New Survey: Warehouses Do Not Enact Warehouse Auditors Recommendations

Decision makers are seeking out productivity gains, but not getting the insights they desperately need

CHICAGO and MUNICH – A new survey – commissioned by ProGlove, the leader in wearable barcode scanners – idnentifies a stark disconnect. The survey statistics paint a vivid picture of desire contrasted with reality. 77 per cent of warehouse workers trust the data they receive, but just 9 per cent report that recommendations from external consultants have been fully actioned.

Most warehouses rely on third party audits to give them insights into how to increase productivity on the warehouse floor. However, the very nature of these audits fails to depict the true story of the shop floor. The problem lies in the quality and type of data they are receiving. 54 per cent of floor workers want extensive scanning data, but 3^rd party auditors won’t provide this. In order to achieve the desired data-driven productivity gains, organisation’s must provide their workers with the most accurate and useful data possible.

However, according to the survey, the most popular form of warehouse floor operations analysis is through thid-party audits. This is an archaic system given the level of technological innovation we have seen in this space. An army of randomly selected audit operators follow floor workers through their various daily processes, over a select number of days. Their method of record keeping is pen and paper, and their collected data is often manually entered. There is no reason in this era of technological innovation for such an inaccurate, opaque and error-prone approach.

The trouble with third party auditors

Third party auditors come with a litany of problems, most of which are solved by an integrated wearable technology solution. These problems include but are not limited to:

Behavioural change: People will not act rationally or normally under observation. Wearable tech unintrusively shadows workers as they move freely around their environment, providing more accurate and useful data insight, whilst leaving them unencumbered and unobsereved.

Inaccurate conclusions: Auditors draw conclusions from insignificant sample sizes that cannot provide an accurate picture of operations. Wearable technology can provide insightful conclusions based on vast swathes of data, collected from multiple sources over months, weeks, or years.

Opaque data collection: Third party auditors don’t provide customers with full access to their data. An integrated software, hardware solution gives you your raw data and the ability to interpret it yourself.

Knowledge of your business. Who knows your business better than you? No one. Small, arbitrary assumptions on the part of auditors can lead to wayward conclusions and ineffective decisions.

The importance of a bottom-up approach that complements the more common top-down view is vital. It is in the cohesive understanding of both where the jewel of efficiency can be unearthed.

The solution is clear. An integrated software and hardware wearable technology solution. It represents the nexus of priorities for all levels of warehouse management. Total jurisdiction and democratization over your data. The ability to interpret and implement efficiency drives on your own terms. More accurate data; observed over a longer period.

Ilhan Kolko, CPO at ProGlove, said: “This survey does what third-party consultants often do not – provide clear, transparent, data-based conclusions. There is an evident desire from workers to receive helpful data insights to improve their workflows.The solution is comprehensive in-house data insights, provided by bottom-up tech that creates valuable data landscapes from which points of inefficiency can be discovered.”

The full survey report is available at:

https://www.proglove.com/productivity-in-the-warehouse-survey/

About ProGlove

ProGlove is a World Economic Forum Technology Pioneer and builds the smallest, lightest, and toughest barcode scanners in the world. ProGlove’s industrial wearables connect the shopfloor worker to the Internet of Things. The wearables combined with ProGlove’s industry analytics software platform promote human-machine collaboration and drive the digitization across the shopfloor. ProGlove’s customers include some of the most iconic global industrial brands, pioneers and innovators in manufacturing and production, logistics and warehousing, retail and e-commerce, and post and parcel. Founded in 2014, the company employs more than 300 people from over 30 countries with offices in Chicago, Munich (Germany), and Belgrade (Serbia). Learn more at www.proglove.com.