Tag: Warehouse Technology

Blockchain Technology is Changing the Logistics Market

Blockchain Technology is Changing the Logistics Market
Blockchain Technology is Changing the Logistics Market

Blockchain has been called “the new Internet” due to its potential to revolutionize commerce just as significantly as the web did. Created for Bitcoin financial transactions, blockchain technology for logistics holds the key to open new trends for the logistics market.

From improving your record keeping with each warehouse equipment supplier to tracking your goods while they’re out on the truck, your company’s data can do more with blockchain technology.

What Is Blockchain Technology?

If you’ve used peer-to-peer downloading or Bitcoin, you’re familiar with blockchain technology already. Data gets stored across multiple stations rather than one central server. Imagine a single spreadsheet of all your inventory data— and that it can be accessed anywhere, updated in real-time, and stored with heightened security.

Benefits of Blockchain for Logistics

Blockchain makes logistics smoother, cheaper, more agile, and more future-proof. Specifically, just a few of the significant improvements and benefits of blockchain for logistics:

• Share unused space in a warehouse, trailer, or intermodal container

• Optimize truck routes and shipping logistics

• Create an easily accessible, constantly updated database of transactions

• Provide status updates on goods in transit

• Use “smart contracts” to handle transactions without lawyers

• Eliminate errors and missing data from paperwork issues

Logistics Technology Trends

At DJ Products, we keep up with the latest logistics news to help you stay informed. As a warehouse equipment supplier, we also bring you solutions for better warehouse productivity. Our industrial cart movers, trailer tows, truck pushers, and other material handling solutions help your team move at the new speeds made possible by improved logistics.

Contact us to speak with a warehouse equipment supplier specialist at DJ Products.

Mobile Computers and Their Role in the New Warehouse Landscape

Mobile Computers and Their Role in the New Warehouse Landscape
Mobile Computers and Their Role in the New Warehouse Landscape

The digital age has made its presence known with material handling equipment, but is warehouse intelligence as effective as it could be? Hardware and software experts are working to use mobile computers for a more integrated communications system.

Mobile Computers: Expanding the Horizons

Mobile touchscreen computers are making it easier for lift truck operators to handle the work flow. According to Mike Maris, senior director of transportation and logistics at Zebra Technologies, they could be even more efficient if the technology was integrated into one central communications point.

Directing a lift truck from point A to point B is only part of the equation. Each lift truck is part of an entire fleet of vehicles that needs to be managed, and maintenance also needs information to keep the trucks in good working order.

Instead of simply communicating work orders, mobile computers have the potential to handle a number of data streams. Different screens can be dedicated to different functions, such as one that provides task instructions and another that relays maintenance information or real-time maps.

Better Technology = Improved Productivity

Maris explains that the mobile computer on a lift truck can serve as a point of communication to broader systems rather than just a portal restricted to one vehicle. Streamlining the process can pay off with a 10 to 15 percent improvement in productivity.

State-of-the-Art Material Handling Equipment from DJ Products

Maximizing your work force is a major element of top productivity. Visit our website to learn how using electric material handling equipment such as our CartCaddyLite can be like adding an extra employee.

Amazon’s Robotic Warehouses Are Shifting the Warehousing Industry to Focus on Robots to Stay Competitive

Technology is Coming to Warehouses to Improve Efficiency
Robots Are Coming to Warehouses to Improve Efficiency

When Amazon acquired the leading warehouse robotics company, Kiva Systems, in 2012, some feared that the e-commerce giant would monopolize the technology. Instead, we’ve seen a boom of competition for robotics innovation.

Fortunately, fears of lost jobs due to automation have also been tempered. Warehouse equipment, whether it’s a robot or powered tug, can serve to reduce physical injuries and stress for warehouse workers.

From third-party logistics to robotic picking and transporting, warehouse automation continues to evolve and diversify thanks to the healthy competition from robotics firms.

How Warehousing Itself Has Changed

In many ways, it’s not just Amazon but rather the rise of e-commerce itself that has changed warehousing. Instead of loading shipments for brick-and-mortar stores, warehouses are more often packing individual shipments for customers.

For the human workers, picking countless items comes with a heavy physical toll. Repetitive stress injuries, back and neck injuries, and pure exhaustion have long been par for the course. With a powered tug to transport items, or even a robotic picker to locate items for a human to grab, the work becomes less demanding and more manageable.

Protect and Empower Human Workers

Today’s robotics and automated warehouse equipment are not replacing all the humans. The technology can actually make people’s jobs better. As Rick Faulk of Locus recently told reporters, “Now it’s about humans and robots working collaboratively.”

Is your company doing enough to stay competitive and keep up with warehousing technology? Simple and effective steps like removing a time-consuming physical task can easily translate into huge efficiency gains. Consider what our powered tug and cart puller equipment can do for your warehouse.

The Internet of Things (IoT) Arrives at the Warehouse

Warehouse truck works
The Smart Warehouse via the IoT is Coming

What impact has the Internet of Things (IoT) and “smart” technology had on the supply chain? A study shows that 70% of decision makers plan to implement a smart warehouse system by the year 2020. Leveraging IoT can significantly improve speed and efficiency throughout your entire supply chain.

Benefits of Smart Warehouses

According to the report (at link) from Zebra Technologies, the shift toward direct-to-consumer shipping is the primary driver behind increased use of technology. By 2020, retailers are projected to spend more than $2.5 billion outfitting warehouses with IoT.

Smart warehouses offer greater accuracy and transparency since real-time data can be accessed immediately, regardless of where employees and products are. Many IoT devices are “wearables” that free employees from the limitations of workstations.

IoT in Today’s Workplaces

How are major companies currently using IoT technology to modernize their supply chain operations?

  • UPS is testing the use of smart glasses to reduce the amount of labeling on packages.
  • Lids, an athletic sportswear company, has installed an Internet of Everything (IoE)-based robotics system to pick items and transport them to employees.
  • Amazon, one of the giants in direct-to-consumer sales, is augmenting its human workforce with more than 30,000 robots to process and ship customer orders.

State-of-the-Art Warehouse Handling Equipment from DJ Products

Successful companies also put a priority on safe warehouse operations. Our battery-powered warehouse handling equipment lets a single employee move the heaviest of loads safely and efficiently. Tugs and movers like our popular CartCaddyLite are ergonomically designed to reduce repetitive motion injuries.

Visit our website and use the handy online chat feature to learn more from our sales engineers.