What changes is your warehouse implementing this year to increase your operational efficiency? A lot of warehouses will be looking at factors like implementing the ABC system, optimizing receiving areas, and reducing overall inventory levels. While these are valid ways of increasing productivity within the warehouse environment, it's not addressing one of the most fundamental parts of the materials handling process: how you handle the product.
Improving how your team handles product can be a key factor in increasing productivity and achieving operational efficiency. Through an examination of your current methods, you may find that it's time for your warehouse to put Intelligent Lift Assist Devices (ILDs) to work. Here's why more and more warehouses are using them and how they might be the right solution for your efficiency concerns.
Many warehouses augment their labor force's ability to quickly, safely, and efficiently handle materials through the use of Intelligent Lift Assist Devices (ILDs). If you don't know what ILDs are already, you will soon. They are quickly becoming a mainstay in the materials handling industry. So much so that the Robotics Industries Association put together a team to define what Lift Assist Devices are and how they function.
At the most basic levels, Lift Assist Devices are ergonomic handling equipment that augments the user's lifting capabilities with servo drive systems. ILDs can take a variety of forms, but one key feature is that they are ergonomic. ILDs behave like a natural extension of the worker's arms and hands. The Intelligent Lift Assist Devices using sensing technology that allows them to translate the user's force into precise movements.
The applications for ILDs are nearly limitless in the manufacturing, distribution, and assembly industries. Lift Assist Devices are being incorporated in factories and warehouses to assist the human labor force with repetitive, difficult, or time-consuming lifting and moving tasks. As more and more people see the technology in action, they are finding ways to put it to work on their own material handling needs.
Learn how to leverage the power of intelligent lift-assist devices and achieve operational efficiency here.