Challenge
Across the globe, reduced labor availability and increased demand for e-commerce are impacting a wide variety of industries. To help react to these factors, advances in automation are consistently being implemented. Until recently, labor had been relatively abundant and affordable. As a result, fewer than 10% of warehousing operations in the U.S. had considered taking steps to convert operations to highly automated materials handling operations. Today’s market realities, however, make cost efficiency, safety improvements and market share retention/capture more important than ever before, driving the need for automation.
Just like many other companies right now, Jasco Products — a home automation, security, entertainment and mobility products company — was feeling the strain of dated and cumbersome fulfillment methods and sought ways to keep deliveries on track for its customers.
More specifically, its Oklahoma City distribution facility required rapid upgrading of core systems as it maintained daily fulfilment tasks. This Jasco location fulfills and distributes over 100,000 consumer products a day, spread across thousands in individual orders. With the existing methodologies in place, an order processor may be required to walk upward of 16 miles a day using traditional pick module and directed floor pallet picking operations. To continue as an innovative force in the industry, and to reduce physically intensive work for its employees, a new strategy was needed to propel the company forward.
