“As AI continues to get smarter, the ability to utilize more complex forms of automation and robotics will increase.”
Jake Heldenberg
Senior Manager Sales Consulting
Robotics was clearly the hot topic at this year’s conference. Their use will undoubtedly increase in the year ahead and as any engineer can appreciate, it was impossible to not be inspired by the enthusiasm behind the many advancements in robotics on display at the conference.
Even so, there is rarely, if ever, a single answer for everything, and robotics are no exception. Innovation is important and inherently requires boundaries to be pushed. But it is important to be smart when deciding where to invest time and effort, as well as realistic when appraising how the resulting solutions will be used.
Gartner’s Hype Cycle demonstrates what happens when we fail to do this. The trough of disillusionment is marked by waning interest as experiments fail to deliver. How many promising advancements have been maligned because we expected too much from them initially or were unrealistic in our estimation of their business value or failed to consider how they can be effectively integrated with existing systems? Are we guilty of this in our celebration of robotics today?
That of course raises a fundamental question that can quickly evolve into a deep theoretical discussion: how do we define a robot? Is a fully automated shuttle a robot? Or can it, as those in some industries believe, be software that takes action automatically? I would argue that a robot – at least in the context of those celebrated at MODEX – is technology that does an autonomous task and applies some form of logic in the process.
Although any definition is subject to debate, there is, however, increasingly broad agreement within the materials handling community on a key point: robotic point solutions, while exciting, have limited utility in modern distribution centers where throughput requires highly integrated and exceptionally fast automated systems.
Where robots can excel today is in processes that are both repetitive and consistent, or in other words simplistic – for example moving objects that are the same size, weight and rigidity. Historically, we saw this in the adoption of palletizing robots in the retail industry where there was a business need and market demand for an alternative to requiring people to lift cases onto pallets perfectly over and over again.
The mechanical motions were fairly simple and in time these robots were refined and are now part of an integrated solution in many warehouses. In the same way, if you consider a fully automated shuttle a robot, they too can pick up and move totes of several standard sizes with exceptional accuracy and performance.
Now we are on the precipice of a new era. With the rise of e-commerce, item picking promises to be the next singular evolution of robotics in warehouses. The market demand is strong, particularly during peak periods when it is difficult for many warehouse directors to exponentially increase staffing levels for just a short time. Item picking is, however, a much more formidable technological challenge for robotics engineers than palletizing.
Unlike an environment in which a palletizing robot might be used for case reserve or similar jobs, an e-commerce business may have 100,000 SKUs of different shapes, sizes and weights. Getting to a point where a robot can accurately pick all of them and do so at the speed fast-paced businesses require, will take time and is not a viable expectation today.
As AI continues to get smarter, the ability to utilize more complex forms of automation and robotics will increase. For example, we are already exploring how robots from RightHand Robotics can be integrated into automated general merchandise warehouses where its gripper technology, vision systems and software offers a natural synergy.
Notably though, there will be no one-size-fits-all solution at any time in the near future. Combinations of different robot pickers will be a best fit for other specialist applications. The needs of every organization, even those that are similar, will also be different.
That’s why it’s imperative that heads of engineering who oversee distribution centers look for robots that make sense today. It’s also imperative that they not fall under the spell of technology and innovation for technology’s sake.
In fact, the first step in utilizing robots should be to simplify your warehouse processes so that as many steps as possible become repetitive. Then find a robot that is ideal for that application and test it – for example using one or two robots for item picking while whitelisting the SKUs they are effective for and noting the SKUs that are problematic.
In this way, robots can be efficiently and cost effectively woven into today’s highly integrated and autonomous warehouse systems. Just as importantly, they can deliver business benefits without adversely impacting throughput or failing to meet expectations.
Robots today should be viewed as a way to reduce the dependency on labor – not replace it – and be focused on simple, repetitive tasks. It’s important to look at which tasks are ideally suited to the robot’s core capabilities and strengths.
Perhaps most importantly, it’s crucial that organizations first refine the core automated systems that are proven to have an immediate and tangible impact on the efficiency and effectiveness of warehouse operations. The reality is that the vast majority of organizations still have an opportunity to secure extensive savings and performance gains, rather than making incremental ones that are received by robots today.
For example, fully integrated Goods-to-Picker Workstations deliver significant gains in pick performance and allow for one-to-one picking and highly refined sequencing for both discreet and batch jobs. They are also more intuitive than ever and only require minimal training. Employees can use them effectively after a very short primer.
Autonomous vehicles like Vanderlande’s Pallet AV are another example. They make distribution centers safer and more efficient by automating movements that are consistent and highly repetitive. In this way, they also help free people to do more complex work in other areas of the facility, such as unloading trucks – a highly variable task that while manual and repetitive, is exceedingly difficult to automate because no two trucks are ever loaded exactly the same way. By applying robotics to those processes where it makes the most sense, distribution centers can immediately see incremental gains in throughput that will enable them to realize a tangible ROI on their investments in innovation.
If you attended MODEX 2022, you know how easy it is to get excited about robots. In time, they will be capable of increasingly complex roles. The key now is to use them judiciously, when and where they truly make sense.