This form of technology serves to not only eliminate unneeded expenses, as it does the work that previously required numerous employees and technology formats, at a relatively low costs, it tracks and ships merchandise quicker and more accurately. Whereas in the past the function of product tracking and inventory maintenance involved a complex system of labels, bar codes and inkjet stenciling, according to Carver, "With RFID you have the ability to encode additional data, allowing you to track merchandise more precisely."
During the 1990s, the "future" of warehouses was seen as involving highly automate functions involving scanning and bar coding. However, these technologies were not only expensive to purchase, they were even more costly to implement into the warehouse's overall operation scheme. Thus, the result was that many warehouses failed to become automated due to the expense involved.
The future warehouses on the other hand, which like those of the 1990s will involve the use of technology, will avoid this same mistake by developing and implementing technologies that are costs and time efficient.
In order to accomplish this, the key to the new technologies will be flexibility. For this reason, warehouse technology must be high-functioning yet user friendly. To do this, the warehouse of the future must be designed with this new technology in mind. Since technology evolves rapidly and the warehouse must react to this evolution in order...
This will involve implementing a general design that will accommodate a highly automated warehouse that utilizes a warehouse management system. At the same time, as the use of direct interface systems become more commonplace, according to Conrad, "there will also be a convergence of software and people." Instead of a warehouse floor full of individual workers and forklifts, this same work will be done from a remote office location where the workers will be wired into a system using a touch screen or voice-activated technology.
Although exactly what the warehouse of the future will look like is impossible to say as the definition of the future keeps evolving as the technologies of the future keep evolving. However, what can be said for sure is that the look of a warehouse will change to a more technically efficient system that depends on highly trained individuals to operate. To accomplish this design, the warehouse of the future must be designed with flexibility in mind, a flexibility to accommodate the changes of technology in the future.
Bibliography
Graham, Douglass. "Warehouse of the Future: Software will Choreograph Tomorrow's Warehouse Work." Frontline Solutions. Duluth: Frontline, April 2003.
Thompkins, James, a., Smith, Jerry D. The Warehouse Management Handbook. Minneapolis: Tompkins Press, 1998.
