Growing up, your mother probably reminded you to clean and organize your room, which seemed like a daunting enough chore, and you probably wished you had a robot to do it for you. Now, imagine having a whole warehouse full of a variety of products for you to organize and put away, which no doubt would be an even bigger chore, but this time having a machine to do it. As SKU proliferation continues, with new beverage products and packages demanding more space, organizing and finding room for everything in a warehouse or distribution center can be a challenge for industry professionals. Therefore, many beverage warehouses and distribution centers are turning to automated storage and retrieval systems (AS/RS) for automatic inventory organization and control.
According to Bill Daniel, director of business development for ITW Warehouse Automation, Arden, N.C., AS/RS have been popular in Europe for many years and are more recently becoming popular in U.S. warehouses. More companies are seeing that