Industrial Automation Magazine India

Outsourcing the supply chain management helps in minimising overall cost

Published on : Wednesday 25-09-2019

Smart forklifts, AGVs, autonomous mobile robots – what are the new trends in material handling?

“Smart” forklift includes diagnostics that allow the equipment to signal when it needs to be serviced, speed controls, anti-slip technology that monitors wheel spin and improve traction on slick floors, collision detection, fork speed optimisation, and more.

Intelligent forklifts promote new process flows in the warehouse. When integrated to a WMS, the forklift’s fork can be raised or lowered much quicker. The WMS directs a forklift to a pick location. Once at the location, the forklift knows whether the pallet to be picked is being stored at a height of three feet, six feet, etc. The operator pushes a button on the console and the forks move at the maximum safe speed, a speed considerably faster than the operator would be apt to move them.

Automated guided vehicles (AGVs) are fully automated, custom-made vehicles that are able to transport incoming loads (i.e., packets, materials, and/or products) in a logistical or production factory environment. AGV systems can be used for distributing manufactured products to storage locations or as an inter-process system between various production machines. An AGV system receives transport requests for loads from a factory management system or machine operating software and instructs AGVs to execute transports.

Autonomous mobile robots (AMRs) are a form of automatic guided vehicles (AGVs) that can be implemented without any supporting infrastructure like markers or wires or magnets implanted in the floor or precisely located laser targets.

What should be the ideal mix for efficient in-plant material handling?

For efficient in-plant material handling, belt conveyor is the most effective way. Belt conveyor is required to convey the certain quantity of material per hour.

The traditional warehouse is being transformed dramatically – what are the implications and lessons here?

Automated warehouses certainly seem to be the ultimate in modern distribution centres, needing very few people to operate, offering high levels of productivity. Following could be the benefits:

• Significant labour cost reduction
• Superior levels of productivity
• A high degree of efficiency
• Minimal risk of processing errors, and
• Improved inventory management.

How is the Supply Chain Process impacted by digital transformation?

A supply-chain digital transformation, then, is about establishing a vision for how digital applications can improve service, cost, agility, and inventory levels and consistently implementing process and organisational changes that use these technologies to drive operational excellence.

Better decision making: Machine-learning systems can provide supply-chain managers with recommendations for how to deal with particular situations, such as changing material planning and scheduling in response to new customer orders.

Automation: Automated operations can streamline the work of supply-chain professionals and allow them to focus on more valuable tasks.

End-to-end customer engagement: Digital technology can make customer experiences better by giving supply-chain managers more control and providing customers with unprecedented transparency

Innovation: A digital supply chain can help a company strengthen its business mode and collaborate more effectively with both customers and suppliers

Increased supply chain speed

Talent: Digitally enabled supply chains have talent requirements that can be quite different from those of conventional supply chains.

Is this the right time for enterprises to outsource supply chain management to professional organisations?

Outsourcing the supply chain management helps in minimising overall cost, focus on its core competencies, meet customer demands more effectively and avail greater flexibility in maintaining and operating its supply chain. Yes, its high-time to outsource supply chain management to professional organisations.

Warehousing in India is still in the early stages of automation barring some e-tailers. What are the barriers here?

The main problems of early stages of warehouse automation in India is cost, service and flexibility.

Sudipto K Ghosh is a post graduate in Transportation, Logistics & Supply Chain Management with a specialisation in Logistics and Supply Chain Management. He has done certification in Import Export, Risk Management and Freight Forwarding. Also, he has hands on experience in SAP (Materials Management). Presently he is working as a Procurement & Supply Chain Manager in Makers Hive Innovations Pvt Ltd. (a start-up in Robotics & Automation).

Besides daily job life, Sudipto is a professional photographer. He freelances in Photojournalism and has publications in The National Geographic, 1x, etc. He is also the official stock photographer of various platforms such as Adobe Stock Photos, Alamy, Dreamstime, Getty Images, etc.