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While my posts on inventory management systems were not always quite on schedule, I did learn a great deal during this activity.  This topic is very relevant to my current role and I have been able to leverage findings here directly into my work.  I also would not have reached my case study topic (which I had no background on) without research done for this blog. 

I hope others found it a fraction as helpful as I did.

Eric

Utilizing employee value

Why are innovative warehouse technologies important?  Wasted movement is wasted money, and "order pickers spend about 60% of their time walking product or moving product around." http://www.joc.com/2010/10-ideas-more-efficient-warehouse-operation

Employees should be utilized as much as possible for tasks and activities that utilize their skills as people.  If the movement of product can be removed from this list of tasks, workers can focus on more value added activity that will help their given business succeed.

Denver International Airport

One very public use of automated material handling technologies has occured at Denver International Airport with their baggage handling.

They use technologies including:

• Destination-coded vehicles (DCVs), unmanned carts propelled by linear induction motors mounted to the tracks, can load and unload bags without stopping.
• Automatic scanners scan the labels on the luggage.
• Conveyors equipped with junctions and sorting machines automatically route the bags to the gate.

More about this topic can bee seen at:  http://science.howstuffworks.com/transport/flight/modern/baggage-handling.htm

Cloud challenges

While this article is not directly related to the topic I used for my case study, it highlights some of the challenges faced by e-commerce and cloud commuting technologies.

"Just days earlier, Tesco had said that cloud services provider Akamai would be offloading 90 percent of the load—to make sure nothing would go wrong. That didn’t exactly work: When the Web site crashed, customers turned to the call center and clogged it, too."

Read more: http://www.storefrontbacktalk.com/e-commerce/for-tesco-its-not-so-soft-in-the-cloud-after-all/#ixzz18UtZ137F

Volkswagen Factory

An interesting video on the Volkswagen Phaeton factory in Germany.  This state of the art factory uses many different types of automated machines, driverless vehicles, and and induction powered tools to build and store cars.  By making their production facility state of the art and highly "transparent", they offer a competitive advantage over other car manufacturers where you must rely on trust of their quality craftsmanship, but may not be able to see it in action.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nd5WGLWNllA

Another possible industry for Automated Material Handling

The attached video link is an advertisement for high end storage of cars, fine art, and other high theft items.  The video offers a security combination including biometrics for entry and a fully automated and inpenetrable warrehouse for item storage.  Another possible opportunity for the use of this technology with a twist on it's security attributes.

RoboVault
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cQLdOKklflI

Low Margin e-commerce

Soap.com and diapers.com highlight the potential business opportunities provided by automated material handling technologies, where this was impossible previously.  The thought behind businesses such as this is that customers already know which products they want to buy, and they don't need to physically touch them before purchase.

By allowing people to inexpensively purchase common items such as soap and diapers online in a convenient manner, customers can eliminate a chore from their daily routines.  This is valuable for both the businesses who supply them, and the customers who purchase the products.

A video discussing the topic is linked below.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6zXOW6v0c8s