Amazon.com Inc. has invited some of the world's biggest brands to its Seattle headquarters in an audacious bid to persuade them that it's time to start shipping products directly to online shoppers and bypass chains like Wal-Mart, Target and Costco.
Analyst Insight: The sharing economy has been disrupting and transforming industries, with companies like Uber disrupting the taxi industry and Airbnb disrupting the hospitality industry. Now, even the very mature space of warehousing is in the process of disruption as warehouse-sharing platforms emerge that are providing benefits to both shippers and facility owners. - John Santagate, research manager, IDC
Analyst Insight: The Internet of Things (IoT) was originally the concept of "things talking." In the early days we envisioned RFID tags on everything, helping to identify and locate any object in the universe. The RFID tag would uniquely identify the item, determine its location, and put a time stamp to the transaction. It was a straightforward concept. It was either there, or it was not. It was all about identity and location. – Eric Peters, executive vice president, Tompkins International
Deutsche Post DHL Group and Chinese technology conglomerate Huawei Technologies are collaborating on a range of supply chain services for customers using "industrial-grade internet-of-things hardware and infrastructure."
Amazon recently confirmed it will add 100,000 full-time jobs in the U.S. over the next 18 months, many of them at the new warehouses it is building to fulfill orders quickly and cheaply.
Consolidated Contracting Co. (CCC), one of the largest construction and engineering companies in the Middle East, has built and tested an active radio frequency identification-based tool to automatically capture data regarding the comings and goings of thousands of workers at several gas-production plants in the region.
Amazon has filed a patent for a flying warehouse that would deliver packages using a fleet of drones. The "airborne fulfilment centre", patented in the U.S., would consist of a giant airship that remains at high altitude while drones collect packages from it to deliver to locations on the ground.
Challenge: When this automotive OEM upgraded the warehouse management system for its largest distribution facility, it knew a better way to manage handheld equipment was needed. There was no way to track equipment and no employee accountability. Scanners were being hidden, lost and damaged almost daily. The cost of managing this valuable equipment increased as productivity decreased.
Supply chain solutions provider TouchPath is extending its TouchWMS warehouse management system with the addition of a "power picking" control center, the technology company has announced. The first TouchWMS Control Centre user - an unnamed international components manufacturer - reports early pick productivity increases of up to 50 percent as a result, according to TouchPath.
