International Warehousing and Logistics Company Creates Its First Automated Warehouse in the U.S.

Introduction

An international warehousing and logistics company decided to create their first automated warehouse in the United States. Automation would help increase efficiency and productivity, meet customer demand, and expedite turnaround time for both retailers and customers. With Levvel’s help, the client’s end goal was to ultimately reach full warehouse automation.

Challenge

Keeping pace in the food distribution space was a challenge as reliance on manual and paper processes affected the client’s ability to swiftly meet customer demand. To stay competitive, product delivery, efficiency, and timeliness were at the forefront of the client’s mind.

Approach

Levvel’s mission was to spearhead automation efforts by building an application that could shift the client to a paperless warehouse. A user research assessment evaluated the general process of automation, looking at where paper is being currently used within warehouse processes.

Once the development stage was underway, the logistics client needed to:

• Build a front-end application to help reduce waste (and paper) in the warehouse
• Create a digital experience to track charges (versus physically writing them down)
• Integrate with physical hardware in warehouse
• Generate new code to bridge gap between outdated WMS (warehouse management system) for a more modern environment

Results

Since enabling warehouse automation, the logistics client has been able to promote delivery productivity and efficiency. Inbound and outbound food distribution lanes are fully operational and have seen improvements from a customer, employee, and safety perspective:

Customer Success

• More efficient service delivery for client’s customers
• Increased delivery quality; more accurate and on-time deliveries
• Less mistakes on billing for services

Employee Success

• Improved unloading and loading speeds directly led to increased performance-based compensation for employees
• Less time spent in the warehouse where cold temperatures are common
• Boosted warehouse worker morale

Safety in Manufacturing

• Automation created less service interruptions
• Warehouse injuries greatly reduced
• Implemented new safety protocols for moving products on and off trucks

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