Top five warehousing trends for 2001

By Staff -- Modern Materials Handling, 2/1/2001

By planning ahead, you can develop strategies to accommodate upcoming warehousing trends in your own operations. The Distribution Center Management newsletter, a publication of The Distribution Group, asked six warehousing/logistics experts to identify the top trends for 2001 and offer some advice on how to take advantage of them in your operation. Here are the top five.

Continuing labor shortages. James L. Allen, president, Midwest Distribution Systems, Milwaukee, Wisc., encourages managers to provide more basic skills training to workers.

Ed Frazelle, head of Logistics Resources International, Atlanta, Ga., believes that managers can save money and reduce turnover by identifying the best 30% of their personnel and raising their wages by 30%.

Increased materials handling automation. Bob Murray, president of REM Associates, Princeton, N.J., says most DCs are slow to replace people with technology.

Consultant Patti Satterfield, manager, business alliance strategy of Sedlak Management Consultants, Richfield, Ohio, predicts that two-dimensional bar codes, radio frequency responder tags, and speech recognition will emerge in order selection in the coming year.

Growth in e-fulfillment. Arthur St. Onge, president of St. Onge Company, York, Pa., says the challenge is to quickly and accurately select and deliver individual articles to pack stations where workers will box them for shipping.

Arnold Maltz, associate professor of Supply Chain Management, Arizona State University, Tempe, Ariz. says robotic technology will be limited until it becomes more flexible.

Greater integration of systems. According to Murray, third-party warehouses will have to install high-grade modem and cable connections to keep data flowing continuously.

Greater diversification of warehouse services. Some tasks that might be performed at warehouses are painting, bar coding, labeling, and kitting of goods, says Maltz.