What should you do if your warehouse no longer meets customer and market requirements?
Customer needs and market requirements are changing more than ever and are putting companies under pressure to act. Traditional business models must be abandoned and replaced by more suitable concepts. On increasingly digital channels, the challenge is to successfully reach one's target groups, to create purchasing needs and to meet these needs. The corona crisis is intensifying the pressure for change. With declining profitability and efficiency, corporate existences are at stake in almost all industries. All these aspects have an impact on the available storage capacity. These must be expanded or reduced. "Rightsizing" through new real estate could be a solution, but it ties up capital and cannot be implemented quickly.Alternatives to rightsizing through new construction are downgrading or upgrading of the existing plant, such as in the following example scenarios:
The warehouse has reached its capacity limit, but there are currently no funds for investments.New investment is not ready in time to provide necessary capacity.The cost savings of automation are not exhausted, there are still many manual processes, poor control of the plant, etc.Revenue is decreasing and may offer the opportunity to reduce shifts and floor space; automation need to support shorter working hours and less floor space.IT system world is old and inflexible and the maintenance end of WMS or PLCs is reached - new processes and easy automation cannot be implemented.Profitability forces to save 15% of costs by increasing productivity.Logistics areas are to be transferred to production.
Retrofit and tuning of automation
Retrofitting and tuning of the existing logistics center or the existing automation is a cost-optimal and efficient alternative to new construction. The optimization includes processes & existing IT solutions, space, warehouse technology and people & organization.
For the logistic optimization with a retrofit/tuning the following questions should be answered:
What additional throughput can we achieve?What are fast improvements to get additional capacity?Which systems and technologies need to be replaced to ensure the availability of the overall system? How can new solutions and the IT landscape be integrated?How can we increase warehouse efficiency with Quick Wins?How is the implementation carried out during operation?
Possible options for a retrofit/tuning plan could be selective investments in hardware (replacement of components) or software. But is fixing isolated problems enough to improve your bottom line?
Successful optimization begins with a holistic view of processes, IT solutions, technologies and people & organization. Miebach uses simulation to faster and better examine capacities and obstacles, weaknesses and potentials of these cost and value drivers. Our simulation and data analysis tools support you in determining the optimal adaptation of your existing system and its effects on the overall network.
Miebach Consulting supervises the entire retrofit process from design phase to go-live. For the exchange of the IT control system and the adaptation of the SAP system Miebach coordinates with Westernacher, a global business and SAP consulting company which is internationally leading in business processes and technology innovations.
Would you like to learn more about how we can help you to adapt your warehouse to changing requirements with an efficient and cost-effective Retrofit & Tuning? Contact us today.
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