Weekly edition | Jan. 26, 2021  By Shefali Kapadia Augmented reality in the warehouse promises average pick speeds that are six minutes shorter than manual, paper-based picking. (Was this email forwarded to you? Sign up here.) | | STAT OF THE WEEK Remember the Google Glass hype that never quite caught on as a trend? The tech, and other forms of augmented reality, may find its home in the warehouse. Workers wearing the glasses would get visual instructions on what, where and how to pick. A recent study found picks were an average of six minutes faster when workers used AR versus paper, as shown in the chart below. Dive deeper.  Credit: Matt Leonard / Supply Chain Dive / data from Fang et al. | | Buy online, pick up in store took off in the grocery world during the pandemic, and grocery retailers are adapting to new ways to fulfill orders. Albertsons, Hy-Vee and Carrefour are just a few of the retailers adding pickup lockers and kiosks. The challenge is staging e-commerce orders in the smaller footprint of a store rather than a warehouse. Read more. | | The retailer has resisted using curbside pickup. It hasn't needed the service to attract and retain consumers — samples on the store floor did an outstanding job at that. But the pressure is too great as consumers flock to pickup, and competitors Sam's Club and BJ's expand their omnichannel and pickup services. Details here. | | Nitrile gloves are no longer just a staple in healthcare settings. Many grocery clerks, warehouse pickers and packers, essential workers, and even consumers are suiting up. That has caused a spike in demand and stressed the glove supply chain. One major U.S. producer plans to triple its production capacity by 2022 to respond to increased demand. Read about it here. | Quick Hits  Harvard Business Review
 The New York Times
 FreightWaves
 Retail Dive
 Modern Materials Handling Parting thought | Warehouse tech is all about making workers' jobs easier and quality of life better (rightfully so). It's no wonder demand for goods-to-person systems is expected to quadruple in the next two years, according to Gartner. But admittedly, I'm skeptical of the benefits of AR for workers. Could it be confusing? Is the learning curve steeper versus good old fashioned paper? Might it cause headaches, dizziness or eye strain for some? I'm curious what you think. Do you see the benefits of augmented reality? Let me know — erase my skepticism :) Shefali Kapadia
Senior Editor, Supply Chain Dive
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