The warehouse of any company is a fundamental piece of the supply chain, since it represents the nerve center where products are organized and stored before distribution. Efficient management of stored stocks makes the difference between the successful arrival of a product at its destination or, on the other hand, it being spoiled/exhausted and the so-called “stock out” taking place. What happens in the warehouse may even mean that a production process must stop due to certain unforeseen events.
Let's imagine a warehouse in which we have to move goods that require temperatures of 30 degrees below zero, such as, for example, a laboratory preparation for a medicine: if the cold chain were broken, the product would spoil and millions of euros would be lost and many hours of work. Achieving the handling of products in logistics environments at very low (or very high) temperatures was, until a few years ago, unthinkable, but today, thanks to technology, it is now possible to do so.
Now, in this warehouse, no one has to expose themselves to the dangers associated with certain conditions, such as very low (or very high) temperatures, because the technology we are talking about allows these products to be handled and transported automatically. On the other hand, the square meter has been optimized, because the space is organized vertically, so that each product and its movements take up the minimum.
Hubmaster® Warehouse Automation Systems, whose headquarters are located in DFactory Barcelona, the industry 4.0 cluster of the Barcelona Free Zone Consortium, is an automated vertical storage system that optimizes inventory management in warehouses. It uses vertical shelving to store and retrieve products in an automated way, maximizing space and streamlining logistics processes. With its integrated software, HUBMASTER guarantees efficient inventory management, offering greater precision and speed in operations.
“To optimize the efficiency and productivity of the company's internal operations, the so-called “intralogistics”, it is necessary to start by optimizing the management of materials within your warehouse. "We design and manufacture our own technology to manage from the reception of materials to the warehouse, all their movements towards the production lines or the warehouse, and their dispatch to the client, all in an automated manner," explains Maria Casals, project manager. and international accounts of the company.
Behind the intralogistics solutions of this company, which markets its robot cranes throughout the world, there is a combination of robotics, sensors, 3D vision, and advanced software. "Our solutions can be applied in a wide range of industries: manufacturing, distribution, cold logistics, high temperature warehouses, food and beverage, pharmaceuticals, automotive, aerospace and chemical storage, to name a few, and continue to constantly evolve since 2008 ", Add.
Logistics moved more than 16 billion euros worldwide in 2022 and is expected to reach 19,000 million in 2026, at an average annual growth of 4.4%, according to a report by the consulting firm PwC. This, despite the current hectic economic and sociopolitical scenario. Precisely for this reason, the main challenges of the sector are to overcome these scenarios of global instability thanks to the acceleration of its technological advances.
In its forecasts for this sector, the consulting firm predicts that, in the very near future, only those companies that best adapt to technological developments and demonstrate the greatest capacity to diversify and individualize their services will survive, something that Maria Casals corroborates: “The warehouse The future will be characterized by greater automation, integration of advanced technologies such as robotics and AI, and greater flexibility to adapt to changes in demand. All this, based on sustainability and energy efficiency.”
In this upcoming scenario, according to experts' forecasts, professional staff will be better prepared to take advantage of these technological changes. “The workforce will shift to higher value-added positions, leaving repetitive, dangerous and low-value tasks to machines. Every industrial revolution has always involved changes in the social and productive model, but ultimately leading to an improvement in the quality of life for society,” adds the head of international projects and accounts at Hubmaster®.
In March 2023, Hubmaster®, which also has offices in the United States, installed its headquarters for Design and Development of new products in DFactory Barcelona, which “has given us the opportunity to be in a dynamic environment focused on innovation.” , allowing us to accelerate our growth and expand our operations globally. Currently, we have a presence in Europe, America and the Middle East, and our expansion plans involve continuing to explore new opportunities in other regions. The lack of labor in the intralogistics sector and the need for companies to continue operating under any circumstances are giving us these opportunities,” concludes Casals.
In autumn 2021, the Barcelona Free Zone Consortium built the DFactory Barcelona building with the hope that it would house numerous companies dedicated to industry 4.0. Three years later, “we can say that we have achieved it: there are already more than 30 established companies, and that, furthermore, they are satisfied to be here, because this has become something that did not exist before and that does not exist in the majority in the world: a community where joint projects are generated in industry 4.0,” explains Pere Navarro, special delegate of the State in the Barcelona Free Trade Zone Consortium.
And he continues: “The first benefit that companies obtain from settling in DFactory is the environment, this architecturally emblematic building, which helps their image, but the greatest positive effect is that we are creating a community. The established companies are not only working in their cubicles, but here there are constantly conferences, courses, presentations of the new companies that are arriving... We are generating this capacity to relate between all of them so that they know each other's activities and can collaborate in projects that are not only joint, but also successful and that create jobs.”
