Cobots in Warehouse: Benefits of Logistics Automation

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:

1. Warehousing is a labor-intensive industry; having robotics handle these jobs help LSPs increase their output exponentially.
2. The pandemic has led to lockdowns, social distancing and employee safety which can be achieved through robotics that can serve with minimal human intervention.
3. With increased focus on just-in-time (JIT) inventory, optimizing inputs and outputs can be executed with robotics.

Also Read: Automation in Logistics: Ideal or Attainable?

Benefits of Co-bots over Bots in Warehouse

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:

• Speed and Variation co-bots
• Hand Guiding co-bots
• Safety Monitored shop
• Power & Force Limiting co-bots

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:

1. Co-bot increases performance by carrying out tasks like screw driving, helping with the knife sharpening, assembly process, and folding & packing boxes.
2. Co-bots help in eliminating the ergonomic risk by automating packaging and palletizing
3. They are user-friendly, extremely efficient, and maintenance-free.
4. Co-bots are highly usable during the Goods Receipt process, identifying multiple parameters, such as wear and tear of pallets, items, and verification of quantities.

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.

Benefits of Logistics Automation

There is a multitude of benefits of automating logistics, we’ve collated a few of them:

1. Reducing costly errors
2. Availability of choice of transport and freight rates in real-time
3. Improved customer service
4. Availability of access to data and analyzing freight traffic in real-time
5. Enhance organizational control

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.