18 JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2015 • FOOD LOGISTICS www.foodlogistics.com
C
an the warehouse
play a bigger role
in driving growth
and proftability
in the food and
beverage (f&b;)
industry? Can investing in the
warehouse actually improve
a company's ability to serve
customers more effciently? For
such investments to happen, a
revolution may be needed in
how f&b; companies view the
warehouse. And a revolution of
sorts is taking shape, thanks to
evolving automation technol-
ogy. Companies are fnding that
automated storage and retrieval,
automatic guided vehicles,
goods-to-person picking sys-
tems, voice-recognition-based
picking and software-managed
inventory systems all help im-
prove operating effciency.
C O V E R S T O R Y
The
WAREHOUSE
As A Competitive Advantage p
Automation keeps adding ways to streamline inventory flow.
By Elliot Maras