During the Covid-19 crisis, many office workers are sheltering in place. They’re working through conference calls, web meetings and mobile technology. They are also ordering groceries and other staples and having it delivered to their doors to help prevent the spread of the virus. They’re hitting retail stores. All of this is helping reduce future cases of the virus.

It’s also straining the retail and eCommerce supply chains, and someone has to fill those orders: The warehouse worker.

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We don’t know what the next month holds, much less the rest of 2020 and beyond when it comes to Covid-19, but we know changes are coming. However, several things are known in the current situation.

1. The supply chain must function. Food and medical chains are the priority, but all types of other products must still reach Americans.
2. This work can’t be done remotely. People must staff warehouses and factories.
3. Like other facilities, the warehouse requires social distance to prevent the spread of Covid-19 and make their workers safe.
4. The supply chain must be safe for its workers and its consumers.

We’ve put together some ideas that may help you as the situation evolves.

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Belt and roller powered conveyors are specified for a variety of reasons within a given conveyor system. The reasons almost always come down to load characteristics and functionality. Both can be used in transportation, sortation, and accumulation applications. This article delves into the differences and the specific advantages each conveyor type offers.

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Conveyors–as we’ve discussed–have two major costs:

1. The cost of conveyor hardware, which should include installation.
2. The cost of operations, which should include maintenance, repair and energy consumption.

When you invest in capital equipment, you should be as focused on operational costs as purchase price. Part of that is extending the life of your conveyor system. How can you make sure you get the most out of your conveyors?

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Cisco-Eagle designed and implemented a modern order fulfillment system for Educational Development Corporation that dramatically increased order picking speed, reduced errors and allowed the company to expand. In this video, EDC’s Randall White, Jimmy Cleveland and Craig White explain why partnership with Cisco-Eagle and Hytrol was so critical to the project’s success.

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Once an afterthought in the warehouse, vertical carousels are being reborn in the omnichannel age as a fulfillment finish line product. Retailers are eyeing carousels to help them aid in customer retrieval of picked orders shipped to a retail location, which is giving the carousel a “moment” as a new last-mile darling. Whether located in the back of the store for employees to use, or at the front for customers to pick up themselves, vertical carousels are showing to be a good fit for this new age of sales. But don’t sleep on their value in industrial settings or distribution channels.

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The advantages of pick-to-light for order fulfillment are well-documented: you can pick faster and more accurately without the burden of tickets or voice-activated systems. Your workforce can be trained in a fraction of the time, in a “fast food” type experience. It’s a technology that has found broader applications in many distribution centers simply because it’s a fast, easy way to improve.

Light-directed systems may have a more positive impact on assembly than they do on order picking.

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Sorting, pushing and diverting products as they are transported on a conveyor system is one of the best ways to reduce costs, improve fill rates, eliminate errors and increase throughput — and there are multiple ways to go about it. Some systems are downright plodding–pushing only a few loads per minute–while others are dizzyingly fast, pushing out hundreds of diverts per minute. This post will profile some of the lower to medium speed options at your disposal.

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Your most important customer satisfaction function is probably your warehouse and order fulfillment operations. Order fulfillment impacts the things customers care about most:

• Did I get the right product?
• Did I get it on time?
• Did I get the right quantity?
• Was my shipment damaged?

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Years ago, direct-to-customer fulfillment was a niche business, dominated by catalog companies. Most distribution was mostly retail-oriented, with pallets of items shipping to store locations rather than to millions of front porches. Sometimes, retail brands would allow customers to order at stores and have their purchases shipped directly to their homes, but it wasn’t nearly as common. Today, speed from placement to shipment has become critical. Let’s dive into some ways you can improve this crucial warehouse metric.

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