“Robot developers are close to a breakthrough—getting a machine to pick up a toy and put it in a box,” writes The Wall Street Journal (July 24, 2017). It is a simple task for a child, but for retailers it has been a big hurdle to automating one of the most labor-intensive aspects of e-commerce: grabbing items off shelves and packing them for shipping. Several companies, including Saks Fifth Avenue and Chinese online-retail giant JD.com have recently begun testing robotic “pickers” in their distribution centers. Robotics companies say their machines can move gadgets, toys and consumer products 50% faster than human workers.
Retailers and logistics companies are counting on the new advances to help them keep pace with explosive growth in online sales and pressure to ship faster. Picking is the biggest labor cost in most e-commerce distribution centers, and among the least automated. Swapping in robots could cut the labor cost of fulfilling online orders by a fifth.
Until recently, robots had to be trained to identify and grab each item, which is impractical in a distribution center that might stock an ever-changing array of millions of products. Now, several automation companies are working on automating picking. Hudson’s Bay is testing startup RightHand Robotics’ robots in an Ontario distribution center. “This thing could run 24 hours a day,” said Hudson’s SCM VP. “They don’t get sick; they don’t smoke.”
Previous waves of warehouse automation didn’t lead to sudden mass layoffs, partly because order volumes have been growing so fast. And automated picking is still at least a year away from commercial use. The main challenge lies in creating the enormous databases of 3D-rendered objects that robots need to determine the best way to grip new objects. (There is also 4 minute video that accompanies the WSJ article).
Classroom discussion questions:
- Compare this change to other advances in warehouse automation.
- Why is robotics so important in order fulfillment?