| |October 20179CIOReviewBy achieving smaller goals, while working towards a clear vision of the future, you can prepare for your business to emerge as a warehousing leader supply chain and in particular warehouse operations. To meet this need companies will need to invest in agile warehouse management systems that provide users with the ability to perform operations in real time. Automation will be used to expedite the increased throughput since these systems can perform these tasks much more rapidly than a human. Customised products continue to accelerate at a rapid pace. Customers increasingly want products that are unique to them and this has seen the emergence of customer specific products. In order to deal with this requirement companies are turning their warehouses into manufacturing or final assembly plants, whereby semi-finished goods are stored awaiting customer orders. At that point, the final processing or customisation is made to the desires of the specific customer and despatched in a timely manner. Technologies such as 3D printing and additive manufacturing are allowing this level of product customisation.Greater internal and external collaboration will be a key tenet to the running of an efficient and successful warehouse operation. As customers demand greater speed and responsiveness, the fulfilment channel will need to be able to anticipate their needs better and react in real time. This means it will be critical for executives to understand not only what is happening inside the warehouse, but also what is going on outside its four walls. Close collaboration with customers, stores and vendors will need to become the norm. Being aware of inventory levels and re-order points at each retail store will become business-as-usual. This means the warehouse must have advanced visibility, as well as the ability to actually plan and pick inventory in advance, so that employees won't find themselves in an emergency situation every day. Increased collaboration between all partners of the supply chain will lead to efficiencies in operations and give companies the ability to reduce excess inventory significantly.Start building the foundation today. Companies face major challenges in optimizing their warehouses for cost and service over the next decade. In order to conquer these and other obstacles to success, it is important to start your preparation today. Preparation means taking a step back to look at the bigger picture. Think about where your warehouse operations are today, and where they need to be. Then define some specific goals to put some key capabilities in place now. Over a reasonable timeline, define the improvements and investments your business needs to make. The sweeping changes in the warehousing and distribution industry in the coming years might seem overwhelming. The actions you need to take are too large to tackle at one time, so it is essential to begin acting now and making changes in an incremental fashion. By achieving smaller goals, while working towards a clear vision of the future, you can prepare for your business to emerge as a warehousing leader in the dramatically altered competitive landscape of the next decade. Patrick Viney
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