Warehouse operators worldwide are under tremendous pressure to improve efficiency and reduce costs. Although automation has existed in the warehousing industry for decades, advances in robotics, Artificial Intelligence, and Machine Learning have made it more accessible and easier to integrate with existing systems. ASRS often serve as a bridge between legacy manual operations and the fully automated Amazon-style ‘lights out’ warehouses still very much in the realm of the theoretical for most warehouse operators. In this fast-evolving business environment, the key challenge is to combine “now” integration with future scalability. That means identifying innovative ASRS solutions that will adapt to your changing needs, and your future growth.

ASRS for Ecommerce Fulfillment Centers: Scaling High-Speed Order Processing

With giant warehouses, an ASRS can sift through towering racks that are too tall for humans to reach, identifying and picking exactly the item needed. It’s like a gigantic, multistory bookshelf in a library, where you tell the system the book you want and it automatically finds and hands it to you.

What do you need to know about this mechanized marvel, the modular, mobile, and reconfigurable solution to optimize space and efficiency? Most importantly, how does it help e-commerce brands stay ahead of the competition?

Overcoming the Complexity of Modern E-commerce Fulfillment

What do you get when you combine the computing power of a small town and a robot with x-ray vision? It’s not science fiction. It’s an automated storage and retrieval system (ASRS). ASRSs are becoming increasingly prevalent in the age of ecommerce. But are they right for you? Let’s find out.

Pharma manufacturers rely on an automated storage and retrieval system to ensure strict inventory control and perfect order fulfillment, safeguarding against expired products and product recalls. An ASRS for pharmaceutical warehouse storage not only reduces the risk of human error but also complies with stringent regulations and safeguards products. So how do these systems keep their promise? Storage is the key. Clever storage strategies, such as bin-racking, column-stacking, or multi-tower solutions, ensure ASRS for pharma operates with maximum efficiency. The best solution is defined by the manufacturer’s specific demands and infrastructure: How many and which different products does the manufacturer handle? What is the demand on storage capacity? How much room is available? What throughput is required? How often are articles rotated? What are the operator’s requirements?

Managing Endless Aisle SKUs and Volatile Order Volumes

Isn’t it mind-blowing that you can order just about anything online today? I don’t know about you, but I imagine this puts a fair bit of pressure on inventory management. ECommerce Stock keeping units or SKUs are managed effectively by ASRS through the extremely dense storage of products. Storage is vertical, accessed by lifts, shuttles, or carousels.

ASRS systems designed for FMCG and ecommerce. How do you ensure popular and slow-moving items are equally easy to find and pick? These superfast, super-accurate robots can handle both, including adjustments for flash sales or seasonal peaks.

High-Density ASRS Solutions for E-commerce Operations

Land costs and rent get higher and higher each year. Where space is at a premium, such as in city centers, high-density ASRS can help you store even more inventory in the space you have, or even in a smaller footprint than before. This type of storage relies on vertical storage and often deep-lane storage. Since land is the number one contributing factor to this cost increase, high-density ASRS is a more cost-effective solution than new construction or expanding your current building.

Armstrongltd’s ASRS does more than save space. It actually makes a warehouse more efficient by enabling higher-density storage, which is crucial in helping reduce energy, maintenance, and operating costs, including those for heating and cooling. All high-density ASRS systems can be designed to accommodate your facility’s unique specifications and the terms of your operation. This can include everything from integrating with your WM system to swapping out complex equipment without interrupting service(s).

Goods-to-Person (G2P) Picking Stations

Did you know that the ASRS goods-to-person model fetches items for the pickers rather than having pickers roam around aisles to find items? This increases the speed of picking processes and reduces errors due to picker fatigue.

G2P picking has become indispensable in ecommerce fulfillment, can your customers wait days for inaccurate items? Pharmaceutical Warehouse Automation must have high accuracy, can you tolerate errors? With G2P can FMCG Warehouse pickers spend their time adding value rather than hunting for items that should be there?

Software Intelligence Driving E-commerce Order Accuracy

It’s not just about machines and racks you know. Modern systems are powered by very clever software that optimizes the batching and sequencing of orders, as well as the allocation of inventory, to make sure that every order is picked in the right order, with the right items, every time.

Whether faced with automotive parts storage, cold warehouse automation, or the challenge of high-mix SKU profiles, our software continually optimizes picking and movement while eliminating errors and minimizing risk. When your decisions matter most, our digital solutions will keep your data right, and your business better placed to thrive.

WES and WMS Orchestration for Order Batching

Warehouse Execution Systems (WES) and Warehouse Management Systems (WMS) are both critical to the orchestration of work. While WES expertly manages and optimizes all work for complex automation in real-time WMS provides the inventory visibility and management necessary to balance supply and demand for materials and stock keeping units to feed that work. For example, if the inventory is not available to fulfill the demand that WES is pushing from one zone of an AutoStore®, the entire process is undermined. Whether it is at this inventory level, or facilitating optimal decisions around putaways, picking and replenishments in your automated environment, WES and WMS are inextricably linked in the supply chain order fulfillment process.

How does it work? Shuttles move along aisles between levels to deliver trays of items to picking stations, and up and down lift columns to optimize storage cube. Ideal for e-commerce warehouse storage solutions where many small, fast-moving orders need to be processed, it reduces the space needed for storage and the time staff spend walking, waiting, and searching. And as the perfect match for goods-to-person operation, it is perfect for cold storage, pharma, food and beverage, and automotive producers. With their proprietary warehouse execution software connecting the hardware with ERP systems and order management software, Armstrong offers streamlined project management and vendor management, too.

Conclusion

Armstrong is well known for providing customized automated solutions, including ASRS systems. These solutions are scalable at a level that is unmatched in the industry and capable of addressing multi-regional distribution more efficiently than ever before. Due to the modular and customizable design, specifically, extreme environments such as deep cold storage conditions are now accessible for automation at minimal additional expense. This high level of flexibility isn’t just beneficial for overcoming the challenges of a four-year-old arrival , it’s what will continue to carry brands forward for the future.