The letter “S” can be a powerful tool Frog learns in the episode “Robots to the Rescue” of the PBS Kids show “WordWorld.” Finding out that adding “S” at the end of a word can make more than one goes from fun to chaotic for Frog, who turns to his robot inventions to help clean up the mess. Although the creation of new beverages takes more than just adding a “S” to the end of the word, the proliferation of SKUs within warehouses remains a challenge for facility managers as they turn to technology to keep order fulfillment on track.
“SKU proliferation has been one of the largest trends to hit beverage manufacturers and distributors in recent years,” says Paul Hilton, food and beverage lead at Zebra Technologies, Lincolnshire, Ill. “As consumers continue to evolve their tastes, manufacturers and distributors are expected to keep up. Generally, manufacturers can keep up with consumer trends, but the larger challenge of SKU proliferation falls on the distributors and retailers who aren’t able to expand fast enough to keep up with these trends.