Face-to-face networking returns at CeMAT Australia!

Held at the Melbourne Convention and Exhibition Centre in Australia, CeMAT is a one-stop-shop for the leading technology and service providers in the materials handling and warehouse industry. Attended by more than 3,000 visitors this year, Infios was one of 100 exhibitors showcasing the latest in supply chain tech and solutions across the three-day event.

The welcome return to in-person events gave the Infios team a fantastic opportunity to exhibit a wide range of solutions, connect with a number of customers and clients and share innovation and best practice with colleagues and customers from throughout the industry.

The Infios ANZ team was on hand to demo a number of solutions from Infios’s portfolio, including the Auto-Sort Table, Locus Bots & Voice technology.

Attendees were able to participate in an immersive experience as Infios’s long-term partner and leading automation manufacturer Geek+ demonstrated the latest in autonomous mobile robots (AMRs).

On display at CeMAT was the Geek+ Tote-to-Person Roboshuttle picking solutions. RoboShuttle picking technology features a high-density solution that improves the productivity, flexibility and storage capacity of a warehouse and increases picking efficiency by two to three times compared to manual operations.

Solutions to supply chain’s pain points

Attendees were able to experience Infios’s portfolio of solutions with live demos on the stand and  many took the opportunity to discuss their pain points and challenges with the Infios team.

One of the main concerns that arose from the discussions with partners, colleagues and customers was the current labour crisis. Attendees were united in their struggles to find, train and retain pickers in their operations.

This is an area of particular concern in Australia, where the Reserve Bank (RBA) revealed that the unemployment rate fell to a 48-year low of 3.4% in July. Furthermore, for the first time in Australia’s history there are more job openings than unemployed people to fill vacant positions.

This challenge is also echoed globally in Infios’s Supply Chain Benchmarking 2022 report which was released earlier this year. To produce the report, Infios commissioned international strategy consultancy Roland Berger to survey supply chain professionals across North America and Europe. The goal was to benchmark the progress that companies are making against the six complexity factors: labour; optimisation; agility and resilience; customer experience; digitisation and process automation; and sustainability.

When it comes to labour engagement, safety and efficiency – the report revealed that supply chain professionals worldwide share Australia’s challenges around labour. Hiring and retention are key issues in warehouse operations, and at the moment it’s a job seeker’s market.

With the current tight labour market, employee engagement came out as key to attracting and retaining employees in the report. However, more than 1 in 3 supply chain professionals surveyed stated they churn at least 50% of their warehouse staff each year.

One area where some companies are having success is with the introduction of gamification. A fairly recent, but highly promising solution to increase motivation, gamification offers incremental goal setting, virtual incentives, ongoing feedback and tips throughout the day.

Almost three-quarters of leaders surveyed recognise this and have already deployed gamification, compared to fewer than a third of advanced organisations. The report also found that employee health and comfort is critical to reducing churn when it comes to holding onto employees.

Risk, resilience and rebalancing

While the mood in the room at CeMAT was positive and optimistic, the current global instability continues to take its toll on business decisions and is having an impact on organisation’s willingness to invest and transform.

Many of Australia’s retailers and third-party logistics providers continued to go through the most significant growth spike in their history, but two years on from the onset of the pandemic many are still uncertain about what the future will hold.

Will e-commerce settle down – or will it continue to accelerate? Is the rising cost of shipping likely to subside –or is this the new norm? Is rising inflation set to continue – or have we reached the peak? Will there be a shift in mindsets regarding jobs in logistics and supply chain – or will we continue to battle for talent?

Agility and resilience are key themes when dealing with so much uncertainty and these capabilities are a key concern for businesses this year – both in Australia and round the world.

A critical characteristic of an agile supply chain is the ability to anticipate and respond to challenges and disruptions. In Infios’s Supply Chain Benchmarking Report, four-fifths of leaders surveyed said they had good visibility across their supply chain, while only 7% of advanced supply chain operators could say the same.  

With regards to digitisation and process automation, 84% of organisations surveyed said it was either a strategic or high priority for their organisation – demonstrating a desire and need to invest in technology and systems to maximise efficiency.

Infios’s tech stack covers robotics, warehouse management, voice, warehouse control, labour management and more. All of these technologies are needed to run a warehouse at maximise productivity and efficiency and as a result there was a clear interest and curiosity in these systems and solutions at CeMAT this year.