With the rapid increase of the pace of manufacturing and distribution, facilities that automate manual processes will increase their ROI and grow their bottom line. Customer demand is ever increasing, right along with the costs to service that demand. You want your warehouse to deliver faster and more efficient results without sacrificing production. You’re looking at automating components within your facility to produce this change. But how can you really get started?
So You’ve Decided To Automate Your Facility. What Next?
Tags: distribution center, e-commerce, Manufacturing, Material Handling, Supply Chain, Warehouse Management, warehouse productivity, warehousing
Posted in Automation, E-Commerce, Manufacturing, Warehousing| No Comments »
Making the New Tax Incentives Work for Your Company
The most comprehensive tax reform legislation package in more than 30 years is now law, poised to impact businesses of all shapes and sizes in nearly every industry. There are a number of provisions that will have a significant impact on manufacturers and distributors, making it imperative to assess them and understand their business impact.
Tags: distribution center, Manufacturing, Material Handling, warehouse, Warehouse Management, warehousing
Posted in Manufacturing, News, ROI, Warehousing| No Comments »
National Forklift Safety Day is a Chance to Research, Reflect and Improve
The forklift industry will be in Washington, D.C., this spring to take part in fourth annual National Forklift Safety Day. This event, scheduled for June 13 in the nation’s capital and across the country, will provide an opportunity for the industry to educate customers, the public, and government officials about the safe use of forklifts and the importance of proper operator training. Taking the time to ensure that your workforce is aware of these forklift operations and procedures is an important way to ensure an environment of pedestrian safety for your facility.
Cisco-Eagle highlights forklift safety as one of our main objectives towards helping customers achieve safety success. To help celebrate National Forklift Safety Day, we’ve lined up some of our previous content so you have an easy portal towards a safer forklift environment:
Tags: distribution center, forklift, forklift safety, forklifts, industrial safety, Manufacturing, Material Handling, warehouse, warehouse safety
Posted in Inventory Management, Lifts, Material Handling, Warehousing| No Comments »
How your 3PL Can Meet Customer Demands
It’s a good time to be in the third party logistics business. 3PLs are in demand with no end in sight as the warehousing industry copes with higher volumes, increasing e-commerce demands and challenging customer expectations.
This gives 3PL operators with a unique opportunity to build lasting relationships with key customers, suppliers, and retailers of their choice. However, this can also lead to an increased demand for quality service from warehouses and fulfillment centers. In order for 3PLs to succeed in this new environment, they must be ready to face increasing levels of customer and prospect expectations.
Tags: 3PL, distribution center, logistics, Material Handling, Supply Chain, Third Party Logistics, warehouse, Warehouse Management, warehousing
Posted in Order Picking & Fulfillment, Supply Chain, Third Party Logistics, Warehousing| 2 Comments »
Planning the Future of Your Warehousing Operation: Don’t be Left Behind
The landscape is constantly changing for warehousing, distribution and order fulfillment operations, but it’s rarely changed so quickly as the last half decade — and will likely change even more the next five years. The rapid growth of smart devices, database efficiency, and robotics guarantees that elite storage and order picking operations in 2025 will be different than those of today.
In fact, distribution centers and warehouse operations that want to thrive must change, adapt and think differently.
Tags: distribution center, future, internet of things, warehouse technology
Posted in Automation, Robotics, Third Party Logistics, Warehousing| Trackback
| No Comments »
New Videos: Spiral Conveyors

A video overview of vertical conveying solutions
An excellent way to move products vertically in a distribution environment is through spiral conveyors. You can move materials between levels (pick modules, mezzanines, multi-story buildings) using several methods, but when it comes to carton or tote loads that are so common in order picking applications, the choice tends to be between spiral conveyors, incline conveyors, and package handling lifts.
Tags: conveyor systems, distribution center, Package handling, pick modules, Ryson, spiral conveyors, vertical lifts
Posted in Conveyor, Material Handling, Mezzanines, Video, Warehousing| Trackback
| No Comments »
Innovations in High Density Storage
Ever find yourself wondering how you can get more out of your pallet rack? Do you have goods that take up very little space, but your pick operations don’t call for entire pallets full of the product? Then you might need to look at ways to achieve more density in your storage, and we’ve recently found a gem of a product that can help you out. It’s called Dynamic High Density Storage and it’s made by SpeedCell.
Tags: distribution center, industrial storage, order fulfillment, Order Picking & Fulfillment, Pallet Rack, space savings, storage, Warehouse Management, warehouse storage, warehousing
Posted in Order Picking & Fulfillment, Pallet Rack, Product Ideas, Space Saving, Warehousing| Trackback
| No Comments »
Top 12 Distribution Center Metrics
As it has every year for the last decade, DCVelocity Magazine has surveyed its readers and members of WERC to find what industry professionals believe are the top metrics for a successful operation. This is instructive for most operations, and worth taking a look. The full survey can be found here.
The top 12 metrics, and (category)
- On time shipments (to customers)
- Internal order cycle time (customer)
- Dock-to-stock cycle time, in hours (inbound operation)
- Total cycle time (customer)
- Order picking accuracy (quality)
- Lines picked and shipped per hour (outbound operations)
- Lines received and put away per hour (inbound operations)
- Percentage of supplier orders received damage free (inbound operations)
- Average warehouse capacity used (capacity)
- Order fill rate (outbound operations)
- Percentage of supplier orders received with correct documentation (inbound operations)
- Peak warehouse capacity used (Capacity)
Not everything on this list necessarily applies to every operation, but they are all worth some reflection. It’s worthwhile to have the questions posed, as we all fall victim to the “forest and trees” syndrome.
Tags: distribution center, metrics, ROI, warehousing
Posted in Docks & Shipping, Inventory Management, Material Handling, ROI, Supply Chain, Warehousing| No Comments »
A Quick Guide to Reducing Warehouse Costs
Over at the Operations & Fulfillment site, Curt Barry has written a brief, informative piece on reducing warehouse costs. In particular during a difficult economic climate, cost reduction is at the top of mind for distribution operations.
Tags: distribution center, labor management, product slotting, warehouse productivity
Posted in Docks & Shipping, Material Handling, Order Picking & Fulfillment, ROI, Warehousing| No Comments »
Improve order picking processes without automation
Cliff Holste at Supply Chain Digest (opens in a new window) has a good piece on ways to improve picking productivity.
Distribution centers will benefit from emerging automated case picking technologies, but those don’t fit for every operation, at every level. They’re also expensive upgrades, so your ROI has to be considered as well.
Tags: distribution center, order fulfillment, Order Picking & Fulfillment, Warehouse Management, warehousing
Posted in Automation, Docks & Shipping, Material Handling, News, ROI, Warehousing| Trackback
| No Comments »