When it comes to your company’s supply chain, it can be easy to stick with what has worked in the past. If your firm has been around for a while, there’s a good chance you’re still doing inventory counts, picking, packing, and other manual activities.
Manual methods, on the other hand, are not only antiquated, but also inefficient and even harmful to your company.
Automation has revolutionized the business world, allowing merchants to take advantage of it in their supply chains. Thanks to cutting-edge technology, businesses may now harness the power of automation. When correctly employed, supply chain automations can save precious money and time, improve your business’ productivity, and prepare it for the future.
In this post, we’ll go over what supply chain automation is, the benefits and drawbacks, which processes may be automated, and how a tool like Launch Fulfillment can assist you in automating your logistics.
What is supply chain automation?
Automated processing is a method of taking advantage of technology to carry out or streamline supply chain activities without the need for human attention, effort, or input.
A company may save time and money by utilizing automation technologies such as machine learning, artificial intelligence, and digital process automation to automate certain business processes in the supply chain.
Furthermore, this reduces waste and saves time.
Benefits of supply chain automation
Automating your supply chain processes might provide a number of advantages. Here are some of the ways that automating your supply chain may benefit you.
Automating manual tasks
Supply chain management allows your company to distribute human time and energy away from menial, time-consuming chores in order to focus it on more complicated activities that require a personal touch.
Tasks such as creating essential papers, processing orders, allocating picking slots, and paying bills are all examples of time-consuming processes.
Automating these processes allows you to assign them to technology solutions that can do the work more quickly, while freeing human employees to focus on things that require human interaction.
This enhances your efficiency by not wasting your employees’ time and potential on things that another company could accomplish.
Minimizing human errors
Humans make mistakes — and, when activities are carried out manually, something almost certainly goes wrong.
Automation eliminates people from the equation and thus reduces your risk of error, as well as preventing mistakes such as:
- Accidentally duplicating an orders
- Incorrectly entering data from inventory or order details
- Entering inaccurate customer information (email, phone number, shipping address, etc.)
- Picking & packing the wrong item in an order
Increasing visibility
It takes a lot of work, communication, connectivity, and commitment from both merchants, suppliers, and service providers to maintain visibility.
Information is stored and updated in near real-time through digital automation. This allows relevant parties to obtain vital information when it is most needed, monitor inventory, and communicate swiftly throughout the supply chain by allowing them to access important data whenever they need it.
It also lowers the time it takes for your goods to reach their destination. Increased visibility allows you to quickly discover and address bottlenecks, avoiding further delays and disruptions while also increasing overall efficiency.
Improved customer experience
Customers will also benefit from your use of automation in streamlining your supply chain. A largely automated supply chain delivers correct orders promptly and on schedule, ensuring that your clients are delighted with their purchases.