Welcome to the September 1st Warehouse & Logistics News. Dare we say it, Christmas isn’t that far away now, and already things are hotting up for retailers and their supply chains.
As the Christmas products start appearing in store, we bring you our first Christmas-related story of 2015, courtesy of Dematic and their innovative MonaLisa overhead pouch sortation system. In the article Dave Bull, Sales Manager at Dematic Northern Europe, explains how MonaLisa allows end users to smooth out and manage their order picking processes in distribution centres. Importantly, the system allows manual picking alongside batch picking operations for added ‘super flexibility’ in episodes of exceptional pre-Christmas on-line demand.
Also in this issue we have features on Pallet Networks, Cold Storage & Distribution and The Loading Bay. ‘Pallet Networks’ is a review of the major European, UK and regional pallet networks. ‘Cold Storage & Distribution’ takes a look at the latest vehicles, equipment, technology and services to help manufacturers and retailers keep their products at the correct temperature in the supply chain. And ‘The Loading Bay’ covers industrial doors, dock levelers and dock lifts.
In the early days of on-line shopping the visionaries foresaw that it would catch on massively, transforming the way consumer goods were bought and sold, and that e-fulfillment, the art of delivering the goods to the consumer, would become of paramount importance. All that came true, sure enough. But no one could have imagined the speed or the extent to which consumers would take up the online shopping habit, with its promise of delivering anything and everything at the last minute.
We’ve long been used to crowded pavements and traffic queues for high street shops before Christmas. But these days, as the Dematic MonaLisa story reminds us, it’s the online shopping operations where the pre-Christmas pressures are being felt as never before.
Globally, big single-day retailing events such as Black Friday and Cyber Monday, are putting retail supply chains under enormous stress. Last November the imported US retailing phenomenon dubbed Black Friday sent shock waves through UK and European retail supply chains too. Websites crashed and sales records tumbled as shoppers scooped up deals on tech, games and clothing in what was in many countries the biggest weekend of online shopping in history. In a single day IMRG, the UK industry association for online retail, estimated £810 million was spent online by British shoppers, creating a ‘mega spike’ in demand. Online shopping tracker Postcode Anywhere said the event resulted in over 400,000 orders being placed in just 24 hours. Will it happen again this year? Who knows? But you’d better start getting ready…
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