Efficient Labelling in an Agile Warehouse
The greater your agility, the better your ability to anticipate and respond. Getting inventory out the door faster, tracking it better, and minimising the cost of doing it is what keeps you in the game, especially for small and mid-size businesses looking to compete with industry giants. This is particularly true when it comes to warehouse and supply chain operations, The greater your agility, the better your ability to anticipate and respond to the “Amazon Effect” – the expectation for fast, frictionless transactions that has raised the bar for manufacturing and retail operations, transportation, logistics and most other industries.
Agile Mindset
To meet these challenges, companies need to rethink their warehouse operations and leverage technology to boost productivity and lower costs. The warehouse landscape is changing, with larger facilities located closer to major urban areas to cut the costs of last-mile delivery. Warehouses of all sizes must be more configurable, adaptive, and movable than ever before, serving as key strategic assets for companies looking to meet customer demand quickly and efficiently.
Investment in productivity-boosting technologies is crucial, as companies face increasing pressure to get accurate orders out the door faster with fewer resources. However, the persistent labour shortage remains a significant challenge, with many warehouse professionals struggling to attract and retain qualified hourly workers. This underscores the need for technology that is easy to learn and use, enabling companies to achieve greater agility and competitiveness in today’s marketplace.
Agile Operations
As customer expectations for faster delivery, seamless returns, and buy-online-pickup-in-store continue to rise, businesses and their logistics and transportation partners must increase efficiency and productivity to meet these demands. Mobile and stationary printers strategically located throughout the supply chain can help save valuable time and ensure accurate labelling at critical points such as receiving, picking, packing and shipping, and cross docking. Barcode labels applied upon arrival ensure inbound items are accurately unloaded, checked-in, and put away. Generating labels for each item picked enables quick and easy sorting for shipment. Creating new labels to identify finished goods is important for kitting, assembly, or packaging. Ship-to-order applications can incorporate customer-specific labelling, scanning to fulfill orders, and creating accurate shipping labels. Mobile printing technology can also enable workers to efficiently re-label merchandise in cross-docking situations, which is especially important for time-sensitive merchandise and last-mile delivery.
Agile Labelling
Warehouses have plenty on their plates as they seek to build success and agility in today’s dynamic supply chain. New hardware is critical to achieving optimal warehouse productivity, and businesses must invest wisely to optimise their value.
Print and apply label machines are a powerful tool for increasing agility and efficiencies in warehouses. With these machines, labels can be printed and applied to products quickly and accurately, reducing the need for manual labour and increasing throughput. This not only speeds up the labelling process, but also reduces the risk of errors that can cause delays and waste. Additionally, print and apply label machines can be integrated with warehouse management systems to automatically generate labels based on product information, further streamlining the labelling process. By using print and apply label machines, warehouses can increase their overall efficiency and reduce costs, while also improving accuracy and customer satisfaction.
Streamline your supply chain with the right levels of performance, quality, and integration at an exceptional value. Find out more about PrintDATA’s range of Print and Apply labellers by booking a call today.
For more on how Agile can help improve operations, sign up to our free webinar: Agile & Lean in Operations with Brad Jeavons
