To be competitive having efficient distribution and fulfilment operations is critical to staying ahead. With Zebra's Warehouse Maturity Model, a strategic framework can help guide your business forward. Gain the insights you need to optimise workflows with solutions built to help you achieve your goals.
Demand for higher levels of service is certain to change your business environment. We're here to help you guide your way forward to achieve your vision of warehouse modernisation.
What is the Warehouse Maturity Model?
The Zebra Warehouse Maturity Model is a strategic framework that takes a phased approach to increasing operational visibility. This model allows you to migrate, update and innovate in a way that works for you, without any disruption to your warehouse operations. By starting with your top priorities, you can begin to power both your short and long-term visions.
There are five stages to the Warehouse Maturity Model. Your business is constantly finding new ways to trim steps from workflows, increase productivity rates, manage technology investments, and use data automation processes to make operations more profitable across your warehouse.
Stage 1
Gain Basic Control of Your Business Operations
This stage is based around giving all of your physical inventory a digital presence in your warehouse management system, which allows associates to capture every inventory move. Operations at this phase often tend to be small-to medium-sized businesses that may not currently be capturing every inventory move. Or experiencing inefficiencies due to the lack of visibility into inventory location and status such as low stock, overstock, misplaced inventory.
The benefits of tackling this stage may be:
- Increased worker productivity in all warehouse operations.
- Eliminated time on paper-based systems.
- Enabled associate access to warehouse management system data - whether sensing or acting on it.
- Faster visibility into the state of inventory after a transaction.
Match Technology Solutions to Your Warehouse Challenges
Ensure greater individual worker productivity with these foundational technologies that give workers the tools they need to capture each inventory move and connect to warehouse management systems for increased visibility and productivity.
Stage 2
Optimise the Use of Mobility for Greater Team Productivity and Workflow Conformity
This stage is based around increasing the number of transactions performed each day for more visibility into the state if your inventory and workflows. This stage is based around enabling more daily transactions.
The benefits of tackling this stage means:
- Increased team productivity.
- More consistency and accuracy in workflow execution.
- Unified team communications and mobilised managers.
Match Technology Solutions to Your Warehouse Challenges
Consider looking at factors that allow you to capture and retrieve data consistently, and accurately.
- Touch-Optimised Mobile Computing
- Hands-Free Wearable Computing and Scanning
- Vehicle-Mount Computing
- Mobile Printing
Stage 3
Integrate Greater Assset Visibility and Utilisation into Your Operations
This stage looks at eliminating those areas of congestion, errors, and efficiencies that are due to a lack inventory and asset visibility. For the businesses that have optimised the use of mobility for their frontline workers, and are now looking at whether human-initiated scan based processes may not be fast enough for current operations. There is a need to address bottlenecks, and delays at key operational points.
The benefits of tackling this stage means:
- Automated data capture, and material movement for faster processes.
- Increased accuracy of data capture.
- Key Data insights to improve physical process compliance.
Match Technology Solutions to Your Warehouse Challenges
Look at automating your worker-driven data capture processes where volume and complexity have increased. Achieve greater, more time efficient asset visibility and utilisation in critical areas of operation.
Stage 4
Orchestrate Widespread Use of Real-Time Visibility
This stage is looking at how to achieve the best-next-move guidance and decision making for your front-line workers with broad location-aware data capture and automated alerts in real time. This stage is aimed at the businesses that are unable to quantify decisions and optimise in the moment
The benefits of tackling this stage means:
- There is full visibility and utilisation of associates, robots, and assets across the operation.
- Automatically confirmed process accuracy.
- Optimised and sequenced workflows that provide the best-next-move actions.
Match Technology Solutions to Your Warehouse Challenges
- RFID
- Ultra-Wideband Technology
- WhereNet Real-Time Location System
Stage 5
Achieve Predictive and Adaptive Operations for Proactive Performance Improvement
This stage is all about incorporating the use of more diverse data into automated decision making. Continue to implement real-time sensing throughout operations and extend visibility to assets, robots, and materials.
The benefits of tackling this stage means:
- Maximised investment in automation.
- Complex decisions made in real time to optimise and error-proof workflows.
- Deeper visibility into all aspects of the operation.
- Eliminated waste, errors and congestion.
