Did you know intralogistics can improve the productivity of a company’s logistics processes?
This document explains how intralogistics 4.0 works and how it can offer multiple benefits for your business.
What is intralogistics?
Intralogistics includes all loading, handling, and transportation processes involving goods within a company; both among the different departments (assembly, packaging, warehouse, etc.) and among different facilities in the same company. Even though it sounds easy, it certainly often requires many resources and is as complex as B2B or B2C logistics.
When employed correctly, we can limit the time it takes products to leave the manufacturing line and proceed to loading and shipping. Thus, we can lower the time of manufacturing, the warehousing costs and, even, the speed of delivery. As you can see, this is a process we often overlook but that can prove most beneficial for a business.
How does it improve the logistics process?
Intralogistics is an improvement tool for all processes involved in a company’s or business’ logistics. Technological advances make it more complex but also improve it. You can find a list below of advantages resulting from integrating these processes to a company’s logistics.
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Planning and organization of solutions
Being quick to address the planning and organization of solutions can help us save time and resources. Especially if we need to move goods from one facility to another.
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Optimizing controls and machines
We can optimize the use of controls and machines to ensure they are working at their full capacity. This allows us to lower the risks of accidents and improve the overall productivity.
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Automating the logistics processes
Automation is essential and is being increasingly requested as it represents an improvement in terms of ergonomics as well as an improvement of the whole transportation process, which becomes more efficient and safer for workers.
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Managing warehouses
This is a key aspect. By managing warehouses correctly, we can lower costs and expedite the handling of stock. Products will arrive earlier, in better shape, and with less effort.
Thus, intralogistics processes – supported by technology – not only improve the manufacturing chain but also outsourced logistics, which makes it a tool that boosts growth and improvement in companies. Intralogistics makes processes safer, quicker, and more efficient.
Why does the digital transformation of logistics
benefit the industry?
The digital transformation of logistics implies using robot technology and automating certain tasks. We know this as Logistics 5.0, which integrates to logistics and processes internally. The automotive industry is a pioneer in the use of this kind of technology. However, it has become increasingly necessary to integrate it in other industries’ intralogistics processes progressively.
There are multiple benefits in implementing the 5.0 technology. Nevertheless, the main and foremost goal of integrating these techniques is to improve workers’ safety by using robots for certain risky tasks. Let us think about this: how many serious accidents have we been able to avoid by using the right technology? Too many to count.
Integrating automation to the communication and data exchange processes also represents a benefit as it speeds up these procedures, which frequently present delays and, thus, result in inefficiency. By implementing this, the time and energy we put on these processes can be used for other tasks and, as a result, we can lower the levels of stress associated to these areas.
The challenges of intralogistics automation and
robotics
Sure enough, automating and using robots in industries implies challenges. In this sense, we must stop looking at robots and technology as enemies of workers. Instead, we must make it clear that they are beneficial as tools that improve the safety and health of employees.
Acknowledging the challenges and benefits that the collaboration of humans and machines can bring to the industry is the starting point for incorporating this technology in the industry in the near future. Even though they are still in their infancy, 5.0 technologies are clearly the future of intralogistics processes. Thus, the trends of logistics for 2021 are based on robotics and smart technologies.
Logistics with an eye on the future
As we could see, intralogistics processes involve a set of techniques that – together with process automation and robotics – are the future of logistics.
Choosing to use top-notch intralogistics in your company is the first step towards growing and improving all the aspects we have analyzed in this document. Do not wait too long and move forward towards achieving an efficient in-house logistics.
