Everyone is having to make smarter use of automation and technology today given labor shortages, high inflation rates that cut into margins, and competitive pressure. In warehousing and fulfillment, the rush is on to further automate and digitize to optimize operations and gain efficiencies with labor and space resources.
Demand for fast and accurate order fulfillment is only increasing with the ongoing growth of e-commerce, and continued expectations from consumers for a seamless customer experience.
Warehouse automation boosts speed and throughput, supporting scalability and order accuracy which all serve to improve the customer experience. Automation also streamlines workflows and eliminates time-consuming, repetitive tasks, often eliminating the need for hands-on labor or direct human management. In short, automation frees up warehouse associates to perform more complex tasks.
Here are a few of the latest developments in retail and e-commerce fulfillment automation:
Bots are hot
Used to increase productivity and efficiency, robotics are a small but fast-growing sector of warehouse automation. A number of types of material handling and warehouse robots keep workers safe, whether by social distancing or serving to reduce injuries.
This technology includes traditional automated guided vehicles (AGVs) which can take over tasks previously handled by forklifts, conveyor systems or manual carts, to move large volumes of material in a repetitive manner. Traditional AGVs tend to travel fixed routes guided by marked long lines or wires on the floor, and use radio waves, vision cameras, magnets, or lasers for navigation, and may require operator oversight.
The market for AGVs blurs when you consider there are other more sophisticated forms of AGVs, called autonomous guided vehicles (also known as AGVs) that can navigate autonomously—which are classified as a type of autonomous mobile robot (AMR).
A smarter counterpart to traditional AGVs, AMRs dynamically assess and respond to their surroundings while completing a variety of tasks—all without the direct supervision of an operator. AMRs rely on maps and sensors to navigate more flexible routes by interpreting the environment. Depending on the type of AMR, these robots can do things like count inventory when equipped with RFID, or support the picking and packing processes.
Known as co-bots, collaborative robots live within the broad family of AMRs, and are increasingly used in fulfillment to assist the warehouse workforce. These meet-me co-bots travel to a pick area and help indicate to the worker where to pick, freeing up workers to stay in a zone and reduce walking. On the other hand, follow-me co-bots travel to the worker and lead them from one picking location to another, whether for all the picks or some to be placed on the bot. When full, the bot travels to a packing station. To stay efficient, another bot can be deployed to the picking worker’s location.
These are just a few of the examples of AMRs which are expected to transform warehouse operations over the coming years as their costs and complexities are reduced.
E-commerce is the main driver of the growth in demand for AMRs and AGVs, according to research company LogisticsIQ. Both of these types of mobile robots are growing at double-digit rates through 2028, expected to reach an installed base of 2.7 million units in 2028, comprising a market valued at over $20 billion.
Technology advances in warehouse automation
Many underlying technologies like those found in robotics are driving advances in material handling equipment to automate fulfillment. Artificial intelligence (AI) is embedded into many types of warehouse automation solutions from AMRs and 3D bin-picking systems to tools such as dynamic slotting and workforce planning. AI generates value in the warehouse through various sub-technologies: machine learning (a subset of AI), natural language processing, robotics, and computer vision, according to warehouse technology company Cyzerg.
Other underlying technologies of warehouse automation include the faster data speeds of 5G wireless cellular networks and the Internet of Things (IoT), both of which enable supply chain transparency, visibility and collaboration. 3PLs are investing in IoT to connect devices for visibility of assets and real-time decision-making, giving warehouse managers greater control over warehouse activities to further drive efficiencies.
What’s up with wearables?
3PLs and e-commerce companies look to wearables to enhance worker efficiency with devices such as barcode scanners on wrists and fingers that eliminate manual data entry and speed up fulfillment. Advances in augmented reality, virtual reality and 5G are enabling devices like smart glasses to do things such as greenlight the area for a worker to pick.
Other wearables include technology-filled devices such as black belts that are laced with sensors and algorithms to detect how workers move and help them lift and load, and “exosuits” that resemble small backpacks and allow workers to reduce the strain they feel when lifting heavy items.
All of these forms of automation are driving warehouse efficiencies, making it easier for companies to fulfill orders across the multiple channels required today in retail and e-commerce supply chains.