An automated warehouse sorter is a critical element to improve the efficiency and accuracy of your warehouse operations.
Whether your company is a retailer, e-commerce company, first, middle, or last mile shipper, postal carrier, third party logistics (3pl), or returns processing center, you are responsible for separating items according to orders, destination type, slotting logic, or by sku.
The first stop along your automation journey is to begin this sort manually, whether picking to cart, utilizing a pick and pass or put and pass function, or even utilizing a put-to-light technology. This first stop is a flexible, cost-effective way to get the operation off the ground, and allows a lower capital investment while the company is growing. Eventually, as order or parcel volume grows, along with the ranks of warehouse employees, lack of labor, an increasing labor cost, or growing accuracy issues force the search for what’s next.
Why is an Automated Warehouse Sortation System a Possible Next Step
To answer that question, let’s look at an example. Assume you have something to celebrate, so you have some cakes delivered by your favorite pastry chef. You go around and ask your guests one by one what they would like: apple pie, chocolate pie, or cheesecake? You take an order, go to the kitchen, cut a piece, and then deliver it to your guest before asking for the next guest’s order. A laborious and time-consuming order process.
There is however a much easier way. You ask everyone at the party for their order, write it all down, and then serve all the apple pie, then the chocolate and finally the cheesecake. That, in short, is how an automated warehouse sortation system works, by batching or waving many orders together at the same time, the efficiency, accuracy and speed of the warehouse operations increase. Piece of cake.
What is the cost of an Automated Warehouse Sortation System?
Now I know you might be thinking, an increase in efficiency, accuracy, and throughput sounds great, but a large machine is going to be expensive right? Good question, indeed, a large piece of technology like a unit sorter is not a small investment, which brings us to the next question, and the subject of our next blog post – When is the right time to implement an automated sortation system? – Stay tuned!
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