How enabling the 3D Digital Twin can accelerate and optimize your warehouse operations

Jul 17, 2024

operations
IT
discrete manufacturing
automotive

In the supply chain world, innovation is often criticized as being ‘innovation for the sake of innovation,’ with little to no real return on investment (ROI) or added value. However, is this new concept just another example of that, or can it deliver tangible business benefits?

Making the most out of new implementations

How many consultants, especially in warehousing and manufacturing, can confidently say there will be minimal operational impact on the day of a go-live with a new IT system? Despite extensive testing and hard work, uncertainties remain, and real-life operations can reveal issues that typical test executions might miss.

While some organizations conduct Business Continuity Testing to mitigate such risks, this practice isn’t widespread due to project timeline pressures and limited business engagement. However, imagine being able to simulate and visualize warehouse operations with real data, performing actual transactions in a 3D Digital Twin during the testing phase. This approach could provide a comprehensive understanding before the live implementation of a complex new IT warehouse management system (WMS).

Example of our 3D warehouse model

Three ways that the 3D Digital Twin can help manufacturers

The concept of a warehouse and production 3D Digital Twin can bring the warehouse solution to life well before the testing execution phase. This enables significant business engagement opportunities and offers various benefits, including improved processes, optimized facility layouts, and enhanced operational efficiency, such as:

Early solution understanding and digital demo capability

3D visualization of warehouse and production operations
Remote design confirmation to clarify warehouse operations and IT WMS integration

Improved operator training and business adoption

Real-time visualization and understanding of IT WMS processes and their operational impacts
Improved adoption through realistic visual models relevant to the warehouse operation

Warehouse operational optimization enabling improved IT WMS solutions

Modeling and simulating capacity and manpower activities
Understanding resource efficiency and capacity constraints for both humans and machines
Modeling optimal warehouse facilities, operational processes and racking layout and design
Modeling and understanding warehouse schedule throughput with constraints
Enabling long- and short-term ‘what-if’ scenario modeling and planning
Enabling wider distribution network design and optimization
Reducing initial investment and getting the design right the first time

Benefits of adopting a warehouse and production 3D Digital Twin:

Managers can gain real-time insights into any warehouse or production line, ensuring processes are running as planned. They can also respond swiftly to unplanned events, such as sudden increases in customer demand or resource shortages due to labor strikes or constraints.
Operations directors can use the 3D Digital Twin to model and visualize multiple simulation iterations to test any new processes before implementation to avoid large capital investments.

Optimizing processes, optimizing people

For the inbound process, a warehouse manager might want to experiment with new operating methods, tweak existing steps, design a new floor layout, or completely change the handling process for inbound products until it is fully optimized and efficient. Simulation tools offer a multitude of design and modeling approaches to support managers in these design challenges.

All direct labor involved in the receiving, storing, packing and shipping activities can be supported by these new 3D virtual modeling and simulation tools, including various types of equipment such as AGVs and conveyors. For example, a complete end-to-end inbound process flow can be designed within the 3D Digital Twin. It can fully simulate warehouse operators unloading bulk boxes from containers, using conveyors to move goods from the receipt zone to a palletizer machine, and finally, autonomous forklifts performing the final put-away. By using an appropriate data set, the warehouse manager can measure the current processing time for unloading goods and accurately reallocate resources based on idle time and distance coverage.

Regarding indirect labor and supervision, the new digital platform offers a plethora of dashboards to model and measure current performance and provide options to further model and measure potential increases in process efficiency. Additionally, trainers can use the 3D virtual digital warehouse to visualize and upskill warehouse leaders and team operators with respect to any new future layouts and procedures.

For the outbound process, retailers are continually looking for the optimal picking process. By using the 3D virtual digital warehouse, they can optimize the picking process using carts with the correct number of trays required to fulfill e-commerce orders. Another major challenge that can be digitally modeled is optimizing the exit capacity of the total sorting and packing work center availability. All these operational process design challenges can be represented in a 3D Digital Twin simulation tool to allow upfront design and analysis, providing a clear view of how to fine-tune operational parameters for better, more optimized results, ultimately reducing upfront capital and long-term operational costs.

Visualizing the future warehouse and manufacturing operations in a 3D Digital Twin prior to taking an IT system live will significantly reduce the implementation risks, while improving business engagement and ensuring critical operational continuity. This should be a must in every global business transformation

Reduce the risk, reap the benefits

With global transformation programs and the daily challenges faced by logistics, using a warehouse and production 3D Digital Twin simulation tool can significantly reduce design effort and business adoption risks when deploying solutions like SAP EWM. This ultimately leads to improved productivity and better customer service at lower capital and operational costs.

The 3D Digital Twin should be seen as a long-term business investment to maximize ROI. It allows the warehouse to be continually modeled and tested during future business changes, such as increased sales demand due to retail seasonality. This enables SAP EWM settings to be safely updated, ensuring maximum optimized throughput. The risk to business continuity when making changes to an EWM system can be enormous if these changes are not modeled and their impacts fully understood before implementation.