Robotic Automation: Changing the Face of E-commerce Warehousing
Published on 27 December 16
Helios0
Although, industrial robots have been around for many decades, they were used in production plants for performing extremely precise and repetitive tasks but not in collaboration with human workers. However, major advances in Artificial Intelligence (AI) have given birth to a new breed of intelligent robots that are safer, able to grasp new tasks quickly and are considered the future of e-commerce warehouse automation. Amazon acquired Kiva System, now Amazon Robotics, in 2012 and pioneered their bots or automated guided vehicles in their fulfillment centre. Let us take a closer look at the changes brought about by robotic automation:
Human and machine collaboration
Here you get an opportunity to witness a symbiotic relationship between humans and robots. The machines and human workers work in a carefully coordinated harmony in accomplishing day to day tasks yet achieving incredible efficiencies. The robots pick up entire shelves of products to deliver them at different areas within the warehouse. They do not collide, thanks to advanced sensors, and an algorithm enables them to determine the most popular item and the closest supply. These bots, in near future, are expected to assist human workers in many simple manual tasks making a further significant difference to overall productivity.
Warehousing – then and now
Earlier human workers would have wandered across these shelves searching for the products, pick the product, pack and ship the same in order to fulfill each new order. As per Amazon’s metrics, then duration of each click to ship cycle used to be 60 to 75 minutes. And now, with robots taking the charge, it takes only 15 minutes. Because now the shelves carried on top of robots quickly glide across the floor reach out to human workers and the latter retrieve goods for packaging. Many new entrants have joined the bandwagon of Amazon Robotics to take their warehouse productivity and efficiency to higher level. It’s high time to consult with a team of software development experts to guide you in evaluating the right automation system for your e-commerce needs.
Future e-commerce warehouses
Despite using almost 30,000 bots across 13 massive warehouses by the end of 2015, Amazon is still hiring because the robots are nowhere near humans when it comes to identifying objects effectively. Hence, robots are not yet fully equipped to replace human workers at warehouses. However, that doesn’t guarantee that it won’t happen in the near future! The next generation of robots will certainly be more adept at identifying objects, whereas its human counterparts will pretty much remain the same as the current ones.
Therefore, in order to make your e-commerce warehouse operations more streamlined and profitable get in touch with a Software Development Consultancy and make an informed investment in autonomous mobile robotics.
This blog is listed under
Development & Implementations
, Enterprise Applications
, Industry Specific Applications
, Data & Information Management
and E-Commerce
Community
Related Posts:
Post a Comment
