Worth between £180 million and £200 million in 2008, the UK market for data capture systems is holding up relatively well and in the long term will see double digit annual growth but system users will also see some technology trends and changes that provide food for thought.
One of the key trends driving change is e-commerce, rapidly taking an ever-larger slice of total sales. At the dawn of e-commerce, some firms built dedicated e-fulfilment centres but got their fingers burned, partly because they tried to make one handling system fit the needs of their various sales channels, says Craig Rollason, head of sales and marketing for Knapp UK. E-commerce orders, however, are quite different; they are more time-critical and have higher returns. Now companies are beginning to think about e-fulfilment separately from retail store replenishment, even if both functions are carried out under the same roof.
Technology advances are also changing order picking systems to make pick accuracy higher because returned goods caused by mispicks are very costly to handle and can loose customers. In the days when most order picking was paper-based, error rates could typically be 5% or more. The introduction of laser- read barcodes improved that error rate to 1% or less, where there was human intervention, and pick-to-light and voice-directed picking improved accuracy even more.
In certain applications pick accuracy is paramount. Some pharmaceutical customers in America face a regime of “three strikes and you are out,” in terms of misdelivery of controlled substances. The threat of the whole warehouse being closed down means that accuracy is king.
Now an even better system is promised by Knapp, who have developed a vision-directed picking solution, with pickers guided to each required pick location by superimposed arrow symbols that appear in a special pair of lightweight glasses. Goods to be picked are optically highlighted and an integrated camera reads barcodes, lot numbers and serial numbers to confirm the pick without any further human intervention. Accuracy is higher than with voice systems and the system should be available next year.
When RFID was introduced it was heralded as the next quantum leap in item tracking and sortation but as usually hype overcame reality. One problem was the cost of passive tags but these have now fallen dramatically and thanks to miniaturisation can now be in incorporated in luggage labels. This could become a boon to airlines where luggage transfer from feeder airports to national airports involves double handling and much smudging of barcodes, leading to delayed and lost luggage.
RFID is not, as yet, seen as a replacement for barcodes generally but rather a complementary supporting technology, well-integrated into specific applications like high value asset tracking and tracking at consignment level.
Warehouse & Logistics News
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