For years, companies in the distribution and fulfillment (D&F) sector have been adapting to steady, predictable increases in the adoption of e-commerce business models. Many of these companies had also developed long-term plans to scale up their technological investments incrementally to match anticipated online demand. But with the onset of the coronavirus pandemic, many of these well-laid plans have been turned on their head.

Seemingly overnight, D&F operations experienced significant operational disruptions and an unexpected spike in e-commerce orders — accelerating to rates not previously anticipated for several years. Simultaneously, health concerns brought heightened scrutiny to operational safety and the imperative to protect employee well-being and confidence. As a result, distribution center (DC) managers across the retail spectrum have implemented new protocols, practices and processes to simultaneously enhance workplace safety and adapt to high order volumes.

The combination of demand spikes and new workplace safety requirements created a perfect storm of D&F challenges. Retailers and critical supply chain companies that were considered essential businesses quickly discovered the complexities of this rapidly changing D&F landscape. Many soon realized that they were unprepared to manage the influx of consistently high order volumes while addressing emerging safety considerations within DC environments.

But necessity is the mother of invention. Many retail and supply chain leaders have quickly adapted by creating operational strategies that other retailers can adopt to improve their abilities to thrive in this uncertain and demanding market.

Protecting People and Places

The most critical priority for any D&F operation is to protect their essential workers and take the necessary steps to promote a safer working environment. An illness outbreak in a facility could have devastating impacts to both human life and operational continuity. From the moment workers enter a facility to the time they complete their shifts, DC managers can implement a variety of technologies to help them enhance workplace safety and maintain worker confidence.

• Contactless building access: Non-intrusive facial recognition and thermal scanning technologies allow workers to gain hands-free building access while enabling operators to detect elevated body temperatures of employees reporting for work.
• Personal protective equipment (PPE): Making PPE available for each DC worker is vital to meeting the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC’s) workplace safety guidelines and instilling confidence in your essential workforce.
• Mobile device tracking integration: When equipped with smart software and device-tracking capabilities, commonly used scanners, printers, and voice-directed systems can help DC managers implement new safety protocols, including:
  • Compliance with social distancing
  • Providing cleaning/hygiene instructions
  • Device check-out/check-in management
• Building monitoring and analytics: Creating a healthier DC environment improves the well-being, confidence, and productivity of essential workers on the warehouse floor. DC operators need intelligent facility monitoring and analytics tools designed to help enhance various factors contributing to workplace safety — from clean air recirculation, ventilation and filtration to frictionless access and occupancy monitoring.

Driving Productivity

Prior to the coronavirus pandemic, finding, training and retaining qualified labor were frequently cited as the single greatest collective challenge (and operational expense) for D&F companies. These resourcing challenges have only gotten worse in 2020, as increased competition for labor and rising wages present daily barriers to meeting throughput and profitability targets. As e-commerce adoption exceeds previous industry projections, DC managers need to leverage tools and technologies designed to drive productivity, keep pace with rising consumer demands, and address new safety protocols.

• Labor management software: Maintaining a stable, productive workforce is essential for DC operational success. Modern labor management software (LMS) has become an indispensable tool for increasing productivity and safety, managing and measuring employee engagement, and retaining top-performing employees. An LMS helps DC managers build a culture of productivity while giving them the insights to make informed labor allocations based on order volume, available resources and customer service level agreement (SLA) priorities.
• Voice and mobility devices: Voice-directed systems, handheld scanners and printers have become integral mobility devices used in modern D&F operations. While these tools have provided productivity enhancements for decades, today they can also be leveraged to promote proper cleaning instructions, social distancing recommendations and device check-out/check-in tracking.
• Remote training and maintenance: Considering the CDC’s social distancing recommendations, in-person maintenance assistance and workplace training may not always be viable options for many DC operations. However, modern augmented reality technologies, video-enablement tools and distance-learning modules can augment these critical functions and keep operations running at maximum capacity.

Optimizing Operations

As more consumers embrace contactless, online fulfillment options, companies across the retail spectrum face prolonged spikes in e-commerce order volumes and the added pressure to shorten fulfillment windows. In both DC and retail store environments, these emerging demands exposed weaknesses in companies’ current e-fulfillment capabilities and introduced concerns about meeting ever-increasing SLAs.

At the same time, DC and retail store managers were tasked with implementing comprehensive facility and enterprise-wide workplace safety measures aimed at improving worker (and customer) confidence and well-being. Market leaders are seeking new tools to manage these intensifying challenges and better optimize operations for future success. These companies are evaluating advanced automation technologies and software to improve fulfillment capabilities, increase productivity, and enhance safety in an uncertain marketplace.

• Robotics integration: In today’s labor market, retailers are finding it more difficult than ever to fill undesirable and potentially unsafe jobs, such as repetitive picking, packing and palletizing tasks. It is also becoming more evident that DC throughput and productivity expectations are outpacing the limitations of manual labor. Preparing for inevitable increases in future demand will require augmenting the labor force with robotics technology and automated workflows. Robotics can be integrated into a variety of DC processes to reduce the reliance on manual labor to drive both productivity and safety.
• Voice-enabled software: For decades, voice technology has been used in DC environments to boost productivity and accuracy while making fulfillment operations more efficient. Combined with analytics-driven insights, this flexible solution can now serve the safety and productivity needs of modern D&F requirements.
• Micro-fulfillment center (MFC) strategies: Micro-fulfillment center strategies are rapidly emerging to help retailers shorten the distance between traditional fulfillment centers and their customers. These highly automated, higher-density, small-footprint MFCs can be utilized in stand-alone facilities, installed in dark stores or warehouses, or deployed within existing retail stores to address in-store, e-fulfillment models like click-and-collect or direct-to-consumer delivery.
• DC visibility: Considering the confluence of concerns related to employee safety and fulfillment productivity, every DC operator needs the ability to monitor every aspect of their facility, its people and key assets in real time, including:
  • Environmental climate quality control and building ventilation
  • Flow of people and awareness of facility occupants
  • Management of safety, security and building management systems
  • Smart control of access, intrusion and incident response
• Data-driven performance insights: Historically, the D&F sector has been slow to recognize the importance of operational data for driving continuous DC performance improvements, increasing system reliability, and transitioning to predictive maintenance programs. But in today’s environment, many DC operations are accelerating their digital transformations by implementing connected, internet of things (IoT) infrastructures and leveraging the wealth of operational data found in equipment control systems.
• Smart warehouse execution: As order fulfillment cycle times continue to shrink, DC managers need warehouse execution systems (WES) and automation software capable of orchestrating nearly every aspect of the order fulfillment lifecycle — from disparate automation systems and integrated processes to labor management, workload balancing and real-time decision-making.

Adapting to this rapidly changing landscape will require retailers to utilize all available tools, technologies and fulfillment strategies to help protect the safety and well-being of their workforce and maintain peak productivity levels.

Christine Feuell is chief commercial officer at Honeywell Intelligrated.