2024 is projected to be the year for major adoption and implementation of warehouse automation.
Thankfully, these true problem-solving solutions are prepping cold food chains for anything and everything.
Food Logistics talks exclusively with Darrell Hinnant, commercial director, emerging technologies, Yale Lift Truck Technologies, about how warehouse automation helps companies mitigate risk and improve safety in the warehouse.
CLICK HERE to read the article in full.
Food Logistics: Warehouse automation continues to be on the rise. What do think is attributing to the growth in adoption of automated warehousing?
Darrell Hinnant: Warehouses are continuing to face high order volumes, high labor turnover, rising operating costs, inexperienced lift truck operators and higher frequency of lift truck accidents. In fact, warehouse safety accidents are occurring at a high enough rate that OSHA has launched a national emphasis program to focus on improving safety in the warehouse. While automation technology in all its forms is not a catch-all solution to these challenges, it can certainly help warehouses mitigate the impact of these challenges. Plus, by adopting robotic lift trucks and other automation technologies, warehouses can reduce the risk of accidents and focus employees on more engaging tasks, ultimately increasing employee satisfaction.
Food Logistics: What kinds of automated solutions/technologies has your company introduced within the last 12 months? Anything on the horizon that will be introduced soon?
Hinnant: At Yale, we’ve continued to expand the availability of our award-winning Yale Reliant operator assistance technology, which automatically adjusts lift truck performance to reinforce best practices and help reduce the likelihood of accidents in the warehouse. Last year, we added 13 additional lift truck models to the Yale Reliant-capable lineup.
Food Logistics: What advice do you have for those companies who haven’t implemented any automation whatsoever or are just starting the journey? Where/how should they start?
Hinnant: Consider your warehouse’s layout and infrastructure before purchasing and implementing automated technologies. Would you need to increase aisle width? Does your warehouse have smooth floors? Do you have a strong, reliable Wi-Fi network? Where do you currently run high-capacity electrical service? Ultimately, automation requires strategic evaluation and planning for successful implementation.
Food Logistics: How can companies decipher which automated solutions are best for their warehouses?
Hinnant: Before you even start to consider specific solutions for your warehouse, perform a detailed evaluation of your entire operation to see which tasks would benefit most from automation. If you see certain processes that need to be sped up or are leading to particularly high operating costs, those processes would be good candidates for automation. From there, it’s all about finding an automated solution that can help your operation improve that particular task.
Food Logistics: In your opinion, which are the best types of automated solutions and why? Think AI, cloud-based, IoT, connectivity and more.
Hinnant: Cloud-based solutions come with a number of benefits for customers during the implementation phase, including simpler, faster startup and deployment.
Food Logistics: What are some things not addressed above that may be pertinent to our cold food chain readers?
Hinnant: Consider that automation does not automatically mean robotics. Operator assistance technologies can include automation technologies that help improve safety in the warehouse while keeping a human operator in control of the lift truck, helping to reinforce best practices and improve operator confidence and performance. Robotic lift trucks themselves may require a complete overhaul of safety protocols since they do not have an operator that can acknowledge pedestrians within the warehouse. An advantage for operator assistance technologies is that the human element of forklift operation is retained while safety protocols are better enforced rather than overhauled.
CLICK HERE to read the article in full.
