Increasing Reliability With The Connected Distribution Center

Every minute of downtime counts — every missed goal, every unhappy customer, every bottleneck, every employee left standing with nothing to do. 

They all lead to the same thing: the erosion of a DC’s ability to move product out the door on time. The challenges to all DCs aren’t going anywhere:

• The rise of e-commerce and an ever-increasing number of SKUs
• Increased complexity in automation systems and the skills required to maintain them 
• Quicker fulfillment demands

Many DCs get caught in a reactive feedback loop. An asset fails and the clock ticks while equipment is repaired, and the resulting losses leave no time to determine the underlying root cause.   

At Honeywell Intelligrated, we hear these stories all the time. Fortunately, The Connected Distribution Center provides solutions for the daily pain points that modern DCs face.

How does connectivity limit downtime?

The backbone of The Connected Distribution Center is its proactive, predicted-maintenance automation. It’s done by connecting assets via machine-level sensors and control systems, capturing data, and moving it into cloud-based analytics technology. This data creates a forecast of what might happen and when. Through sophisticated data analytics, DC managers not only increase runtime, they predict equipment malfunctions and avoid problems altogether.

The Connected Distribution Center from Honeywell Intelligrated offers actionable information to DC managers, which leads to the prevention of bottlenecks and uncovers root causes about why they occur.
 
We’re increasing reliability by monitoring motor vibrations, temperature and current draws that indicate potential equipment failure — even considering often overlooked factors such as ambient conditions. This data is allowing DC managers to transition to predictive maintenance plans that not only limit occurrences of unplanned downtime, but also significantly reduce labor and spare parts costs. 

With so many factors impacting key performance indicators and service levels in DCs, The Connected Distribution Center provides a much-needed measure of reliability and predictability.

To learn how you can predict and prevent equipment failure before it happens, view our video on The Connected Distribution Center.

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