Today’s industry is defined by the great weight of hyperconnectivity and new technologies on production processes and processes. This is also happening in warehouses, whose processes have been pushed to reinvent themselves.
This is why, due to globalised production and the internationalisation of companies, many businesses have had to adapt to the demands of the present, where process automation is the main protagonist.
In this article, we will focus on this evolution and the application of new technologies to 4.0 warehouses as a new model of warehouse management that has changed the rhythm of industry forever.
What is a 4.0 warehouse?
To understand what a 4.0 warehouse is, it is necessary to start at the beginning, taking Industry 4.0 as a reference, whose fundamentals are based on the Internet of Things (IoT), digital communication capabilities and robotics. These collaborative networks enable industries to work more effectively and efficiently.
This model of industrial warehousing is a part of every digitised company. This is why smart warehouses go one step further than the automated warehouses we have seen over the last decade. The facilities of a 4.0 warehouse make use of more advanced technology to increase efficiency in the processes of receiving materials, preparing orders or storing products, etc.
How a 4.0 warehouse works
This type of logistics centres, framed in the context of Industry 4.0 and smart factories, already use technologies like Artificial Intelligence or Machine Learning to not only optimise current efficiency, but also apply actions that optimise future performance.
A 4.0 warehouse reduces unnecessary and therefore costly steps. It increases productivity, preventing employees from engaging in tedious, repetitive and even dangerous tasks.
An intelligent warehouse has essential elements for its development and operation:
- Sensors. They capture the information in the place where it is produced: the product and the process.
- Real-time communication. Data strength, to react in an agile way in a changing environment.
- Energy-efficient installations. To improve efficiency and reduce costs.
- Integrated management platforms. They integrate the whole set of elements and are capable of processing and analysing the large amount of data generated to offer real-time control and at the same time, offer performance predictions, facilitating decision making by the company’s management.
Advantages of Warehouse Management 4.0
If you are thinking of investing in the automation of your business, it is important to know its main advantages. In this way, you should consider that if you digitise the warehouse of your business you will achieve the following:
- Optimise resources. One of the reasons why logistics 4.0 is an excellent system is because it implies a strong reduction in operating costs.
- Efficient warehousing. New technologies make it possible to increase the speed and precision of all operations for searching, picking and moving products. Furthermore, the automation of warehouses also allows improved information flows, helping the management of the goods themselves.
- Minimising errors. These fully automated systems help to minimise the risk of human error that can happen in any warehouse.
- Better inventory control. This is unavoidable. There are things that escape the human eye and, to compensate this deficiency, there are these new technologies. To offer customers a quality service, it will be necessary to have an optimal stock management.
- More agile production. A constant and fast production will help to manage orders with a speed that will avoid slowdowns and delays in orders.
- Staff with an optimised schedule. A smart warehouse will allow staff to perform much more delicate and meticulous tasks, even helping them to acquire new skills, much more valuable to the company.
Nexus Integra empowers your warehouse 4.0
Nexus Integra is the integrated operations platform that gives you global control of facilities and processes, while being able to process large amounts of data and optimize efficiency by up to 80%.
Embrace digital transformation through data centralisation and homogenisation, process management, predictive analytics and real-time visualisation. In addition, you will be able to increase the efficiency and performance of your company with a 360º vision of the company.
Contact us and we will help you automate your warehouse in an optimised, interconnected and evolved storage system.
