Investing to improve fulfilment accuracy and shorten delivery times

Zebra Technologies’ latest Warehouse Vision Study has found that heightened consumer expectations are driving technology investments to improve fulfilment accuracy, reduce out-of-stock situations and shorten delivery times. “Over 40% of respondents cited shorter delivery times as a key measure requiring warehouse investment,” said Zebra Technologies. “Also indicative of increased consumer demand is the expected increase by 76% of those surveyed in the number of warehouse locations and volume of items shipped out of warehouses.”          

Half of the IT and operations decision makers who took part in the study said that they planned to move to a more modern, full-featured warehouse management system last year while 75% of them plan this in 2020 to help manage the increased locations and items shipped. And 51% of those surveyed expected increased investment in real-time location systems that track inventory and assets throughout the warehouse last year, but this number escalates to 76% of respondents in 2020.

Mark Wheeler, director, Warehouse Solutions, Zebra Technologies, commented: “IT and operations decision makers in warehouses and distribution centres consistently need to identify new ways to improve productivity and reduce costs to remain competitive.

“Fulfilment is an integral part of the customer value chain and investment in technology and innovation in this area can go far to improve a customer’s experience.

“Nearly half of respondents in the survey indicated a concern about labour performance in the order, pick and fulfilment process.

“We see this as an enormous area of opportunity: providing workers with the tools they need to do their jobs accurately and productively will help companies meet and exceed customer expectations for accuracy and on-time delivery.”

The October 2015 survey was completed by 1,378 IT and warehouse professionals in 12 countries: Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, France, Germany, India, Italy, Mexico, Spain, the United Kingdom and the United States.