As a logistics service provider, you are always on your toes. Meeting consumer demands, increasing efficiency, optimizing your operations. These are just part of the challenges you face on a daily basis. And let’s not forget about your customers’ constant efforts to be as eco-friendly as possible. Implementing sustainable strategies is becoming increasingly more important. And warehouse automation is a crucial part in your business becoming more environmentally friendly. In this blog, we dive into different ways automating your warehouse can put your business on a path to a sustainable future.

Process optimization

Overprocessing, overproduction, inventory mismanagement. These are just some examples of problems your customers deal with on a daily basis. You avoid inefficient processes like the plague. They don’t contribute to your business in any meaningful way. Not to mention the fact that nature isn’t too happy about most of them either. So you want to cut back on them as much as possible. An effective way to do that is by implementing a good Warehouse Management System (WMS). A WMS gives you a clear overview of your operations. It allows you to channel the power of data to figure out which processes are working and which are not.

The benefits a WMS brings to your business are numerous. It streamlines all your warehouse processes from beginning to end. Take EDI for example. Bi-directional exchange of data becomes more important every day. Do your customers require that you use the latest EDI technology? Boltrics’ EDI solution offers the possibility to fully automate communication – from order to invoice – without any fuss.

Reduced energy consumption

It goes without saying that reducing energy use is one of the most effective ways to build a sustainable warehouse design. The Boltrics’ WMS can help you with that in a variety of ways. For example, as a logistic service provider, you would want to use your reach trucks as efficiently as possible. You want to reduce the mileage, without losing track of the priorities of the different activities. However, the more activities and reach trucks are active in your warehouse, the more difficult it will be for your employees to manually determine the right activity for the reach trucks. What can you do to still assign the best possible activity to your reach trucks?

X-Y Coordinates

Working with X-Y coordinates helps minimize empty miles. It makes realtime calculations to determine what possible activity can best be executed by the reach truck. This is based on the current location, the distance to all open activities, and the activity date/time. The activity is then assigned to a reach truck until it is completed. After that, a new activity is calculated, based on the new location. Making sure your reach trucks are put to good use as efficiently as possible.

Task interleaving

Another way to create optimization savings is tapping into the options of task interleaving. Do more with less resources – the perfect combination for sustainability. Our WMS offers different interleaving flavors that provide the ability to increase productivity and reduce waste. From orderpick assignment to different movement strategies