WAREHOUSING MARCH 2020
chain are getting much more
airtime within manufacturing
companies, which is obviously
great for us as supply chain
experts,” he says. “Certainly at
the boardroom level, the impact
– positive and negative – that an
effi cient or, more to the point,
an ineffi cient supply chain can
have on a business is massive.
Manufacturers are constantly
trying to make themselves
as effi cient and cost eff ective
as possible by driving that
continuous improvement agenda
to reduce their operating costs.
Therefore, the warehousing and
distribution discussion is a key
part in a much wider change. It’s
all about being more effi cient in
what you do, to optimise your
facility to do as much as possible.”
the room. Much has been
theorised about the
managers, like anyone
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32
Time for automation?
We’re 1,000 words into an
article about warehousing
and supply chains and yet
to mention the elephant in
impact of Brexit
on the UK’s
ability to trade
freely overseas
– something
that may stop
the massive
warehouses
in their tracks.
Warehouse
involved in industry, must be
aware of the political climate,
warns Goldrick. “There’s a
number of global pressures
to be aware of, of which Brexit is one,” he says.
“In the UK we export a signifi cant amount of our
products and services, and that’s a massive driver
towards our GDP. Being aware of the economics
in in overseas markets, really drives what happens
in the UK. For example, we saw some challenges
in the auto sector, especially around importing
cars to China, that dramatically aff ected quite a
large number of our customers in a negative way.
It’s all about keeping a very close eye on political
and economic situations and putting mitigation
plans in place, but also the on the fl ip side look
for the opportunities that are created.”
However, Brexit is causing issues far beyond
the political wranglings of who will be able to
trade with who. The warehousing industry, like
manufacturing, relies heavily on overseas labour.
The most recent statistics by the Migration
Advisory Committee estimated that around a
fi fth of all warehouse staff are from the European
Economic Area (the EU member states, plus
Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway). Kemp warns
that since the Brexit vote in 2016, the number
of people available to work in warehousing has
fallen dramatically. This has meant the need to
automate has become more pressing.
“Inevitably, with the lack of resource, we are
seeing a drive towards automation,” he says.
“And it’s not a drive towards automation, where
people have been thinking about the business case
of automation and whether or not it’s the right
thing to do. The push to automation has been in
order to provide business continuity because of
the lack of people – put simply, if they don’t start
automating, they will not be able to continue to
provide the same service.”
This isn’t anything new. Kemp tells of how
he visited a fi sh processing facility in Spain
last year, where he saw 30-year-old automation
the same. Size isn’t important – it’s the way
it’s used that matters.
“The real trend is towards working your
assets harder,” concludes Kemp. “It might not
always be the case that you can move to a bigger
facility – it might take too long or might not be
available. Therefore, you’ve got to modify what
you have. That might be redefi ning product fl ows,
reimagining how you are going to do some of
your operations, putting in mezzanines, maybe
extending your current warehouse if you’re
lucky enough to have the space. Whatever you
do, you’ve got to work the spaces harder.”
“Companies like Amazon are
building massive facilities to
meet growing next-day demand”
Murray Goldrick, VP business development, DHL (pictured, inset)
technology rumbling away. Similarly, Pentadel
has been working with a national food kit
preparation facility that has recently
installed automated lines that do the
job of 100 people. This, he says, was
necessary due to a “chronic lack”
of people wanting to work there.
Working harder
Whether your warehouse is a
massive out-of-town facility or
an on-site storeroom, the challenges
of running it effi ciently will largely be
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