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Published on: 11/2/2002
Last Visited: 11/2/2002
Retailers need to be careful about what kind of equipment they invest in, as warehouse environments can be quite rough, says James Bianco, president of Control Module, a maker of hardware terminals that are mounted at each door of the distribution center.Hardware, for example, will be exposed to the elements.It's no surprise that Bianco is an advocate of fixed systems, saying that hand-held systems are "prone to being lost or dropped."In general, a retailer might want to go with a mobile hardware solution, such as a hand-held scanner, in a pure warehouse environment and a fixed device, such as a scanner attached to a conveyer, in a manufacturing environment or a warehouse that makes use of automated picking.
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Bianco says that small organizations may not benefit from cross docking."For the hardware and software, it can cost at least $2,000 a door," he says."And in some cases $5,000 to $10,000 a door."Symbol's Ogletree says that retailers need to review whether their warehouses were built before cross docking started to become more prevalent in the mid-1980s."Some retailers have facilities that were built prior to the popularity of cross docking," he says."If you've got 50 doors and 50 trailers, you may not have the physical square footage to move stuff around."GartnerGroup's Chernofsky says that because many retailers don't have their ordering systems linked up with their warehouse management system, cross docking isn't utilized as often as it could be.For example, many times when an item is on back order, the warehouse management system is not aware of it, and therefore the product is not expedited via cross docking as soon as it comes into the warehouse."Cross docking now is still more of a goal than a reality," he says.For more information, go to infoNOW at www.risnews.com:
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