Published April 3, 2018
What is the best environment for balancing employee performance with operating costs?
Employees perform better when they can work in a comfortable environment; but controlling the climate in a warehouse comes at a cost. Finding the right balance of climate control and worker performance requires information and analysis. If data can be collected and stored in one place to measure HVAC operating time and costs, worker transactional statistics, and real time climate conditions, the answer is achievable. The effect of incremental climate adjustments on worker performance can be analyzed to determine the lowest cost change for the best efficiency. IoT platforms are making these types of insights possible.
What are the sources of labor productivity gaps?
Productivity gaps in large workforces exist, but are difficult to measure, especially when seasonal labor is involved. New applications of tracking technologies are making this question easier to answer. Employee distance, time, and task movement can be captured in real time from wireless devices utilizing RFID, Bluetooth, or wideband. This tracking information can be combined with transactional metrics to build productivity profiles for each worker. Pick paths and patterns can be identified to establish true labor standards. Areas for productivity improvement can be discovered, and the success of improvement initiatives can be accurately measured.
How can we move beyond the information silos in the warehouse?
Technology in today’s warehouses offers an abundance of information, but it is difficult to harness the power of this information. Much of this data is trapped in technology silos, requiring one to access multiple systems to learn. Identifying actionable insights of significant magnitude requires the ability to perform cross platform analysis. This can only be achieved when information from disparate sources is stored in one place. New IoT platforms are providing the capability to collect, cleanse, and harmonize information from people and machines in a common place and format, enabling this holistic view of operations.
How can SensorThink help you?
SensorThink is the first digital platform to bring The Connected Warehouse to life. Every piece of information can be collected, processed, and analyzed, allowing you to see and analyze your operations in a way never before possible. For the first time, tie all of the elements of production, performance, and execution into one platform. SensorThink is a Warehouse Execution System (WES), Internet of Things (IoT) platform, and data analytics engine built for the warehouse in the Digital Age. In addition, SensorThink can manage your operations, security, maintenance, and environmental controls in one place. SensorThink truly is a control tower for all your warehouse operations.
More Resources:
- Video: Introducing SensorThink
- Video: SensorThink IoT Series: Episode 1: Introduction
- Events: Modex
