MHD catches up with Pas Tomasiello, Senior Director Integrated Systems at Dematic to discuss recent innovations and developments the intralogistics provider has established in response to COVID-19.
While many industries have suffered during COVID-19, there are also a number of industry verticals that are experiencing significant spikes in demand.
According to Pas Tomasiello, Senior Director Integrated Systems at Dematic, many of the intralogistics provider’s customers have had growth during COVID-19. “We have been heavily involved in ramping up operations for a number of our customers in the grocery, e-commerce and pharmaceuticals sectors,” he says.
In order to keep up with demand, as well as ensure that social distancing is practiced, many sites are now running additional shifts across longer hours. As a result, Dematic has been working closely with its customers to ensure that they can continue to rely on the solutions that keep their sites and operations running.
“These industries have really relied on our customer service and preventative maintenance scheduling and routines to operate at higher volumes and with extra shifts,” Pas says.
For Pas, the COVID-19 crisis has proven the case for automation. “If toilet paper demand suddenly increases and you try to deal with that peak in demand manually, you’re going to have to throw a lot of labour at it which is very expensive.”
If the site operates a flexible automated environment, then it doesn’t cost any more to run longer hours, Pas says.
“Automation offers the ability to deal with an increase in volume and tighter delivery windows without incurring ridiculous costs,” he says
For these reasons, Dematic has seen a huge increase in interest for its flexible automated solutions. “A lot of the conversation now is based on what they can learn from this, and where to go from here. For many, it’s about future-proofing their operations with automation,” Pas says.
COVID-19 has placed resilience and agility at the forefront. “These two words are popping up a lot in this discussion. Dealing with unpredicted spikes in demand with manual labour presents a huge cost to any organisation. If you can ramp up your operation with automation, then it doesn’t incur an unexpected cost for your business,” Pas says.
Dematic’s innovations during COVID-19 are not just in the automation space, the intralogistics provider has also developed software that ensures social distancing among front-line employees.
After a customer in the grocery retail space contacted Dematic to try and better manage social distancing among its picking and packing employees, software engineers at DAI – a logistics software solutions company acquired by Dematic in February 2020, rose to the challenge and developed a solution in just three days.
“Dematic has always been focused on helping our customers respond quickly to critical business challenges ― it’s at the core of what we do. Now, given the coronavirus pandemic, it’s even more critical. Our customers’ employees are no longer simply order pickers, grocery retail workers and cashiers, but front-line workers. It is our duty as a business partner to provide creative solutions that make order fulfilment not just easier and faster but safer. This quick software update is the most recent example of how we take this role seriously with each project and with every customer,” Hasan Dandashly, CEO, Dematic says.
When a picker is assigned an order, the software indicates the aisles that contain the items. However, with the new update the operator knows that an aisle or bay is already occupied, so they can move quickly to an open aisle, which helps ensure proper social distances. In addition to employee safety, the update also improves efficiency with pickers no longer having to wait for aisles or areas to clear.
The software offers a store manager peace of mind that front-line workers are practicing safe social distancing. Currently being utilised by leading grocery providers in the UK, the feedback has been positive and Dematic sees an opportunity for this to be rolled out to more customers as social distancing remains a requirement in enclosed places.
Pas says that COVID-19 has accelerated the uptake in online shopping in Australia, and with that comes an opportunity for logistics providers to try new ways of dealing with variable and unpredictable demand. “We’re having conversations around Micro-fulfilment Centres, Customer Fulfilment Centres (CFCs) and other ways of improving customers’ online shopping experience. We’re excited to work with our customers in this space and explore new ways of applying automation,” he concludes.