Autonomous robots for the distribution center promise improved productivity, reduced labor costs and greater flexibility. But as with all emerging technologies, the decision must be made: Should you adopt now, or wait for the tech to mature? 

To help companies make this decision, Fortna runs models that analyze the business case of bot usage in different scenarios. Analysis shows that these seven instances have a strong business case for investment today. 

1. Short-term demand. If you need additional distribution capacity for a short period of time, then bots can be a good alternative. Perhaps you’re waiting for a new DC to come online, for example, and may be considering hiring a 3PL or using temporary space like establishing a “pop-up DC” in a vacant space. Rather than implementing expensive and permanent automated equipment, like conveyors and sorters, bots can be short-term leased and returned, or easily redeployed to another facility.
2. An uncertain future. If your crystal ball is a bit hazy right now — perhaps due to a potential acquisition or new business channel — bots may be a good alternative. Rather than bet the business on a multimillion-dollar automation project built for five or 10 years into the future, bots can be added one at a time as your volume grows, delaying investment and reducing the risk of having under-utilized assets.
3. Low pick density. Simulations showed that the use case for bots was best in DCs with lower pick density — where workers spend more time walking to the next item that needs to be picked. Bots work well in this scenario because they perform the transport function, allowing workers to focus on tasks that require human dexterity. 
4. Opportunistic replenishment. Modeling also showed that bots work well for opportunistic replenishment. Here, a bot carries a replenishment case to its forward pick location, then awaits a passing picker to move the case to the appropriate slot. This effectively eliminates walking from the replenishment function as the picker both picks and replenishes on a single pass down the aisle.
5. Automated sortation. Some companies are using bots to replace conveyor for sortation. We found that this can make business sense when rates are below 30 sorts per minute, have complex routing, or frequent changes.
6. Automated transportation. Sometimes there is a good ROI for using bots for transferring cases or carts between functional areas in a DC, like from packing to shipping, or when integrated with Goods-to-Person (GTP) systems to move totes between the storage area and the GTP workstations. The business case is best in environments with low volumes and longer distances.
7. Two-, three-shift operation. Like all equipment, the business case for bots in any of the applications above will improve if they are being utilized over multiple shifts and/or multiple tasks. This may mean using a bot for replenishment in the morning and picking later in the day. 

The Outlook

The trend towards using robots in distribution will continue to accelerate as the economics improve. Today, there are limited use cases where bots make sense. But as bots become more capable and less expensive, they will be justified in a wider range of functions — and in DCs with higher pick densities. Longer term, advancements in robotic arms and grippers, 3-D vision and sensor systems and artificial intelligence, will be added to bots to accelerate the trend toward “lights out”, fully-automated distribution centers.

Luke Nuber is an account executive with Fortna Inc.