Logistics News ME Forum | Panel 2: Warehousing in the supply chain
Warehousing has progressed in recent years by becoming more focused, sophisticated, accessible and automated. And it will continue to evolve to meet our needs as technology advances. Warehouses are no longer just storage rooms; they offer multiple suites of functions to meet the various needs of the user.
The Logistics News ME Forum was held on March 29, 2022 at Sofitel Dubai The Palm.
“Warehouse automation has evolved in recent years by becoming more strategic and necessary. Warehouse automation is now a simple process and automated warehouses are environmentally friendly and sustainable. A piece of advice for warehouse users is to keep things simple, identify obstacles and challenges in operations, and ask the integrator to automate tasks.
“As industry experts, we look forward to seeing more automated high bay warehouses to reduce operating costs and increase capacity, accuracy, productivity and safety.”
Atanas Khagerian, Vice President of Sales (Middle East and Africa), Acme
“Customer demand and expectations have evolved exponentially, and the region is catching up to implement technologies that can meet this demand. Delivery windows used to be 1 week or 10 days, now they are just 1 hour. Success is no longer measured by maximum capacity, but rather by maximum execution – maximizing your speed with the customer, delivering packages accurately and on time.
“Therefore, the next evolution of warehouse automation technology focuses on increased standardization to further reduce deployment times without compromising functionality. Automation helps address several operational issues such as achieving efficiency and productivity goals, managing storage unit sprawl, reducing errors, and minimizing reliance on human labor.
David Dronfield, Managing Director, Swisslog Middle East
“E-commerce is an area we are focusing more on as we transition to business-to-consumer (B2C) commerce, which puts more stress on our warehouses and resources. helps reduce pressure by better planning your volume, managing lead times and labor, providing round-the-clock support, and preventing the cause of the COVID-19 outbreak.
“He is also closely associated with the Lean and CI methodologies that we apply across GAC Contract Logistics – Dubai to ensure that we provide our customers with a lean supply chain. We evolve with the times. Businesses struggle to maintain operations and plan for major strategic changes. Automation makes our supply chains much more flexible, agile and localized as a complete end-to-end logistics solution, which will evolve further in the months and years to come.
Trevor Stamp, Managing Director – Contract Logistics, GAC Dubai
“The logistics and supply chain industries are changing at a rapid pace, and front-end customer portals and last-mile delivery won’t be able to do much. The data revolution is here, and it’s at the forefront of this industry. Customer expectations are changing exponentially, from multi-day delivery windows to two-hour deliveries and we are even seeing delivery times of 20 minutes. We can’t forget that precision and efficiency are what make or break a deal. For this to happen successfully, companies need to invest in warehouse automation that is right for their needs.
“Warehouse automation has evolved to meet these demands, modernizing warehouses from endless aisles of static racking and manual processes. The technology is there and improving all the time. Fully automated storage and retrieval systems, high throughput sorting systems and guided picking modules, all intelligently managed with highly advanced warehouse management systems.
Rami Younes, COO, ALS Logistic Solutions
