mano robotica rivolta verso l'alto

How to Optimize Your Warehouse with AI

SPS Fulfillment

If you have a stock business, then you are surely struggling with managing your warehouse which, as you surely already know, is often quite difficult, expensive and tedious.

Have you ever thought about getting help from an AI (artificial intelligence) to manage your warehouse? Well, there are already several companies that do it and in this article we want to give you some ideas on how to optimize the warehouse with AI and help you understand all the advantages that an AI could bring to the management of your warehouse.

Index

How AI Can Help with Warehouse Management

First, let's see how AI can help in warehouse management by analyzing some of the great advantages that can be gained.

One of the first things is undoubtedly an improvement in inventory management . Thanks to an AI it is possible to predict what the demand for a certain product will be from customers in a specific period of time and therefore to predict the demand for that product . An AI obviously does not do this miraculously, rather it relies on historical sales data and market trends and on the basis of this data it proceeds to offer useful advice on how many products to order.

Obviously, this allows you not to order excessive quantities of products that would otherwise remain gathering dust in the warehouse, furthermore, it obviously also saves money, since you only order the right quantity of products.

Another interesting advantage that AI can offer is the automation of operations . The use of machines and robots is already present in many companies, but few or very few use machines and robots managed by AI for picking and packing processes. We think that it is only a matter of time and soon AI will be able to completely replace many jobs that warehouse workers do today. A robot managed by AI does not need breaks, does not get tired, does not need to be paid and these are big advantages that AI can offer to a company. On the other hand, the huge issue of AI stealing our jobs opens up, but we talked about this in this article on our blog [put link].

Another benefit that can come from using AI in your warehouse is better internal inventory management . AI can be a great help in keeping track of all the products that are present in the warehouse, those that have left and those that need to leave, in order to help the warehouse manager (that is, you) make informed decisions.

Leaving the warehouse now, an AI can also help you better plan the route that the courier will have to take , in order to optimize time and costs. Then, in reality, within a few years we expect that it will be the AI ​​itself, perhaps via drones, to make the deliveries. There are already some companies like Amazon and Zipline that make deliveries with drones , but only in some areas. We talked about this topic in detail in our article dedicated to drones [insert link].

Which companies are already using AI in their warehouse?

humanoid robot

There are already some companies that use AI to manage their warehouse. We will briefly tell you about some of them right below.

Amazon

Amazon uses AI extensively in its warehouses, here are some examples:

  • Kiva Robots : Amazon acquired Kiva Systems (now Amazon Robotics) in 2012. Kiva robots transport shelves full of products directly to warehouse workers, reducing picking time and increasing overall efficiency.
  • Inventory Management : Amazon uses machine learning algorithms to analyze historical sales data, market trends, and seasonality to forecast product demand. This helps maintain optimal inventory levels.
  • Computer Vision : Amazon uses computer vision technologies to verify order accuracy and identify product defects.
  • Delivery Optimization : AI algorithms improve delivery efficiency by dynamically planning routes, taking into account traffic conditions and order priorities.
  • Drones : Thanks to the Amazon Prime Air service, Amazon has already introduced the possibility of making deliveries with drones in some areas of the United States. At the moment it is in the experimental phase and it is possible to deliver only light packages.

Other Companies

Besides Amazon, there are other companies that are implementing AI in their warehouse management:

  • Zara : Uses AI to forecast demand and optimize inventory, minimizing inventory overages and shortages.
  • Alibaba : It has introduced AI-powered robots in its warehouses to improve the efficiency of picking and packing operations.
  • Walmart : Uses AI to analyze sales data and manage inventory in real time, improving product availability and reducing costs.

Implementing AI in warehouse management requires initial investment, but the long-term benefits can be significant in terms of efficiency, costs, and customer satisfaction. However, we are still a long way from an AI that does everything by itself without any human intervention.

Back to blog