US warehousing and storage industry (3PL) employment grew from 779 million in January 2015 to 1.2 billion in December 2018, a CAGR of 11% from 2015 through 2018. At the same time, US unemployment is at historic lows. This suggests that the warehousing and storage industry must hire workers from other industries. Stories about individual warehouses paints a picture of high demand for labor, low availability, and high turnover rates. Something has to “give”.
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Archive for Warehousing
The overall structure and content of the MHI Promat and Modex events evolves very slowly from year to year. However, a prevalent theme seems to arise each year that differentiates one event from years prior. I’m told that robotic piece picking was the stand-out theme at LogiMAT last month and that theme will surely cross the pond to ProMat next month. I plan to spend a large portion of my time in Chicago at the […]
Read More →ARC’s research on the global WMS market identified today’s warehouse technology investments that were highest on investment priority lists (see WMS Product Development Roadmaps). Warehouse mobility investments including upgrades and replacements was high on that list. ARC and DC Velocity recently launched an online survey to obtain detailed insights into the topic, including current use and future plans for use of various mobile operating systems (OS), the relative importance of mobile OS capabilities, the range of current […]
Read More →I just completed the newest version of ARC’s annual warehouse management systems (WMS) market research study. For those of you who are looking to receive your copy, it is currently in editing and should be available before the end of the month. The research process behind this report is extensive and evaluates both quantitative and qualitative developments of the global market. I would like to take this opportunity to discuss a qualitative topic of interest […]
Read More →ARC Advisory Group released its updated Warehouse Automation & Control (WAC) market study last week. This research is an evaluation of the market with detailed analysis of the 2017 base year and a five-year forecast through 2022. I would like to take this opportunity to communicate some of the prominent themes I observed during the research process. 2017 – A Stellar Year The market’s growth in 2017 was substantially greater than I had expected. In fact, I […]
Read More →In the United States, 250,000 manufacturing plants and warehouses support the activities of 4 million retail stores and e-commerce websites – and all of these operations carry inventory. But in the warehouses, less than 10 percent are using automated storage and retrieval systems (AS/RS) to manage and move their inventories. That means the vast majority are still using racks and other storage solutions that require a lot of floor space (read: high real estate costs) […]
Read More →ARC Advisory Group’s supply chain team believes that autonomous mobile robotics (AMR) in the warehouse is a high-growth and potentially transformative logistics technology. Therefore, we are devoting substantial effort into tracking the progress of the solutions within this rapidly developing market. On Friday, I had the pleasure of visiting 6 River Systems’ facility and receiving a personal demonstration of its collaborative autonomous mobile robotics system (AMR). The 6 River Systems Solution The 6 River Systems […]
Read More →Kenco Logistics, a US-based 3PL with over 80 sites in North America, recently completed the implementation of JDA Warehouse Labor Management (JDA WLM) at three of its warehouses. Adam Schlaudecker, Product Manager – LMS and Nathan Beene, Director Transportation and Supply Chain Technologies, presented at JDA Focus and provided insights about the software implementation and effective change management processes they used to drive improvements at these locations. The initial project site delivered a 30 percent […]
Read More →Warehouse management systems (WMS) and warehouse automation systems have long been complementary technologies with adjacent and sometimes overlapping functionality sets. The relative importance of the systems to an operation depends on the activities and throughput profile of the given warehouse. Public discussions about the convergence of WMS and warehouse control systems (WCS) into what has been termed a warehouse execution system (WES) is more recent, but also not new. However, insights from my concurrent research […]
Read More →Last week’s MODEX show in Atlanta contained many more exhibits than I could possibly have viewed in the short time that I attended. But I did view many of the exhibits and experienced the overall vibe of the show. “Technology adoption and acceleration” is the closest I can come to a common thread that captures the overall messaging and vibe of the show. There was a substantial number of autonomous mobile robotics solutions on display […]
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