Changing Landscape of Warehouse Sorting Operations

The tight labor market and space congestion were the driving factors of the technological surge in Warehousing and Distribution Channels in 2019. While these factors remain relevant in the current market, the COVID pandemic has added a new layer of complexity. It has created a shift towards worker safety and accelerated the growth of e-commerce demand by five years [source1] [source2].

Towards micro-fulfillment and omnichannel

In the annual survey conducted by Peerless Research Group (PRG) on market channels serviced by companies, omnichannel service grew by 10% in 2020 compared to 2019. Although businesses reported slightly less engagement for e-commerce channels in 2020, as compared to previous years, it would be unfair to dismiss the impact of the growing e-commerce market. The new questions on Micro-fulfillment, introduced in the survey, are underlining the obscure changes in the market channels [source3].

One of those changes is the rise of Micro-fulfillment channels. Micro-fulfillment is increasingly gaining attention as it offers to reduce lead time by moving small fulfillment in stores or locations closer to customers. 21% of the businesses surveyed reported engagement in Micro-fulfillment customer pickup and 22% in Micro-fulfillment customer delivery channels.

Further, more businesses reported expansion plans for the number of SKU’s they cater, and the number of employees compared to 2019. While limiting their investments in additional space. Processing more and more SKUs in limited infrastructure.

Finally, the shift towards e-commerce and micro-fulfillment is also affecting the load quantities in inbound and outbound material. Instead of packing massive quantities in pallets for retails and wholesale, growing e-commerce is driving small unit deliveries in cartons. Thus, explaining the 5% increase in split-case only outbounds in 2020. They are also receiving shipments in smaller quantities with a 5% decrease in bulk pallet inbounds under changing trends.

These changes exemplify how the industry is shifting towards omnichannel commerce and adapting micro-fulfillment to gratify increasing demand for small lead time and prime level deliveries.

Sorting Operations, the key to accomplishing expansion plans

With the number of SKUs increasing and rising variation in order size, underperforming receiving & shipping processes can weigh down the entire operation. Sorting operations can account for 20% of the time and 35% of the cost in certain use cases. Furthermore, in 2019’s survey on “An evaluation and Warehouse operations & Trends” 52% of participants reported them to areas of congestion [source] [source5].

In this light, sorting becomes paramount for smooth and efficient receiving and shipping, which would further help avoid congestion. Moreover, with the current trends, it needs to be done in the existing infrastructure, with limited space, with an exceptionally fast pace, for a growing variety, variable volume, and increasing diverts.

Collaborative Mobile Robot Sorters

Businesses traditionally employ manual or conveyor-based sortation. However, they both are limited in their performance & usability. Manual sortation is flexible but lacks performance, scalability, and the ability to adapt to fluctuating demands. On the other hand, conveyor sortation provides reliable performance (throughput) but their lack of flexibility, high upfront investment, and heavy infrastructure change limit their usage.

Collaborative Mobile Robots provide a unique alternative to both manual or conveyor sortation, with their ability to couple performance and flexibility. With the high-performance output and accuracy of robots, collaborative mobile robots, in addition, also offer human-like flexibility in operations. They can learn through demonstration and can be deployed out-of-the-box within minutes. Businesses can leverage collaborative mobile robots to maintain flexibility, scalability, and deliver performance beyond traditional systems.

Simpler mobile robots have already outperformed both manual and conveyor sortation. They provide ten times labor productivity compared to manual sorting and a 30% increase in processing capacity compared to conveyors [source6] [source7].

In an essence, collaborative mobile robots uniquely position themselves as a viable alternative to traditional systems with no upfront investments and scalability. We at Peer Robotics are developing the next generation of collaborative mobile robot technology, offering out-of-box sorting solutions for different operations irrespective of their scale. To know more about us, or to book a demo of our robots, please visit www.peerrobotics.ai.