With what appears to be growing interest in automation in distribution, driven by severe labor issues for many shippers and more, Softeon commissioned a survey and report on a variety of topics relevant to materials handling systems and warehouse software.

The report is based on survey data from a wide variety of business sectors, led by retailers and consumer goods companies of all sorts, but many other industry sectors as well.

The full report will be available soon, but here’s a little preview.

In our last episode, we discussed some of the ways efficiency can be improved with the right software tools. Here are some more ways you can optimize Cart Picking in ways you may not know about...

How warehouse software can optimize cart picking in ways you probably don’t currently know about.

In our last episode, we discussed how Softeon and Thru-Put Partners produced a webinar on the “7 Uncommon Keys to End-End WMS Success.”

We covered the first 4 of those tips, which included:

• Understanding WMS Value Upfront

This week, the final three uncommon tips...

Recently, Softeon and Thru-Put Partners – a leading supply chain consulting firm – produced a webinar with Modern Materials Handling Magazine on the “7 Uncommon Keys to End-End WMS Success.”

On this podcast we’ll cover the first 4 of those, and we promise these will be a little different than tips you might have heard from others.

In this week’s Logistics Insights podcast, we sort out the WMS, WCS and WES flavors of warehouse software.

Gartner recently held its virtual Supply Chain Symposium for 2021.

That included a session on Warehouse Management Systems, or WMS, led by well-known Gartner analyst, Dwight Klappich.

During the session, Klappich detailed what he sees as key trends in WMS technology moving forward. As an intro to those trends, Klappich first noted that Warehouse Management Systems are getting smarter.

In this week’s Logistics Insights podcast, a look at three key trends in warehouse management systems, including the move to the Cloud, the rise of Warehouse Execution Systems and the increasing support for automation, such as for mobile robots and putwall systems.

Labor challenges in US distribution are as high as we have ever seen. Almost everyone is scrambling for labor, and few are able to hire and retain all the DC labor they need.

Facing similar challenges, tool maker Hilti launched a program earlier this year to revolutionize the way it treats DC workers, across more than a dozen facilities in the US.

Here's a fact: if a company is deploying a new WMS solution, unless they are already using Voice or other picking technologies such as pick-to-light or “put walls,” these types of technologies are almost never designed in from the start, even if there is great interest in them for down the road.

But is that really the right approach?