technologyreview AUTO ID
SPIRAL CONVEYING.
STRAIGHT UP.
As the market leader in spiral
conveyors in the logistic industry we
think of solutions for handling cases &
SKU’s. It’s what we do.
At AmbaFlex it’s not just about
building the right equipment, it’s
about developing a special solution
for you. Here’s to spiral conveying.
Spiral elevators for goods-to-man
systems, picking modules and sorting
systems.
BY AMBAFLEX | WWW.AMBAFLEX.COM
8-001_ADV_packaging_AW_MHPN.indd 1 24-01-14 13: 32 56 DC VELOCITY JULY 2016 www.dcvelocity.com
Engle adds that the lights-out approach is best suited to
“low-variability” operations that process the same size items
all the time. That’s because highly tailored material handling systems can be thrown off when confronted by items
of a wide variety of dimensions. Processing diverse goods
can lead to high failure rates on tasks like aligning parcels on
a conveyor or distinguishing between similar stock-keeping
units (SKUs).
“A lights-out facility is more possible in less-variable parts
of logistics, where people are moving a large portion of the
same types of objects,” Engle said. Examples of these dark
warehouse operations would be a facility that distributes
standard-sized packages of processed foods or a soda bottling plant that processes identical 12-packs of cans.
HURDLES INCLUDE COST, FLEXIBILITY
Still, many challenges remain to building an entirely dark
facility capable of running without human intervention.
“People are talking about the dark warehouse,” Engle said.
“It’s a great goal—if we could achieve that, it would have a
massive impact on operations and cost structure—but it’s a
very challenging quest.”
For example, in a conventional warehouse, mislabeled
packages or torn boxes can be rerouted to a conveyor’s
“hospital lane,” where they are directed to workers who
can repair the damage, he said. That type of workaround
becomes much harder in a building without people. For
that reason, current installations of dark warehouse tech-
nology are usually found in corners of larger facilities,
where they can run independently but still draw on human
help for the occasional error.
When it comes to the widespread adoption of the dark
warehouse approach, perhaps the biggest hurdle is cost,
as facilities strive to balance the investment in automation
with the value of the goods they handle.
“You need to ask the question: Is the automation of every
activity going to lead to an efficient warehouse?” said John
Ashodian, marketing manager for logistics automation at
Sick Inc., a company that produces sensors and sensor solu-
tions for industrial automation applications. “You could
fully automate with robotics and other equipment, but is
that a cost-effective way to automate the supply chain?”
In contrast, this degree of sophistication may be harder to
justify in logistics, where workers handle lower-value items
and operations are held to tight profit margins. A critical
step in closing that gap in any lights-out facility is choosing
the most reliable auto ID technology from a growing menu
of options that includes radio-frequency identification
(RFID), one-dimensional (linear) and two-dimensional
