If you don’t spend a lot of time thinking about the logistics of supply chain management, you might think that automation has become a bit overhyped. Sometimes it feels like we see new story after news story about drone delivery or autonomous trucking, but we don’t actually see these advanced machines making a difference. Interestingly, the opposite may in fact be true. Automation may in fact be outpacing expectations in the world of supply chain management. This is a trend that our experts at DMW&H are keeping a sharp eye on, and here are a few salient points we have noticed recently.
EXCEEDING EXPECTATIONS
There are a lot of journalists, researchers, and businesses out there trying to get a handle on where automation is heading. Recent reporting by Forbes focuses on ARC Advisory Group, which has been forecasting shifts in supply chain management for eight years now. The report notes that “In 2013, ARC estimated the (warehouse automation) market at $6.4 billion globally, and forecast that it would grow to $9.9 billion in 2019.” Some people may have thought that prediction was optimistic when it was first unveiled, expecting it to take longer to adopt automation and replace human laborers. In fact, the industry didn’t grow to $9.9 billion, it was closer to $12 billion. Other changes we have seen in the last two years, such as wage increases and labor shortage, have continued to fuel the expansion of automation.
ON THE ROAD
Leading the path forward in automation is of course shipping. Today large firms like Amazon, Waymo, Nuro and others are moving past early test phases of their vehicles and into beta testing in specific markets. Here again, the estimates are something to keep in mind. Most predictions have the autonomous vehicle market expanding at least ten times before 2030, with a significant portion of that growth occurring in the commercial sector. It remains to be seen how these autonomous vehicle networks will form, be maintained, and expand on our roads and in the air, but the writing is on the wall. With many autonomous vehicle firms focusing on specific commercial sectors, such as food service for example, there are a lot of different options to consider. If you are interested in learning about the potential of implementing autonomous vehicles in your shipping, our team at DMW&H would love to work with you to find the best solution available.
BACK AT THE OFFICE
Returning to the topic of automation inside the warehouse, growth in the industry continues to revolve around a set of key machines. These include autonomous mobile robots, sorters of all sizes, machines to pallet and de-pallet goods, intelligent conveyors, etc. These supply chain solutions have quickly become important factors in separating industry leaders from businesses that are left behind. In order to tie everything together, from the warehouse to the transport to the customer, we also have to consider integrated software. All of the labeling, receipts, billing information, customer feedback, item tracking, and associated information that is generated by this automation has to be usable by human managers. Automation is only as good as the way we interface with it, and use the huge amounts of data that are generated by these systems. There are a lot of great solutions available when it comes to tying these back-office processes to the trucks and the drones that are making deliveries. Our team would be happy to take a look at how you can begin to implement some of these new automated solutions in a step-by-step process that will help you better prepare for future developments.