Blog

Consultants Making IT Happen: Martin Dempster creates a warehouse cluster picking process that increases efficiency. Last summer, Balloon hired Martin Dempster as our new innovation manager. His brief was to deliver original functionality and technological tools to help our customers optimise their supply chain operations. Since joining, Martin has been spearheading the research, design and […]

Warehouse Layout Best Practices Warehouse layout is vital. When you get it right, you maximise the use of your available space and improve your operational efficiency. With an optimal layout, you have an effective and productive warehouse. Orders go out quickly and there is a positive impact on profitability. Read on to find out more

Is ERP still relevant in the supply chain? Distribution businesses that want to grow need a system that can reliably cope with increasing amounts of data. As they scale, their data needs mount. They have new customers, additional products, extra distribution centres, more orders, more returns – in fact, far more complexity in their business.

E2E Conference 2022 – booking now open. We’ll be holding our customer E2E Conference 2022 on 13th and 14th September 2022. E2E means ‘end to end’ and perfectly describes how we approach the supply chain, helping our clients deploy the software that manages their supply chains from start to finish. This year’s conference theme is

What is sustainable supply chain management? The supply chain is a vital part of the modern world, but it could be costing the environment in the long term. In fact, the supply chain accounts for more than 80% of consumer companies’ greenhouse gas emissions, and more than 90% of their overall environmental impact (McKinsey). It’s

Robot density in the UK in 2022: Is automation the key to boosting productivity? Despite some progress over the past few years, the UK is still lagging behind other countries in its use of industrial robots — and national productivity could be suffering as a result, according to analysis by Balloon One. Compared to nations

New tutorial videos on K.Motion WMS functionality. We’ve recently produced five videos that demonstrate some of the functionality of the K.Motion WMS solution. These short videos – each less than seven minutes long – explain and show how each warehouse management function works and takes you through the process step by step. Here’s a rundown

What is ERP and how does it work in the supply chain? ERP, which stands for enterprise resource planning, is a type of software which businesses can use to monitor all of their day-to-day processes and performance from one place. This software allows companies to track and monitor data from all areas of the business

The value of undertaking a time and motion study. In the warehouse, the aim of undertaking a time and motion study is to improve processes and optimise performance. Depending on the KPIs that you track in your warehouse, you can make those improvements across a number of areas. Perhaps you want to achieve more picks

From OTIF to stock turn: KPIs for measuring warehouse performance. No matter your goal — whether it’s maximising product flow, smoothing receipt and putaway processes, or creating an efficient picking system — you need to be able to measure the performance of your business in order to identify where you need to improve. While these