The Forces Behind the Drive to Put AMRs to Work in the Warehouse:
1. Labor challenges
2. Consumer expectations
First, there is a desperation that people are feeling with trying to attract enough talent, and retain that talent. There was a survey that was done recently of millennials and asking them, “What kind of roles are you interested in going into?” And the number of people that responded going into warehousing was less than a percent and a half.
And so the reality is that most of the workers that people are attempting to attract are going into other roles. And so there’s a strong desire for companies to figure out, how can I supplement the limited number of workers that I’m able to attract with robotics and automation.
The other big driver is you and me. We’re ordering things online, our expectations have changed over the last several years. We want what we want, when we want it. Many companies are putting their operations and facilities closer to consumers, but to figure out how to do in a cost effective way, requires them to use robotics and automation. And so between labor, between the rapid rise that we’re seeing in e-commerce orders, are causing people that might not otherwise have considered robots, to put it at the top of their list.
