For some organizations, getting the right part to the right place and at the right time is a mission-critical goal. Achieving the balance between customer satisfaction and profitability has become somewhat elusive for organizations in today’s business world. Distributors are grappling with razor-thin margins and an increasingly picky consumer, and manufacturers are focused on improving efficiencies and process flow in a way that reduces repicks and mispicks that disrupt their entire processes. Automated storage and retrieval systems (ASRS) from Kardex Remstar can improve pick accuracy, increase productivity and reduce costs while increasing customer satisfaction.
Every company has different thresholds for acceptable order accuracy. The overall assumption appears to be anything less than 100 percent is intolerable and an ongoing work in progress. For starters, consider the consequences of a mispick within your own operations. If a part is mispicked, what are the repercussions? Say, for example, your warehouse picks and ships the wrong item. Once the customer receives the order and notices the error, he or she contacts the manufacturer and notifies them of the mistake. The time it takes to correct this error is time wasted.
Implementing low risk, easily cost justifiable automated storage and retrieval systems from Kardex Remstar can increase pick accuracy within the order fulfillment process. Horizontal carousels, Megamat RS vertical carousels and Shuttle XP Vertical Lift Modules (VLMs) optimize manual picking processes and help boost profits. From this level of automation, manufacturing or distribution facilities can improve inventory accessibility, better use of floor space, time savings and improved ergonomics; all resulting in higher pick accuracy without making an outrageous investment.
This “goods-to-person” method eliminates time spent walking from one pick location to another within a warehouse. Equipped with indicator lights that illuminate the item’s location and pick quantity required, these automated solutions reduce the time spent searching for a specific stock-keeping unit (SKU) upon arrival at the pick face. Also, because these systems interface with Power Pick Global inventory management software, picks are sequenced in a way that optimizes the machines movement. All items can be picked in one rotation, or cycle, further maximizing pick time.
Combined, these factors all booth pick accuracy and get distribution organizations that much closer to the perfect order they seek. Further increasing pick accuracy even by less than one percent will not only contribute to a dramatic reduction in picking mistakes, but it will also result in tremendous cost savings. Concurrently, your own company’s vision of the “perfect order” will come into clearer view.
As companies strive to balance high customer service levels with efficiency and profitability, the question all managers should be asking themselves is: Do we really need to achieve the “perfect” order and, if so, then what does the word “perfect” actually translate into for our specific operations? Kardex Remstar ASRS can eliminate headaches from mispicks and associated costs. Improving accuracy, increasing productivity and reducing costs all lead to increased customer satisfaction which ultimately positively affects the bottom line.
Kardex Remstar, LLC, a company of the Kardex Group is a leading provider of automated storage and retrieval systems for manufacturing, distribution, warehousing, offices and institutions.
