Best Practices for Managing Inventory Within Warehouse Operations: Complimentary Report by Gartner
A Complimentary Gartner® Report for E-commerce and 3PL Companies
Both industry leaders and up-and-comers in e-commerce and 3PL are under ever-increasing pressure to optimize.
Among the major challenges Gartner identifies the following:
Logistics leaders struggle to maintain productive inventory processes as they lack knowledge of innovative inventory management approaches.
Without automated data collection technologies, logistics leaders lack real-time visibility to improve inventory accuracy and efficiency.
Report Highlights
Labor and Automation
The cost and availability of labor will be a major factor going forward. Being a major factor of cost per order and fulfillment time — both business-critical capabilities. The data- and tech- driven approach is necessary not only to find efficiencies in the existing business model, but be ready for the future.
Gartner predicts that by 2028, there will be more smart robots than frontline workers in logistics due to labor shortages.
AI Implementation
To drive key metrics, like order picking accuracy and order fill rate, and to increase visibility and transparency, AI-powered solutions like AI-enabled vision systems and 3D warehouse simulation tools.
Growing Importance of Data and Analytics
Data is not only a foundation AI and automation are built on; patterns and insights in historical data enable fast and accurate decisions.
Data management and governance, unifying data coming from labor management systems and other warehouse systems, is a crucial step towards intelligent optimization.
Gartner, Best Practices for Managing Inventory Within Warehouse Operations, Abdil Tunca, Jose Reyes, Simon Tunstall, 22 October 2024.
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