ago. This article presents a case study of how Corporate Express Canada combined Voice and Scanning to drive productivity gains while assuring continued high accuracy in line-order picks.

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Can You Automate Down To A Single Pick?

The benefits of automating your order fulfillment process down to each-pick level are many. Automation fills orders faster, eliminates touches, improves accuracy, and reduces labor costs. Consistency and order quality increase, and highly accurate, sophisticated tracking becomes feasible.

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Conserve Power: Be Green, Save Money

Operators of distribution centers, warehouses, and production operations are learning that "green" initiatives are not only good for the environment, but "being green" can also mean saving money. Adding more pressure to this scenario is the prediction that energy costs will continue to rise in the future. Also, earth friendly initiatives can improve your company’s image with customers, stockholders, and the public.

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Crossdocking Case Studies and Articles

Download the case studies and articles on crossdocking systems for SAKS, one of America’s premier retailers with over 386 department and specialty stores, and National Retail Consolidators, a 3PL servicing several of America’s largest retailers, including K-mart and Marshalls. Both systems, by Dematic, stand as industry showcases for optimizing the logistics supply chain.

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Deploying an Automated Warehouse

Since the late 1960's, Automated Storage and Retrieval Systems (ASRS) have yielded significant savings for their owners. . . when applied appropriately. Though not inexpensive, they never call in sick, hung over or late, they work 24 x 7 without complaint and never make mistakes.

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Designing Material Flow For Maximum Agility

Several proven technologies exist to transport pallets or large containers horizontally through a facility. Each alternative brings specific advantages and constraints, so selecting the best fit for your application should be done with care.

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Determining Your Optimal Storage Density

This paper explores the typical storage technologies and configurations as well as provide general application advice for each. In addition, we provides the fundamental process to mathematically determine your optimal storage density based on the characteristics of your inventory and order mix.

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Developing an Effective Sortation System

Best practices in the Supply Chain can be elusive, dynamic and expensive. Those that involve the procurement of tangibles such as equipment, automation and software need to earn their keep and pay back to the owner by delivering shareholder value and/or improved customer service.

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Developing a ROI Analysis for Supply Chain Projects

This paper explores the typical storage technologies and configurations as well as provide general application advice for each. In addition, we provides the fundamental process to mathematically determine your optimal storage density based on the characteristics of your inventory and order mix.

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"Goods to Person" Order Fulfillment

"Goods to person" means that the order picker stays in one place, and the system brings the "goods" or SKUs (stock keeping units) to the person. Significant benefits can be realized with the use of a "goods to person" system.

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Improving Food Safety Through Automation (Executive Guide)

Automation — with its integrated logistics, material handling, and warehousing systems — can both proactively and reactively address the critical issues of product safety and security.

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Is Your Warehouse Overwhelmed with the Influx of "Cats & Dogs"?!

America’s thirst for variety has translated into a multi-billion dollar business in the fastest growing craft beer, energy drink and flavored water categories. While retailers struggle to clear shelf space to house this ever growing population of beverage products, the impact of such SKU proliferation is most profoundly felt on the warehouse floors.

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Keys to a Successful Modernization 

Modernization projects deliver value and measureable benefits to business processes. Learn how a system modernization will deliver extraordinary business results for your organization. 

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Lean, Green Supply Chains

In this era of lean and green supply chains, distribution experts focus on cost savings and sustainable behavior, respectively.

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Mastering Slow Moving Parts

Developing a strategy for storing and picking slow moving parts can have a big impact on productivity and pay big dividends through improved storage density and accessibility along with reduced travel time and the overall cost of inventory.

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Minimizing Transportation Costs To Gain Competitive Advantage

Transportation costs continue to rise. At the same time, customers are demanding more, placing transportation at the crossroads of customer satisfaction. Managing the dynamics associated with high-volume, multi-modal shipping is now significant enough to be the difference between a winning and losing strategy.

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One Size Does Not Fit All In Multi Channel Distribution

An ever changing landscape continues to drive companies to evaluate their order fulfillment systems. The drive to reduce costs and improve profits causes many companies to look for ways to keep multiple operations in one building. This allows them to save on labor, energy, inventory and capital investments.

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Optimizing Sortation Throughput in High-Volume Distribution Centers

Every distribution system can be divided into five basic functions which it needs to perform including receiving, product storage, picking for order fulfi llment, sortation and shipping. Although each of these sectors have experienced improvements due to technical advances, sortation is where signifi cant leaps in effi ciency are now being made with Dematic’s introduction of its Dematic FlexSort integrated sortation sub-system.

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Order Fulfillment Using A “Put Wall”

Distribution centers are adopting goods to person order fulfillment solutions to optimize their piece picking operations. A new process, known as a “put wall” solution, takes the goods to person concept to the next level.

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Simulation Modeling Optimizes Performance of the Factory, Warehouse, or Distribution Center

Would you buy a car without a test drive; so why implement a new logistics system without testing it? With computer simulation modeling software you can do just that: test drive your factory, warehouse or distribution center operation before fi nalizing the system design.

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Slow Moving Inventory - A Primary Bottleneck In DC’s With High SKU Count

The Pareto Principle, also known as the 80-20 rule, states that for many situations 80% of the effect comes from 20% of the cause. To some extent, this same principle holds true for most Distribution Centers (DC’s) wherein a large subset of slow moving inventory makes up a relatively small percent of total order volume.

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Sorting Out Sortation

With increasing labor costs and supply chain pressures for faster and more accurate and responsive operations, automated sortation systems are finding their way into more and more supply chains, delivering productivity, throughput capacity, accuracy, and accountability for businesses, and a cost effective and efficient flow of goods to consumers.

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Supply Chain Transformation for Retailers & Wholesalers

This white paper covers trends and influences on: distribution center optimization, inventory management, store shipments, supply chain extension, full-service pricing, operational excellence, transportation integration, and risks and regulations impacting the supply chain.

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The Changing Role of Maintenance in High-Speed Distribution Centers

Resident Maintenance Programs are Gaining Popularity as DCs Become More Automated. These programs have proven effective at increasing performance and extend the life of automated, high-performance DCs.

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Top 10 Trends Driving Order Fulfillment

What is driving the design of order fulfillment systems today? While an analysis of the activity profile (orders per day, daily unit volume, lines per order, etc.) points to the appropriate order fulfillment system design, there are other issues that will also have an influence on the process and system design. This whitepaper is an overview of the issues and trends impacting the order fulfillment process in the warehouse and distribution center today.

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Top 10 Trends Driving Automation in the Manufacturing Warehouse

Manufacturers need increased productivity and improved cost effectiveness to remain competitive. Consequently, managing inbound, WIP, and outbound finished product has become a key trend in the manufacturing market place. This white paper identifies 10 factors from lean manufacturing to rising fuel cost that are driving the need to increase the use of automated systems.

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Warehouse Control System Five-Level Controls Model

The five-level model is used to describe how a Warehouse Management System (WMS), Warehouse Control System (WCS) and the Material Handling Equipment (MHE) for an automated material handling system are architected, from a controls perspective.

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WMS vs. WCS In Supply Chain Control

Warehouse Control System (WCS) evolved from the industry’s need for a new breed of bolt-on WMS software functions for the management of real-time communication and the integrated control for many types of automated equipment.

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