In this article, Infor's Jerry Beaston discusses how 2024 warehouse management trends include the expansion of more strategically located, state-of-the-art warehouses driven by the e-commerce boom.

It also highlights key trends in the global warehouse management market. As of 2022, the market is valued at $3.4 billion and is expected to grow at a CAGR of 19% from 2023 to 2030. The e-commerce boom has driven demand for advanced warehouses to meet evolving customer expectations. Key trends for 2024 include the expansion of warehouses, addressing labor shortages through automation, increased adoption of AI and machine learning, integrating immersive tech for employee efficiency, the impact of IoT on real-time data analysis, and the rise of cloud computing in warehouse management software. Companies that embrace these innovations will gain a competitive advantage in 2024. 
                                     

The food and beverage industry is undergoing fundamental changes in how consumers buy and what they want to know about the products. At the same time, the industry faces an increased focus on healthy eating by consumers, companies, and governments. Adding to this is a rapidly changing competitive environment with a proliferation of new channels, producers, and products that compete with established brands and outlets.

If these challenges weren’t already enough, today’s companies are also facing unprecedented changes that stress innovation, business model evolution, and supply chain agility. Having the right products with the right content and characteristics, and the right information clearly displayed is necessary. But even all that isn’t enough to guarantee success. The products must also be positioned in the right places at the right time for customers to be able to buy—and that’s the job of the supply chain.

To keep up with all of this, an effective food and beverage supply chain must be fully in sync with the consumer through technology-enabled sensing to satisfy multiple channels with seamless visibility and fulfillment.

Even when your warehouse operations seem to be running smoothly, there is always room for improvement and a need to stay up to date with innovation. While steps are taken to keep warehouse operations at peak performance, when fulfilment times and levels are jeopardized, it’s still up to you and your team to race to recover, to ensure actions to get back on track are taken correctly so that product can make its way out the door, and time is always working against you.

If your organization previously reviewed and dismissed the value of moving your warehouse management system (WMS) to the cloud, it’s time to reevaluate. Decisions that seemed to make sense last year or even last quarter, likely look very different with new challenges emerging over the past several months. By empowering critical systems like a WMS with cloud capabilities, your organization can scale quickly, maximize productivity, and minimize outages and downtime to prevent bringing the company’s mission-critical operations to its knees.

Even when your warehouse operations appear to be running smoothly, change and disruption are constant battles that supply chains must fight. Black swan events, emerging technology, new regulations, and shifts in consumer demand have created an increased need for “always up-to-date” functionality. While steps can be taken to mitigate risk, when changes occur it’s still up to you and your team to adjust and ensure new warehouse capabilities are implemented quickly.

If your organization previously reviewed, dismissed, or put off moving your WMS to the cloud, it’s time to reevaluate. Decisions that seemed to make sense last year or even last quarter, likely look very different through today’s lens. With business models drastically changing and uncertainty lingering in every corner, what if you could offload critical IT responsibility to an organization you trust to manage it all for you?

1. Are we organizationally ready for significant change?

Organizations are only as good as their people, and manufacturers must look carefully at whether they have the right people and culture to support a different way of doing things. It is the people who will be responsible for implementing change, and they should be ready, committed, and on board with any type of transformation plan.

An organization’s culture can make or break a digital transformation project and “organizational change management” is one of the key components of such a project. Organizations should aim for an inclusive culture where people feel like they are key contributors to the company’s future success.

To achieve this, management teams should encourage a culture of openness to help employees step forward with their ideas. All change, and all transformation, starts with an idea – so it’s important for people to feel empowered to put their ideas out in the open.

Many consumers are passionate about the quality of their food, the health implications, and the environmental footprint made by food manufacturers. To meet their shifting expectations, food and beverage manufacturers must speed product introductions and develop new offerings that reflect the changing views on what is fresh, healthy, and mindful—and technology can help. It’s not just taste, freshness, and convenience that drive food purchases today. Conscientious consumers also focus on health, wellness, and social issues as they shop for family meals. They take nutrition labels, visibility into suppliers, humane treatment of animals, and environmental sustainability into consideration when shopping for food. While these expectations put added pressure on food and beverage manufacturers, companies that turn to technology to help, should seize the opportunity. Meeting the demands of today’s socially aware consumers can be a valuable differentiator.

With spring just around the corner and rising hope that the vaccination rollout will eventually bring some relief to restrictions, it is time to start thinking about how the world of work should move forward. While the pandemic forced us to adopt new ways of working, we have learned some valuable lessons in the last year that should not be quickly forgotten. In fact, some of these new strategies should continue long after the crisis subsides as we have come to the realization that the workforce, the workplace and work itself will never be the same. Here are three concepts to consider as you plan for the future.