A growing number of e-commerce operations are faced with the challenge of scaling up their receiving, storage, picking, packing, shipping and returns handling processes to meet consumers’ expectations. Online retailers need to closely assess their customer expectations against their fulfillment capabilities to remain competitive and profitable.
A successful e-commerce fulfillment implementation requires carefully planned processes, scalable operations, and highly efficient systems to address its inherent obstacles.
Automation and Automated Data Capture
To compete in this highly competitive online retail arena and address its challenges, e-commerce fulfillment operations are increasingly turning to automation.
Increases in production volume and the need for improved accuracy are often key drivers that initiate the move to an automated fulfillment system. Automation increases the number of orders that can be processed per hour, enable quicker on-time deliveries, improve order accuracy and reduce labor requirements. As order volumes increase, automation is essential for e-commerce operations to meet consumer expectations for fast, low-cost deliveries.
Digital data capture is fundamental to success in automated fulfillment. The changing and increasingly complex dynamics of e-commerce fulfillment necessitate the need for precise detection, dimensioning and tracking of every SKU, item, and package through receiving, storage, pick/pack/ship, and return processes.
Most e-commerce fulfillment operations scan their inventory and outgoing orders manually, sending information through the company’s warehouse management system (WMS) and then to its enterprise resource planning (ERP) and shipping carriers. Manual hand scanning of incoming inventory, inspection of returns, and other e-commerce fulfillment processes are time consuming and inherently prone to human error, made worse by labor shortages and high turnover.
To achieve faster and more accurate order processing, e-commerce retailers have progressed to automated data capture, or auto-ID, systems, which have the capability to permit greater visibility to what inventory is in-stock, in-transit, and on-order, and can track orders throughout the entire distribution network.
But not all automated data capture systems provide comparable levels of performance when it comes to the comprehensiveness of information they can capture, and the flexibility to custom-integrate with various WMS and ERP platforms.
Design Flexibility and Compatibility
A critical feature of the latest evolution of auto-ID and data capture sortation systems and scanning tunnels is their flexibility and compatibility in design to adapt to any software protocols at play in e-commerce fulfillment centers. The systems can easily be integrated into any fulfillment operation with connectivity to any WMS and ERP.
These in-motion auto-ID systems enable complex and error-prone processes to run quickly and smoothly, create visibility across the value chain, and provide the data needed for Industry 4.0.
Embracing Automated E-commerce Fulfillment
Only with automated fulfillment, combined with the latest evolution of auto-ID and data capture, can e-commerce companies deliver fast and error-free delivery, and continue to expand and face the challenges of demanding retail consumers.
While automation and digitized auto-ID require significant investments, companies are finding that when the right data is captured and applied to optimize processes from receiving through delivery, compelling ROI is realized.
For more information about incorporating logistics automation solutions into your e-commerce fulfillment operations, visit VITRONIC.com.
Scott Eliason is E-Commerce & Retail Logistics Lead, VITRONIC Machine Vision North America.
