Today’s warehouses are arguably smarter than ever. They feature equipment that works without constant human intervention and even gives alerts before breakdowns happen.
And, robotics equipment features substantially in these smart warehouses, making the operations safer and more efficient.
Robots Help Prepare Items for Shipment
People are accustomed to not having to wait very long when they order things online. Some providers, such as Amazon, fulfill orders within hours. Also, companies in the online grocery industry deal with perishable items and must figure out the best ways to get those products from warehouses to customers‘ doorsteps before they spoil.
As such, robots are an integral part of the workforces at distribution centers and fulfillment centers. They get tasks like loading and unloading or picking products from respective areas of a warehouse. In Amazon’s case, the company uses more than 100,000 robots in its facilities around the world.
The company primarily needs the robots to supplement human work, not replace it. Without the reliance on robots, though, Amazon wouldn’t be able to ship items out so quickly and keep its customers satisfied.
Robots Can Lift and Carry Things ” but Shouldn’t Replace Humans in All Cases
Alibaba is another well-known e-commerce company. In its smart warehouse in Huiyang, China, robots do 70 percent of the work and can carry more than 1,100 pounds. They move around the facility and can even recharge themselves at dedicated stations.
At another Chinese facility associated with the website JD.com, robots lift parcels and sort them by placing them into chutes designating various regions. Robots reportedly make that smart warehouse ten times more efficient than a traditional one.
Although robots can be ideal for lifting and transporting things, some warehouse tasks ” managing heavy equipment among them ” are safer for experienced professionals to handle. For example, some purpose-built facilities have numerous forklifts that lift as many as 50,000 pounds.
Humans need to decide which forklifts work best for specific tasks. Not relying on such expertise for that decision could lead to broken equipment or injuries. The use of collaborative robots is a trend that analysts expect to dominate 2018, but using robotics technology appropriately means realizing human knowledge is not obsolete.
Robots Help Warehouse Personnel Meet Staffing Needs
Some brands that provide robotics equipment recognize their customers need rapidly deployable automated solutions. Then, during hectic periods, companies can put the robots to work instead of taking the time required to train new staff members.
Honeywell Intelligrated partnered with Fetch Robotics to provide autonomous mobile robots (AMRs) that make operations more efficient at large, integrated facilities that may not have enough staff to meet needs. Users can deploy those AMRs in a day. Plus, the robots adjust their routes in real time, unlike machines that can only travel on pre-defined routes.
By becoming more reliant on AMRs, warehouses could leave human workers to do other things the robots can’t manage. Then, staffing shortages could get addressed on an as-needed basis as clients take the supply chain to the next level by reducing errors and saving people from engaging in dangerous work.
However, even though robots can tackle some tasks people formerly performed, they also create jobs. GreyOrange is the largest supply chain robotics company, and its representatives believe that by moving the company’s U.S. headquarters to Atlanta, it’ll add 60 engineering jobs to the city’s economy.
Robotic Drones Give Views of Warehouse Inventory
Robots have various use cases in warehouse environments. Besides the options already discussed, some companies deploy drones equipped with RFID scanners to perform inventory checks outside of working hours.
The results get uploaded to the cloud, where people can cross-check the data against other inventory management systems. Some drones capture dozens of frames per second and give alerts if items are low or depleted.
Walmart started testing drones in 2016 to make the retailer maximally competitive against e-commerce websites. Considering that Walmart’s smallest warehouse is larger than 17 football fields, it’s not difficult to see how using drones is more efficient than asking humans to walk around the expansive facilities and use handheld scanners.
Robots Will Continue to Enhance Smart Warehouses
The healthy consumer culture in society means people continually expect sizeable assortments of products and faster ways to get what they want, whether shopping online or in stores.
The material here highlights some of the most prominent ways brands bring robots into their smart warehouses. As entities experiment with different possibilities, robots should become even more in demand.
