The manual warehouse is fast becoming a thing of the past. These days, DCs are increasingly turning to automation as they struggle to cope with a surging tide of e-commerce orders in the midst of a worsening labor shortage.
Vendors have stepped up to the demand. As a result, DC managers now have an unprecedented array of automated material handling systems to choose from. Options range from classic conveyor belts to automated storage and retrieval systems (AS/RS) and now to the latest entrant, autonomous mobile robots (AMRs).