The recent pandemic has disrupted the supply chains, impacted competitiveness, economic growth, and job creation. These uncertainties, however, have positively impacted on technological advancements in logistics. Be it the number of logistics technology start-ups getting funded or the existing tech organizations moving into a consolidation mode through mergers and acquisitions – all are indicators that directly correlate with these changes. In addition, after the COVID-19 outbreak, there is a boom in online orders and e-commerce business which has resulted in a 15-20% yearly growth for warehouse providers.
Behind this growth is the underlying technology powering warehouse operations, including hardware and software. To sustain this growth and to serve future customers, there is an urgent need for technology scalability and agility and the Logistics Service Providers (LSPs) must do it without breaking the bank. Robotics in the warehouse space has grown by leaps and bounds during the past year, especially with the emergence of Robotics as a Service (RaaS). The technology is now more affordable, and this automation can help warehouse providers handle the sudden increase in volumes.
The reason behind LSP’s shift towards warehouse management software and logistics automation can be attributed to the following reasons:
Also Read: Automation in Logistics: Ideal or Attainable?
Whenever we think of robots, we are encountered with an innate fear of losing out our jobs to machines, a fear that every working class must have encountered. But that is not the kind of robots we are talking about; we are talking about co-bots (collaborative robots) that work in tandem with humans. One of the most important benefits of Cob-bots is achieving efficiency and accuracy in warehouse operations and in warehouse management systems.
These co-bots are packed with advanced sensors and vision technology to cater to the needs of warehouse operations. Co-bots do not replace operators, but they learn to perform functions with utmost accuracy without the slightest wear and tear. As a result, they increase the accuracy of picking/put away, improve safety, and reduce operating costs, thereby creating a positive impact on productivity, and facilitating warehouse and logistics automation.
According to ISO 10218 part 1 and part 2, some of the key variants in co-bots are:
Loup Ventures, the venture capital firm, has predicted that the co-bot industry will represent a $6.8 billion market opportunity by 2025. Continue reading to know why:
But having only co-bots is not the answer to all the warehouse woes. What will bring an overhaul in the warehouse is an integrated warehouse management software solution, which can guide the co-bots and reprogram them through its integration capability besides automating logistics. It will also improve the interaction between the employees and the co-bots, ensuring there’s a seamless flow of information between the two.
There is a multitude of benefits of automating logistics, we’ve collated a few of them:
With its leading warehouse management systems, Ramco provides complete warehouse automation across order streaming, planning & allocation, waving and load planning, and integrates with Bots, AGVs, ERPs, and order management systems. For anyone operating a warehouse, it is now up to them to embrace the complete solution for automating logistics and warehouse that will complement each other, instead of a piecemeal adoption of the new-age tech.