If there was ever a time for warehouses to improve and enhance their operations to be more efficient, it’s now. For one, inflation has driven up costs that have put a hit on warehouse profits. They face more challenges with high turnover and workforce shortages. Many warehouses are understaffed. Even ecommerce giant Amazon deals with this issue.
Vox confirms this as it reports Amazon’s research shows they may not have enough employees to fully staff its warehouses by 2024. This affects Amazon’s business and puts up hurdles to its plans for growth and continuing to deliver high-quality service. When a company like Amazon encounters these problems, other warehouses must pay attention because it could be a hint to the industry of what’s coming.
Moreover, like every industry, warehousing also contends with the side effects of the supply chain disruption. In fact, a report reveals that 94% of Fortune 1000 companies have experienced problems with the supply chain.
As a result, 75% of the companies in the Accenture research say the supply chain’s impact on their business has been either strongly negative or negative. Fortunately, there may be some good news. The supply chain may be finally starting to get its act together.
The pandemic has not been good to most industries, but it has largely affected the warehousing industry. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce data shows the industry has lost almost 1.4 million jobs during the crisis. One reason is that, unlike other industries, warehousing could not switch its core operations to remote working. The industry has yet to recover from the loss of over a million workers. Warehouses still grapple with hiring the needed entry-level and skilled workers.
Inflation, worker shortage, and supply chain challenges are a lot for any industry to manage. Warehouses also must deal with safety and compliance. That’s because warehouses and manufacturing have some of the most dangerous jobs. It’s the nature of the work. That’s why safety and security need to be considered in warehouse operations.
Top 5 Things Warehouse Operations Need
Warehouses must seek innovative and creative solutions to optimize warehouse operations while keeping costs in check. What can the warehouse industry do to maximize operational efficiencies to keep up with customer demand without adding a lot of overhead? Here are five ways to do that.
1. Ventilation
Every warehouse must have proper ventilation to prevent high temperatures and poor air quality. A good ventilation system ensures the environment is comfortable for workers and minimizes safety hazards. Not only do you need a high-quality ventilation system, but also routine maintenance and cleaning. If you don’t regularly maintain the ventilation, it will work harder and require more energy.
2. Lighting
Lighting is a key element in a warehouse because it allows workers to move around the facility easily. It also helps with safety and security. There have been enough advancements in lighting with more low-energy options.
When it comes to effective lighting, it requires considering a few factors. Good lighting is more than brightness as you have choices of different colors and hues. The best thing you can do is hire a security expert with experience in lighting.
They can do an evaluation of your facility as well as the perimeter around it. A consultant will provide a quick return on investment as they’ll ensure you have the right lighting to maximize both safety and security. Once you implement the right lighting, it’s critical to stay on top of them to replace any burned out or broken lights as soon as possible.
3. Automation
One of the easiest ways to improve safety and increase efficiencies is with automation. Warehouse workers are more susceptible to repetitive stress injuries. This can lead to ergonomic injuries known as musculoskeletal disorders. Unfortunately, it’s a problem as the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics The Economics Daily reports 47,280 cases of musculoskeletal disorders in one year.
It’s the highest occurring workplace injury resulting in days away from work. Warehouse workers do a lot of repetitive tasks, which puts them at risk for these injuries. You can reduce these injuries by automating processes like visual picking and voice picking.
Both technologies allow workers to use their hands less often. The picking process becomes more accurate, and workers are safer and more efficient. Almasons has found these automation systems reduce turnover, save on training time, and commit fewer errors. Also, check into autonomous mobile robots (AMR). These can take over repetitive tasks while letting employees do more value-added tasks.
4. Video surveillance with remote monitoring
Not just any kind of security camera system is effective in improving warehouse operations and boosting security. There’s a difference between a video surveillance system with only cameras that records everything and one that does this as well as incorporating human intelligence or video analytics. The former is a reactive security system because it does not do anything until after an incident has happened.
The latter is a proactive security and safety system. Video surveillance with remote monitoring done by humans and analytics can help deter crime and identify safety hazards before anyone gets hurt. The most effective video security technology needs to have both humans and technology working together.
It’s very hard for people to watch hours and hours of videos from all the security cameras. Video analytics does a lot of the heavy lifting here. It consists of hundreds of programmed scenarios to monitor for while analyzing the video from the cameras. Whenever there’s a match, the technology alerts the trained monitoring operator, who can then investigate.
Can you omit people from the video surveillance monitoring? No. Humans are trained on what to do whenever something out of the normal range of activity happens. Without humans, video analytics may not take the appropriate action and it could lead to a false alarm. Sometimes the system will discover something suspicious, but it cannot tell if it’s a problem or something innocent. The monitoring operator can.
Just like with automation for picking processes, the analytics part of the video surveillance system takes on repetitive tasks while the trained monitoring operator spends more time on value-added tasks.
Working together, video analytics and human operators have a better chance of catching problems early. Additionally, the trained monitoring operators are located elsewhere away from the warehouse. Their lives are never at risk, which allows them to respond appropriately. You can further increase safety and security when you integrate video surveillance with an access control system.
5. Access control system
The best security and safety systems come with multiple layers. The more layers in security, the more work it will be for bad actors to break through them. They’d likely rather go elsewhere than try to get through all the layers. Integrating an access control system with video surveillance simplifies security while increasing safety and protection. Here’s an example of them working together in following a driver from the gate entry to the exit.
An integrated security system makes it a lot faster to search for videos because they can match the time stamp from the access control system with the video at that time to show when someone entered a building or limited-access room.
What’s in an integrated security system? It could have some or all these components:
- Security cameras
- Remote monitoring
- Access control system
- Onsite speakers
- Video review and analysis
Here are some videos to show how ECAM’s remote video surveillance protects warehouses:
Integrated security enhances security and safety at a fraction of the cost found in most typical security solutions, including security guards. Video surveillance that operates seamlessly with an access control system can lead to a fast ROI. Most ECAM clients see a return within months.
A lot happens in a warehouse. No one can watch over everything, especially with the many potential safety hazards. Adding ventilation, lighting, automation, video surveillance, and access control will protect your assets and help keep everyone safe. By adding these five things, the warehouse will create a comfortable and safe environment for workers. When they feel this way, they’re typically more productive.
Where to Start with Warehouse Security Technology
Video surveillance with remote monitoring consisting of a partnership between humans and video analytics does more than boost warehouse operational efficiencies, security, and safety. It can also cut liability and multiply warehouse productivity.
Remote video surveillance can help increase productivity as it can identify bottlenecks and vulnerable areas around the facility. Stealth has helped its clients improve productivity and even to provide video footage to be used in training. Additionally, ECAM has relationships with law enforcement across North America. They know to respond when they get a call from Stealth because of video verification.
The key is to bring in the right security vendor as a partner. You want to find a security company that can develop and implement an integrated security system within budget. A good place to start is to look up security companies with experience in the warehouse industry. Ask about their clients and request to see videos of their technology in action.
As you narrow the list of security vendors, be sure to ask these questions about video surveillance services. Check out this case study of how video surveillance reduces crime and saves money. Here’s how you can calculate your return on security investment. Want to learn more? Contact us.
Texas Private Security License Number: B14187.
