• Advertise
  • Contact Us
  • About Us
  • Supplier Directory
  • Login
  • Subscribe
  • Logout
  • My Profile

  • CORONAVIRUS
  • LOGISTICS
    • Air Cargo
    • All Logistics
    • Express/Small Shipments
    • Facility Location Planning
    • Freight Forwarding/Customs Brokerage
    • Global Gateways
    • Global Logistics
    • Last Mile Delivery
    • Logistics Outsourcing
    • LTL/Truckload Services
    • Ocean Transportation
    • Rail & Intermodal
    • Reverse Logistics
    • Service Parts Management
    • Transportation & Distribution
  • TECHNOLOGY
    • All Technology
    • Artificial Intelligence
    • Cloud & On-Demand Systems
    • Data Management (Big Data/IoT/Blockchain)
    • ERP & Enterprise Systems
    • Forecasting & Demand Planning
    • Global Trade Management
    • Inventory Planning/ Optimization
    • Product Lifecycle Management
    • Sales & Operations Planning
    • SC Finance & Revenue Management
    • SC Planning & Optimization
    • Sourcing/Procurement/SRM
    • Supply Chain Visibility
    • Transportation Management
  • GENERAL SCM
    • Business Strategy Alignment
    • Education & Professional Development
    • Global Supply Chain Management
    • Global Trade & Economics
    • HR & Labor Management
    • Quality & Metrics
    • Regulation & Compliance
    • SC Security & Risk Mgmt
    • Sustainability & Corporate Social Responsibility
  • WAREHOUSING
    • All Warehouse Services
    • Conveyors & Sortation
    • Lift Trucks & AGVs
    • Order Fulfillment
    • Packaging
    • RFID, Barcode, Mobility & Voice
    • Robotics
    • Warehouse Management Systems
  • INDUSTRIES
    • Aerospace & Defense
    • Apparel
    • Automotive
    • Chemicals & Energy
    • Consumer Packaged Goods
    • E-Commerce/Omni-Channel
    • Food & Beverage
    • Healthcare
    • High-Tech/Electronics
    • Industrial Manufacturing
    • Pharmaceutical/Biotech
    • Retail
  • REGIONS
    • Asia Pacific
    • Canada
    • China
    • Europe
    • Latin America
    • Middle East/Africa
    • North America
  • THINK TANK
  • PODCASTS
  • VIDEOS
  • WHITEPAPERS
Home » Collaborative Mobile Robots Are Coming To Your Warehouse

Collaborative Mobile Robots Are Coming To Your Warehouse

March 20, 2018
SupplyChainBrain

A common question warehouse operators often ask themselves is: "what can we do to further increase productivity and efficiency?" For a while, this challenge has been met with Six Sigma methodologies to identify and eliminate waste in the process. However, one of the biggest sources of waste remains non-value-adding movement and material handling. A new breed of robot has recently emerged that tackles this challenge and is helping warehouses to reach next level productivity and efficiency. -John Santagate, Research Director, IDC

Warehouse management is all about handling materials. Within these facilities, materials come in and go out as they progress through the supply chain. For many such facilities, the process of picking and transport of materials is a highly manual process. A person takes a pick list and pushes a cart from aisle to aisle, rack to rack, and takes the required materials from a shelf and then brings it to the packing station or to various work cells. However, modern robotic technology has emerged that is enabling warehouses to automate part of this process.

This new breed of collaborative robots is designed to work in concert with human operators in the warehouse. Whether it is to support the picking process in e-commerce fulfillment or to move components around for product assembly, there is significant value to be gained by deploying robots to manage the movement of materials throughout the warehouse. The focus here is on process optimization. By taking over the movement component within the process, warehouses are able to free up their people to focus on other work activities that add greater value.

While deploying robots is not appropriate for all scenarios, in the situations where it does make sense, robotic deployments are delivering significant value such as:

  • Increasing worker productivity – Collaborative mobile robots are built to be a tool that enables human operators to do more. Robots that are deployed to handle the movement of materials throughout a facility reduce or eliminate the amount of time people must spend walking from point to point. This, in turn, allows warehouse employees to spend more time handling materials and adding value and less time having to walk throughout the facility.
  • Enhanced warehouse efficiency – Time is a constraint that warehouse operations must consider. You can only get so much done in a day. However, with the use of mobile robots to handle material movement, warehouses can increase efficiency as people are freed up to do more in the same amount of time. Increasing efficiency is tightly related to increased productivity: if your warehouse employees can do more within the same time, the warehouse is able to drive up efficiency of the operation.
  •  Increased flexibility – For many warehouses, a common challenge arises during periods of peak demand. In lieu of bringing in expensive temporary labor during times of peak demand, robotics-enabled warehouses can more easily scale by deploying more robots and further enhancing the efficiency of the existing labor within the warehouse.

As warehouses seek to “do more with less”, turning to robots to support the movement of materials provides an opportunity to increase warehouse capacity without the traditional scaling of the workforce. Robots are tools, meant to increase the capabilities of the warehouse worker.

The Outlook

The emergence of the collaborative mobile robot is giving warehouses a new tool set that can significantly enhance warehouse operations. In addition to the productivity and efficiency value delivered, this technology can also help to improve the broader operation as they become connected devices that can integrate into the business operating systems. There is an abundance of value to be captured by deploying robots in the warehouse. As warehouse owners continue to recognize this value, they will increasingly look to robots to help improve the operation.

RELATED CONTENT

RELATED VIDEOS

Global Supply Chain Management HR & Labor Management All Warehouse Services Robotics High-Tech/Electronics Industrial Manufacturing
KEYWORDS All Warehouse Services Automation & Robotics Global Supply Chain Management High-Tech/Electronics HR & Labor Management Industrial Manufacturing
  • Related Articles

    Robots Are Coming for Europe's Jobs — Especially Out East

    Robots Are Coming for These Wall Street Jobs

    Robots Are Taking Over the E-Commerce Warehouse

SupplyChainBrain

100 Great Supply Chain Partners Issue 2009

More from this author

Wake up to Coronavirus Updates and the latest Supply Chain News!

Subscribe to our Daily Newsletter

Timely, incisive articles delivered directly to your inbox.

Popular Stories

  • Coronavirus-watch-Armada

    Virus Update: Biden Sees Fast Rollout of J&J Vaccine; Astra CEO Defends Delivery Shortfall

    Coronavirus
  • West Coast Port Congestion

    Shippers Need Alternatives to West Coast Port Congestion

    Logistics
  • Mexico

    The Near-Shoring Trend: Will China’s Loss Be Mexico’s Gain?

    Logistics
  • Robotic automation

    Autonomous Supply Chains Are on the Horizon

    Coronavirus
  • Drugmakers

    Research Lays Groundwork for More U.S.-Made Drugs

    Coronavirus

Digital Edition

Scb feb 2021 lg

2021 Supply Chain Management Resource Guide

VIEW THE LATEST ISSUE

Case Studies

  • Remote Implementation: A Dose of the Right Medicine for B2B Pharmacy

  • LSP Saves Customer $1.5 Million a Year With MPO Global Inbound Management

  • Auto Supplier Wows Key Client Using riskmethods Supply Chain Savvy

  • Integrating Shipping and Compliance Saves Conglomerate Millions

  • How a Consumer Goods Giant Upped Its On-Time Delivery Performance

Visit Our Sponsors

6 River Systems ArcBest Armada
aThingz BluJay Burris Logistics
DSC Logistics DCSA (Digital Container Shipping Association) DHL Resilience360
Genpact Geodis GEP
Honeywell Intelligrated Infor Logility
Magnitude Software MPO Old Dominion
Oliver Wight OpenSky Ports America
Purolator QAD Precision Red Classic
Riskmethods Snapfulfil TGW Systems
Transportation Insights Watson Land Company Westfalia Technologies
Workjam Yang Ming  
  • More From SCB
    • Featured Content
    • Video Library
    • Think Tank Blog
    • SupplyChainBrain Podcast
    • Whitepapers
    • Webinars
  • Digital Offerings
    • Digital Issue
    • Subscribe
    • Manage Your Subscription
    • Newsletters
  • Resources
    • Events Calendar
    • SCB's Great Supply Chain Partners
    • Supplier Directory
    • Case Study Showcase
    • Supply Chain Innovation Awards
    • 100 Great Partners Form
  • SCB Corporate
    • Advertise on SCB.COM
    • About Us
    • Privacy Policy
    • Contact Us
    • Data Sharing Opt-Out

All content copyright ©2021 Keller International Publishing Corp All rights reserved. No reproduction, transmission or display is permitted without the written permissions of Keller International Publishing Corp

Design, CMS, Hosting & Web Development :: ePublishing