Academics specialising in maturity modelling, in collaboration with Daresbury-based Breathe Technologies, have developed an online tool to identify where automation can reduce warehouse pressures.
Manchester Metropolitan University specialists have supported the creation of the Warehouse Automation Maturity Assessment Tool, which will support warehousing and logistics providers, manufacturers and retailers – with process improvement experts from Breathe Technologies.
The tool is intended to identify areas of friction and provide insights into what automation solutions will work, increasing understanding of what software and systems will deliver the greatest impact the quickest.
Professor Paul Smith of MMU said: “As we take stock of the previous year, there’s a window of opportunity to identify what automation technology can be implemented quickly to increase capacity, improve performance and avoid spiralling labour costs.
“This online maturity assessment tool has been designed using expert insight from Breathe Technologies to help benchmark where warehouse and logistics operations sits and identify where best to target improvement.”
Claire Umney, Managing Director at Breathe Technologies, added: “These sectors are under increasing pressure to meet sky high demand and performance expectations whilst managing through supply chain issues, labour availability challenges and wage inflation.
“Everyone knows automation can help tackle these issues by reducing friction but identifying which solutions will deliver the most impact and ROI in your operations is less obvious.
“The Warehouse Automation Maturity Assessment Tool brings an academic and practical focus to identifying incremental enhancement and the best route forward.”
