ARC Advisory Group’s framework and process for analyzing the global AS/RS market provides valuable insights into the competitive environment, influential factors, and growth dynamics of this rapidly evolving and expanding market. AS/RS in this context includes traditional AS/RS, shuttle systems, and cube-based automated storage systems.
Read More →
Archive for Warehouse Automation
Boston in known as The Hub – but it has really become the hub of warehouse robotics in the United States. MassRobotics and Humatics hosted The 2020 Logistics and Warehousing Executive Briefing. Insights and valuable perspectives were shared by robotics users such as FedEx, the regions robotics innovators, and providers of complementary technologies and services.
Read More →Returnless refunds is only one of many ways in which Amazon is taking e-commerce fulfillment and customer service to the next level. To remain competitive, robust fuflillment capabilities are a necessity, and resposiveness and other customer service capabilities are a valuable diferentiator in today’s intensely competitive retail environment.
Read More →What’s the operational and strategic value of robotics? This question is more important now than ever, as businesses look to robotics to overcome labor challenges and increase operational flexibility. Flexibility is a strategic concept summarizing the elasticity a warehouse needs to adapt to market changes and skyrocketing consumer expectations. Helping to address flexibility in the warehouse is the newer robotics market for autonomous mobile robots (AMR). This technology is extending the capabilities of warehouses, people, […]
Read More →The innovator’s dilemma is at play in the bin/tote segment of the AS/RS market – today’s proven solutions face the future prospects of fierce competition from a new set of technologies with a promising future.
Read More →Earlier today I came across a CNBC article about a “secret” logistics summit hosted by Alphabet, the parent company of Google. The reported objective was to “explore potential business models and investment opportunities in the e-commerce space with a focus in logistics and fulfillment.” The article and the meeting that it discusses gives me the impression that logistics is being viewed as a game changing competitive differentiator. I like that! A few weeks ago, I […]
Read More →Micro-fulfillment center automation is poised for rapid growth. Customer proximity, throughput, responsiveness, and space utilization are critical factors for success. Innovative companies are addressing the micro-fulfillment challenge with cutting-edge technology and process innovations. Front and center is a number of automation technologies that can be categorized as a hybrid of shuttle system and robotic technologies.
Read More →Fulfillment repsonsiveness is the warehouse capability most expected to increase in importance over the next five years, according to the results from our best practices survey of logistics executives. A full 77 percent of respondents expect it to become even more important than it is in today’s fast-paced environment. I attribute this increasing importance to consumer expectations for next day delivery, driven the new “Amazon Effect.”
Read More →My search for warehouse automation patents uncovered an unlikely assignee, Google. It turns out that Google was awarded a patent in May 2019 for “Dynamically Maintaining a Map of a Fleet of Robotic Devices in an Environment to Facilitate Robotics Action.” The contents of the patent were geared toward use in the warehouse and features the ability to predict future locations of members of a robotics fleet to optimize collaborative tasks.
Read More →Charter Sponsors
Platinum Sponsors
Gold Sponsors
Supply Chain Brief
The “Soft” Side of Automation Holds the Key to ROI
Material handling equipment (MHE) has been around a long time. But, it’s never been more popular. Companies look to automation now (more than ever) to improve throughput while bridging the labor gaps affecting so many warehouses and industries. Fixed automation such as conveyors, sortation, and storage systems are proven solutions within their respective wheelhouses. Warehouse robotics hold great promise for more complex and variable operational needs. These technologies continue to grow in popularity, broaden their […]
Read More →