1. What are the current top 5 challenges faced by warehouse and logistics managers in the UAE? 

• Space optimization and increasing efficiencies.
• Staff competency
• Time management
• Inventory accuracy/ tracking
• Customer expectations

 

2. What would your advice be to delegates of this event on the importance of the 3Ps – product, process and people? 

People- The Employers, Shareholders, Employees and most importantly, the Customers are all important for warehousing. Even in the case of fully automated warehouse, there are people working in the background for the warehouse to run efficiently. The need of the hour for warehousing businesses to survive is to become ‘customer-focused’, and customers needless to say again, are people. The importance of people cannot be stressed any further and the right people management, be it customers or employees, would definitely go a long way in making the businesses better. 

 

Product (Service) – The core objective of warehousing is to ensure that customers can avail the services they desire, when they need them. In simple words, it is where demand for a certain service is successfully fulfilled by the warehousing companies. As such, the ‘product (or services)’ is a necessary for the business to take place. Customers need to be aware of the services (products) that readily available and at reasonable costs. Having the right product or services at the right place at the right time in the right price is key for running a successful warehousing business.

 

Process – A business is set of processes that should be carried out effectively to achieve the objectives of the warehousing business. There are a host of processes that need to be undertaken and managed for the proper functioning of the business. The right systems in place along with pre-defined rules to guide each and every process, and timely monitoring to assess the performance of each function is highly essential for any business to not only sustain, but also to garner profit and grow.

The right people with the right products (Services) and the right processes, and effective management of the three will help businesses to get it right.

3. You will be presenting at the upcoming event. Which topic in the event (other than your own) interests you most? Why?

I would be in interested in: 

1. Smart Warehouse (Lights – out warehouse) – Reason being to understand collaboration across the warehouse process by using the right technology.
2. Warehouse 4.0 – Reason of using Robots & drones to increase the efficiencies & accuracy in the warehousing business & cutting down the human incidents.   

 

4. What is the importance of deploying robotics and drones to upgrade warehousing processes?

Deploying Robots in warehouse has its own significance in term of faster, work longer and error free operation. Important benefits that can be acquired by deploying Robots in warehouse are;

 

Increasing speed, instantaneously identifies the locations of all of the items in a given order. These systems can also find the optimum route to collect them, maximizing productivity during the product retrieval process. Robots also speed up order fulfillment and inventory management processes.

Decreasing costs is another huge benefit of warehouse automation. Although the upfront capital cost of adopting and implementing automation systems is high, it pays for itself in the long run. Using automation technology becomes much cheaper than paying for manual labor in the long run. The Companies face massive amounts of overtime during peak times (High volume moment) or during the holidays. When it comes to meeting the deadlines, warehouse workers often times might spend several additional hours processing orders manually, which results in lots of overtime pay. With warehouse automation, however, keeping machines running for as long as needed doesn’t incurred an extra cost. After all, nobody ever had to pay machines overtime to keep them running.

Maximizing space in warehouse is also an important factor because space is a finite resource. Using Robots in warehouses helps to maximize the space that increase overall storing capacity. This means that you don’t need to send people off into the aisles which, in turn, eliminates the need for wide aisles that can accommodate bulky pallets and pallet jacks with a wide turning radius. Instead, automated warehouses feature special movable shelves that robots can move around, like goods on a pallet. However, they take up less space than a pallet, and the robots need less room to maneuver when moving them. All of this means that you can install your product shelves with smaller aisles, which creates more room for storage. 

 

5. What are your views on the impact of global standards towards a future warehouse? 

Interactive and mobile technology, intelligent robots, big data analytics, plug and play automation. We believe that new technologies will significantly change the way goods are received, stored and shipped in a warehouse and will transform the Supply Chain. It is predicted that over 85% of all businesses will be digital within the next five years. As such, warehouse operators and logistics firms need to react quickly by implementing the latest technical innovations. Not only will this ensure that these companies will be thoroughly future proofed, but supply chains will be operating at peak efficiency – great for customers and businesses alike.

Some 66% of warehouses plan to expand their technology investments by 2020. With this in mind, here are 10 of the most exciting technological innovations in the warehousing sector that logistics and warehouse operators should keep an eye on.

1. EDI (electronic data interchange) communication
2. Use of drones
3. Radio Frequency Identification (RFID)
4. On-Demand Warehousing
5. Head in the cloud
6. Omnichannel operations
    
7. Barrage of batteries
8. Keeping an eye on lithium-ion batteries
9. Crafty construction (Utilizing Composite Panel)

6. How can managers improve warehouse safety to avoid unexpected disaster and incidents?

Management commitment to Safety is vital to avoid unexpected incidents. Cascading effect of this commitment helps to keep the positive health and safety culture live throughout the organization.  Which also helps Managers to establish system and plan all activities after conducting Safety Risk Assessment. The residual risk must be as low as reasonable practicable. Risk Assessment document should be available for the working staff and communicated by ensuring that all staff members involved in activities have understood the activity hazard and control measures. A system should also be developed for monitoring the effectiveness of control measures. 

We can’t control many disasters, but we still need to plan for them. How do we lessen the damage? How do we restore normalcy after the event? With the right preparation, potential dangers can be minimized, risks can be anticipated, and sometimes disaster can be prevented. Managers must provide solutions by developing response and recovery plan that can be put in place to avoid the worst from happening. Some of the steps that are important to avoid unexpected disaster and incidents.

Planning:

• Consider every type of natural or manmade hazard and identify its potential impact. Examine ways to prevent these hazards and reduce the risks. Create different plans for different types of emergencies.

Implementation: 

Make sure that you have the necessary physical, financial, and labor resources to support your warehouse management procedures. These resources, or the arrangement for them, should be in place before an incident occurs. 

Testing: 

A plan on paper won’t be effective unless you test it. Conduct exercises to evaluate the plan’s effectiveness based on realistic scenarios. Include warehouse operators who will have the best ability to assess their systems, identify needs and execute work needed to restore services. Typically, many questions will arise that most would not have considered without the stimulus of the exercise.

Program improvement: 

Disaster plans should be reviewed to adapt to changing technology, operations, and equipment. Be sure to regularly review your plan to make changes such as updating and verifying emergency contacts.

 

Recovery: 

Recovering from a disaster is often a long-term process. But with the right advance preparation, you can reduce the time it takes to recover from a disaster and resume business as usual. Using mobile cloud software can help you recover more quickly when the unexpected happens. 

7. What is your take on boosting KPI and warehouse performance measurements in your teams?

 

Boosting team KPI and warehouse performance measurement need effective planning and commitment from all level. Time management, space optimization and utilization of available resources by establishing SMART objective plays a vital role to improve overall efficiency. Measuring performance of each level (Team & Individual) and taking remedial measures to overcome any identified deficiency is critical for customer satisfaction because it helps ensure quick, accurate shipments. Below some of the areas, that could boost overall performance including productivity and team performance, if managed in and appropriate way.

• Maximise and optimise all available space. 
• Lean Inventory
• Adopt enabling technology. 

 

• Organise workstations.

 

• Optimise labour efficiency. 

 

• Measuring team performance 

 

8. Why should robotics be integrated into the workforce as peers instead of replacements? 

 

Integrating Robots in warehouse is an automation that involves the use of technology to perform as many warehousing tasks as possible. Although humans are still needed to oversee and help with tasks such as packing, the slowest and most laborious tasks are delegated to Robots that work faster, work longer and create fewer errors. No matter how well a person memorizes a warehouse, there is still chance of error that cannot be eliminated. A Robot can instantaneously identifies the locations of all of the items in a given order. These systems can also find the optimum route to collect them, maximizing productivity during the product retrieval process.

By

Arun Iyer

Arun Iyer , Head of QHSE , Agility Abu Dhabi wil be speaking at the Future Warehouse Conference 2019 Dubai which is taking place on the 12^th– 14^th March 2019. The event details can be found  here