Could AS/RS Benefit My Business? Here's What to Consider

If you're wondering whether Automated Storage and Retrieval Systems (AS/RS) are right for your operation, here are a few questions to help you make an informed decision.

Are Your Labor Costs Increasing?

Regardless of your industry, labor costs are likely to be one of the largest expenses of your operation. And they’re constantly rising: Salary increases, retirement benefits, time off, and other perks for employees never cease to increase from year to year. Even if business is good and you’re in the midst of an expansion, the extra hands that you need to hire to fill that increased demand is eating into your capital. Automated storage and retrieval systems allow you to reduce your labor costs by replacing low-skilled labor with automation. If your labor costs have been rising lately and you’re worried about keeping up with those rising costs, AS/RS and other automation solutions should be considered.

Is Labor Hard to Find or Keep?

Even if you’ve got the funds to hire an entire fleet of new workers, you can run into another challenge: A lack of skilled workers. Either you can’t find employees, or you can’t hold onto them once you do hire them. Often this is completely outside your ability to control, and is influenced by geographic or demographic conditions. But it can have a detrimental effect on your ability to operate efficiently: A lack of workers means that you are not able to operate at full capacity, which can be especially challenging during your peak seasons.

To solve this issue, you could decide to increase wages in order to draw more applicants to the area. But this would have the negative effect of reducing the profitability of your uptick.

Automation like AS/RS is another option for operations facing a labor shortage. Because AS/RS performs the repeatable and low-skill task of moving goods. Implementing an AS/RS system allows you to move your existing workers to tasks that add more value to your business.

Are You Running Out of Space?

If your operation is constrained by a small facility, then you face the inevitable risk of running out of space. This lack of space can not only translate into less area for your critical processes to take place, but it canalso mean less space for you to store the inventory critical for your business. To solve the issue of space, you’ve typically got a few options: Increase the size of your existing facility through a costly redesign, move to a larger facility that can better accommodate your operation, or make better useof the space that you currently have.

Implementing AS/RS technology in your facility may be the perfect solution for operations in need of more space that do not want to or cannot afford a costly redesign or the logistical nightmare of a facility move. By allowingyou to reclaim vertical space otherwise not in use and build upward instead of outward, automated storage and retrieval systems can help you better make use of your existing space and give you many more years in your current facility.

Do You Need Better Inventory Control?

Order fulfillment and materials handling operations, especially, have the potential to see an added benefit from implementing AS/RS technologies: It offers better inventory control, which is critical to reducing waste, optimizing storage and space usage, and creating a more efficient—and more accurate—operation.

If your operation is having issues with stock being wasted or expiring before it is used or sold, (agriculture, food, pharma, etc.), implementing AS/RS can ease the concerns by auto-rotating stock on a first-in/first-out (FIFO) basis. If your operation has seen a large amount of product damaged or destroyed due to human error, the fact that AS/RS removes the human element and reduces risk of accidents is an obvious advantage. Additionally, by integrating with your Warehouse Execution Software (WES), AS/RS can allow for more accurate, automatic inventory control than what is possible through manual operations.

Choosing the Right Technology to Reach Your Goals

Ultimately, whether AS/RS technology is the right fit for your business will depend on a variety of factors. However, if you're experiencing any of the problems outlined above, AS/RS may be a solution worth considering as part of your warehouse automation strategy.

Thank you for taking the time to read our article on AS/RS, and i hope you found it helpful. If you're interested in learning more about AS/RS for Pallet , Shuttle system for Case Box and Totes , Robotics Material Handling / Goods to Person / Order Fulfillment Technology / AMR autonomous mobile robot / ACR auto case handling robots. Feel free to reach me, I would be happy to connect and provide further consultation.

Best regards

Hardiman

Senior Vice President Korber Supply Chain Automation