Reasons, Debates and Stories

We are nowadays talking about Flexible Warehouse - where a flexible workforce would handle flexible production with the help of flexible automation giving an increased production output to handle the rapid changes to meet the demand. Consumers at Forefront The evolution of consumerism in conjunction with the explosion of e-commerce has profoundly impacting material handling automation. Warehouses, distribution centers, and fulfillment centers earlier used to maintain a straightforward focus on shipping full pallets and larger units, but e-commerce created the need to ship goods at case, split-case, each, and even item levels. And add to it, the need for omni-channel fulfillment and customer’s expectation on faster deliveries. As a result, materials handling automation strategies and operations at many distribution centers have undergone radical change.  Robots to the Rescue This shift means that warehouse automation solutions must be equipped to effecti

Demand Sensing Demand Sensing is a forecasting method that leverages new mathematical techniques and near real-time information to create an accurate forecast of demand, based on the current realities of the supply chain rather than past sales. Evolving customer behavior and rising market volatility have underscored the opportunity to sense and react in near real-time to changes to changes in the demand supply network.  Demand Sensing enables to incorporate downstream data with minimal latency to understand what is being sold, who is buying the product, and the impact of demand‐shaping programs.  These three demand elements are then translated into requirements to craft a profitable demand response through internal processes for demand translation. Why use Demand Sensing? Better forecasts translate directly into better business decisions, which can affect many Key Performance Indicators (KPI) closely monitored by management: Supply Chain KPI's:

DEMYSTIFYING ROBOTIC PROCESS AUTOMATION IN SUPPLY CHAIN Well, let's start with the definition of Robotic Process Automation [aka RPA] Robotic Process Automation (RPA) is defined as the application of technology that allows employees in a company to configure computer software or a “robot” to capture and interpret existing applications for processing a transaction, manipulating data, triggering responses and communicating with other digital systems. Warming up to RPA In optimizing their supply chains, companies across many industries — manufacturing, retail, healthcare, and more — have long relied on a range of technologies: WMS [warehouse management system], TMS [transportation management system], ERP [enterprise resource planning], CRM [customer relationship management], and RFID [radio frequency identification].  However, with continuing advancements in the evolution of the automation technology, the incorporation of cognitive and knowledge-based capabilit

WHY I STARTED BLOGGING.. AGAIN Well, after 7 years I'm starting to blog again. And it feels GOOD !  The intentions were to write out the experiences about my work and social life [but not personal stuff] and be more aligned to what's going on around my work and social sphere.  I hope you'll like my blogs, and will have something to say about it! Blog Logo Design by Yours Truly! OK, LET’S TALK ABOUT WHY YOU’RE HERE  FLASHBACK - 90's In school days, the biggest high for me was to write the stories among the varied options for the essay writing in the English Language paper [if you're from ICSE, you'll know the feeling]. I used to love to write those stories with imagination, creativity, and flair but also with clarity and brevity of thoughts. As they say " Technology Kills Creativity ", that what exactly happened to me during the college days. The good old days of ORKUT and the only thing I am proud of was writing those lo

WHY SHOULD I BOTHER ABOUT MY CODE QUALITY? The quality of source code is a key factor for any software product and its continuous monitoring is an indispensable task for a software development project. Code Quality Analysis is not a terrible popular category to start with - which is probably one reason that most apps, even the best of them, suffer from creeping bugs and errors at some point. The point here is, monitoring and fixing code quality issues is something that is proven to raise the quality of your application and your ability to deliver that application to stakeholders on time . But it’s clear that the vast majority of developers aren’t taking full advantage of tools designed to improve app quality. There are many aspects of code quality that we can sink our teeth into, but let's pick  Static Code Analysis from the pyramid of tools to help improve the quality of our code. Developers are using tools that fit into other categories as well, such as:

WHAT'S ALL THE HOOPLA AROUND OMNI-CHANNEL? There are a lot of talks happening around Omni-Channel initiatives in supply chain industry among solution providers, the retailers, and not to forget the trade publications.  So it's important, as well as imperative, to cut through the hype and get down to its essence: A customer wants a product, and the path to that product must be short, readily available and  consistently support the brand promise. Channels are merely  vehicles on that path. technology-enabled shopping options The expansion of both brick-and-mortar and virtual retail channels creates a wide range of customer touch points  — stores, outlet locations,  e-commerce sites, social media commerce, catalogs and possibly seasonal or short-term locations such as pop-up stores. And no matter where the  customer makes her purchase, she expects fast, hassle-free, flawless fulfillment. Now, let's focus on the details. WHAT CUSTOMERS WANT With advanci