This article was originally published at Epicor's The Shop Floor. View original post here 

A few weeks ago, I had the privilege to represent Radwell International at the first Swisslog Autostore User Conference just outside of Chicago, Illinois. Radwell is one of a rapidly growing network of Autostore users. Many of which are on the leading edge of robotic automated storage and retrieval systems.  Our Autostore has been operational now almost 2 years and boasts 34 robots, 50,000 bins and 9 stations.

From the conference I had 3 major takeaways that I would like to share with others that are interested in the Autostore or automated systems in general.

Small to mid-sized companies face many challenges in today’s business climate. In the “Amazon” era, customer

expectations continue to rise, presenting a great need for businesses to continually improve processes and methods. This constant need for improvement is all in the hopes of mitigating challenges and turning them into wins throughout the customer buying cycle. 

In terms of shipping customer products, the struggle can be very real. There are many things to consider and often overcome. A manual shipping system requires accessible inventory and humans to execute every aspect of bringing that inventory to customers. Inventory must be chosen based on a customer’s order and picked so that it can be packaged. The item must then be sent through a series of checks before it is packaged in the correct sized box and weighed for shipping. After the item is labeled, the correct shipping method must be chosen. The prepared shipment must be brought to the end of the shipping cycle for sorting prior to carrier pickup. There is a lot of movement in a manual system and humans must execute the steps within a manual system.