Warehouse Management in the Era of Big Data

There are many things that determine the efficiency of a business. However, when that business involves the production of a tangible product, there is probably nothing more important to efficiency than the quality of warehouse management.

In recent years there has been a revolution that is changing warehouse management forever. That revolution is big data. Big data is the collection and analysis of a volume of digital information so vast that it couldn’t be stored on computer hardware until recently. It has transformed business analytics and been a game changer in many different industries. Here are some of the ways big data is changing warehouse management in the modern era.

Operational efficiency can be described as the ability of a business to deliver its product or service to consumers in a way that minimizes cost while maximizing the quality of that product or service as well as other related support services. Operational efficiency is certainly something that can be improved by the integration of big data analysis. Data regarding operations in a warehouse, or any facility for that matter, can be immediately updated in real time.

This can have some real benefits. A warehouse manager can be given a minute to minute or even second to second overview of operations in the warehouse on a computer or mobile device. That manager will be able to spot bottlenecks in workflow as they develop and be able to take immediate steps to resolve them.

With advanced software, removing such bottlenecks can even be automated, enhancing efficiency even more. According to IBM, trillions of sensors have been integrated into big data systems for the purpose of tracking business processes. These sensors immediately record the information and make it available for on the spot analysis.

Warehouse efficiency is often directly tied to the profit a company produces.