How Gamification in Logistics is Changing the Industry
Gamification has been around for decades but only now are businesses starting to understand its full potential. As Interlake Mecalux notes, recent research conducted by the consulting firm MarketsAndMarkets has discovered that the gamification market is anticipated to grow by over 300% to almost $40 billion in less than a decade.
What is gamification?
As Ryder Commerce explains, gamification (as the name suggests) is the use of games to reward specific or desired behaviors. It’s often used in mobile applications such as those designed to help people lose or gain weight or stop smoking. But it’s also increasingly being applied in the workplace to positively reinforce good work and improve productivity. As the user completes more “challenges” successfully, the rewards for more difficult problems become substantially more significant.
It’s been found to be highly effective when compared to traditional punitive strategies that punish poor performance and usually discourage and demotivate people. To this end, gamification has a variety of real-world applications in any industry and the logistics sector is no exception.
How is it being used in logistics?
Some manufacturing and distribution companies have become infamous for their disciplinary tactics which has led to declining consumer support and loyalty. So, other organizations in the sector have started implementing gamification into their workflows to promote business outcomes in a wholesome manner that encourages employees to work hard.
In the logistics industry, in particular, many employers are utilizing gamification to promote completing tasks with greater speed and higher accuracy. Because gamification relies on digital technology, it’s also able to capture data about employee performance, which can inform business strategy.
The supply chain sector is inherently based on completing a series of sequential tasks. These processes can become mundane and result in low productivity and poor performance. By deploying gamification, business leaders are able to incentivize workers to fulfill their duties quickly and satisfactorily, which speeds up production and enhances efficiency throughout the chain. These activities include manual order sorting and packing, using software to manage inventory and stocktake and warehouse prepping and cleaning.
How can you use gamification to your advantage?
Beyond improved productivity, gamification also promotes greater visibility by giving management a direct line of sight into performance data. In doing so, it can assist managers in identifying warehouse inefficiencies and allow supervisors to design and execute plans and policies to boost throughput.
Gamification is also becoming critical for retaining talent. Amid a devastating labor and talent shortage, it’s more important than ever for organizations to keep and experienced employees. By using gamification to motivate workers and keep thzem engaged with (and interested in) their work, you’ll reduce the likelihood of resignations and, thus, combat employee turnover. The data provided by gamification technology also enables managers to spot the most efficient workers and reward their efforts to encourage them to stay on with the organization.