A new report from Aberdeen Group, Boston, documents performance improvements and returns on investment from warehouse automation and gives a market outlook for warehouse management technologies.
For this report, Warehouse Operations: Increase Responsiveness through Automation, Aberdeen surveyed more than 250 executives to benchmark corporate activities. It found that best-in-class companies are:
• 1.5 times as likely as all others to achieve 95 percent on-time deliveries to customers; • 66 percent more likely than all others to ship at least 95 percent of their orders on time and complete to customer request; • 76 percent more likely than all others to achieve an inventory accuracy level of 99 percent or above; • 36 percent more likely than all others to have reduced their warehouse labor costs, with an average savings of nearly 3 percent year-over-year; and • 40 percent more likely than all others to ship within one business day of an order's placement.
While many companies remain dedicated to making investments in this area, the investments are smaller scale, with more focus on upgrades and enhancements to existing technology. Average payback period is just under 26 months, with little variation among maturity classes, the report finds.
