Microsoft Dynamics and inVia Robotics are Changing the Game for Distributors

The Future of Order Fulfillment. Fulfilled.

The world is getting smaller while the opportunity to grow your organization is getting greater. Organizations who run their business from 8am-5pm will struggle to compete in the new digital age and be competitive with organizations from across the globe. Customer expectations are high; it’s easier than ever to switch to a competitor. When they place an order, they expect delivery the next day and not the next week. In fact, “By 2020, customer experience will overtake price and product as the key brand differentiator.” *

These trends raise several critical questions for distributors regarding their warehouse operations:

• How efficient is your warehouse operation when the lights are out?
• Can your warehouse function 24/7 without the added payroll costs?

Many warehouses across the country currently have no automation resulting in increased warehouse costs and customer dissatisfaction due to late orders impacting revenue across the business. Warehouse operators are reliant on paper picked tickets used to manually determine the isle and bin location of the items. The item is scanned and placed on the tote for further processing. Training staff to identify each product and its location is a time-consuming and expensive task.

Human error is an inevitable consequence of this manual process.

In a growing organization, staff can struggle to process orders quickly enough to meet customer delivery expectations. In these cases, orders are returned, requiring credits to be processed impacting the top line of the business.

The solution. An automated robotic warehouse solution from Western Computer and inVia Robotics.

A simple, intuitive, affordable robotic picking automation will have a big impact on your bottom line. As an innovative and cost-effective collaborative mobile robotics platform for omnichannel fulfillment, this technology is focused on creating a flexible, adaptive and scalable solution for a wide variety of industries and workflows, all centered on creating a fast deployment and high ROI.**

Allowing the robots do the picking, significantly improves productivity, decreases warehouse costs, while ensuring products ship quickly and efficiently. Expedite order fulfillment and improved revenue streams all from day one.

No mistakes. No training. Robots don’t need to be trained!

The system is easy to use and can be set up within a few days. The robots arrive in the warehouse fully assembled, with no on-site assembly required. After your warehouse is mapped out into zones, robots are ready to get to work.

With automated real-time communication between Microsoft Dynamics NAV and the robot, the robot can start the picking process the minute the order is received into Dynamics NAV. Once the robot receives the order, it knows exactly where the item is located; then, it uses a small suction cup to pick the item from the shelf and a transit robot takes the item to a picker. No mistakes.

This automated process enables improved productivity removing concerns with picking accuracy and allowing more focus on key strategic initiatives across your organization.

During peak season, additional robots can be brought into the system with no 'training' requirements. Robots can help with any spikes in order volume ensuring that orders are delivered on time, reducing the risk of credit returns. The robots can operate 24 hours a day without the requirements of human super vision, reducing overtime payroll costs and allowing you to turn profits when the lights are out.

As a Western Computer Dynamics customer, LD Products invested in inVia and grew their business to 135,000 orders a month.

LD Products is an online retailer of printer cartridges and office supplies. “Robotics as a service model is great for us; it gives us cost certainty. inVia gives us the edge to compete with larger organizations who are spending tens of millions, if not hundreds of millions of dollars, on automation and robotics.” Aaron Leon, Founder and CEO of LD Products.

The Western Computer team will deliver a seamless integration with Dynamics NAV ensuring a fully integrated order processing and picking. For more information on Dynamics NAV and inVia Robotics, please contact a Western Computer specialist.

*https://www.visioncritical.com/customercentric-infographic/

** http://www.inviarobotics.com/