Edward Hutchison, Managing Director of BITO Storage Systems, comments on trends in supporting the retail sector with efficient intralogistics in 2024.
Many retailers today are challenged by increasing order volumes, labour availability and cost pressures. Companies know their business best and often have their own great ideas for solutions to their particular issues. Turning a client’s ideas into reality requires a considerable amount of expertise. BITO works with clients on projects to turn their ideas into reality through innovative, high quality and reliable solutions that address these challenges and can also contribute to the increasingly important task of helping companies to demonstrate their sustainability credentials. Many projects involve designing bespoke solutions to successfully overcome a specific operational challenge.
Consumer expectations for greater choice and shorter lead times are driving the need to store a broader range of SKUs as well as ensure rapid and flexible order fulfilment. We are seeing a particular trend towards lower cost storage and order picking solutions to help meet such requirements. These might include multi-tier shelving, adapting pallet racking for picking small items, installing live storage flow shelves to give greater pick face density, investing in bins and containers for efficient storage and delivery, and adopting technology that allows staff to spend their time more productively picking orders.
With an eye on high energy bills, we would suggest pallet and carton live storage systems are an efficient means for providing dense storage for rapid, efficient and accurate order picking. Compared with fully automated systems and traditional racking, these ‘mechanical’ solutions strike the right balance between investment, storage density and speed for fast moving goods picked on a First In, First Out (FIFO) basis. Adding simple automation technologies such as pick-to-light and voice picking can further improve accuracy and throughput speed.
Through 2024 and beyond we are likely to see more companies wishing to deal with suppliers that can demonstrate sustainable practices. It is increasingly vital that companies cut their emissions and demonstrate their environmental credentials. This is particularly important when it comes to complying with the requirements of the procurement departments of customers seeking to minimise their own carbon footprint.
BITO, an industrial company that manufactures durables from raw materials in our plant in Meisenheim, Germany, has demonstrated how manufacturers can take measures to reduce their CO2 emissions and thus actively minimise their environmental impact. We are proud of our quality products, which are designed to last and have positive contribution to sustainability.
