How to Digitalize Your Warehouse Without Complexity

Chuck Rusch is the Vice President of Marketing and Product Management with AbeTech, a Zebra Premier Solution Partner.

Every warehouse wants to be as efficient and cost effective as possible, especially smaller ones that are trying to keep up with growing customer demand and take advantage of growth opportunities. Yet, manual processes and legacy systems often get in the way.

And though upgrading your warehouse to digital systems and automated processes will easily solve these problems, trying to do it on your own can be overwhelming.

Modern mobility, scanning, printing, RFID, sensing and automation technologies can seem complicated or like they’re designed for only the biggest warehouses and distribution centers (DCs). So, when you’re already busy managing day-to-day operations to ensure the smooth fulfillment of all orders, it can be hard to find the time and resources to research and implement the right solutions – even though that effort and those technologies will actually make the day-to-day easier.

This is why so many warehouses struggle to answer one key question: How can we digitalize our warehouse without the complexity and headaches?

Fortunately, the answer is quite simple, and it’s in black and white.

Enlist the Right Team of Experts to Focus Exclusively on the Task at Hand

AbeTech and Zebra have been helping warehouses achieve greater productivity and efficiency for decades, and we collaboratively embrace a very simple modernization “methodology” to help small-to-medium-sized businesses (SMB) gain the benefits of a digitalized and automated operation without putting any burden onto their labor resources.

We call it “U.S.E.: Understand, Simplify, and Enable”:

• An entire team of AbeTech and Zebra experts well versed in both technology and supply chain operations will sit down with you (even if it’s just in front of a screen) to fully understand your current challenges. We will also discuss future ambitions and performance expectations.
• We’ll then recommend specific hardware and software upgrades that will help you enable major improvements quickly and simply. If you have cost concerns or want to take a more incremental approach to modernization to reduce the risk of disruptive change, we’ll help you weigh all options and find the right solution for right now. (For example, Zebra offers a unique trade-in program that makes new technology investments feasible for those who are financially constrained but ready to migrate from Windows® to Android™ mobility solutions, replace competitor devices with a Zebra solution, or take advantage of new features and functionality not offered on legacy platforms.)
• Once you’re ready, we’ll be the ones to deploy and support your solutions (for life). Your team’s involvement will be minimal, unless you want it to play a larger role.

We know that you can’t afford for modernization efforts to disrupt operations, and we realize that budgets may not allow for a complete overhaul of systems in processes in one fell swoop. That’s why we work so diligently together, and with you, to tailor a solution set that will help your team immediately – and progressively – become more efficient and productive with every task, from shipping and receiving to picking and inventory management. There is no one-size-fits-all technology solution, but there are tangible options for warehouses and DCs of all sizes.

Whether you require a better barcode scanning, RFID, mobile computing, or warehouse management and inventory system, we come up with the right combination of hardware and software to achieve your operational and business goals, without you having to take on all the responsibility on your own. Even better, we are the ones who will figure out how best to install all technology solution components, integrate them with your other systems and processes, and train your workers on how to use them. This way, you can stay focused on your business and managing your operations.

The Takeaway

You need modern technology systems, but you also need them to be simple and easy to use. They must work right away – and always. They must also be implemented without difficulty, delay or disruption. The “show must go on,” as they say, and stopping even a single workflow for a few seconds to implement a change can have consequences that impact the execution of every other workflow within your four walls – and the flow of your supply chain.

That’s why “simplicity” is the whole idea behind what we do at AbeTech and Zebra. Our warehousing solutions are scalable, customizable and incredibly easy to use. And they’re ready-made for SMBs that are ready to take the first (or next) step toward greater warehouse maturation. More importantly, our engagement model is straightforward. You tell us about your workflows, and we’ll tell you which technologies will work best to eliminate bottlenecks so that you can improve the efficiency, accuracy and outcomes of all actions taken within your four walls.

Does That Sound Like a Winning Proposition for Your Warehouse?

Contact our experts at AbeTech to learn more about how we work with Zebra to design, deploy and manage the technologies you’ll need to sustain your warehouse operations as market conditions change, customer expectations evolve and competition increases.