Humans and Robots Work Well Together
The many places where robots are enhancing warehousing operations.
For years, science fiction suggested that one day, humans would be replaced by robots. But as modern robots enter the picture in warehousing and manufacturing, that science fiction is proving to be just that—fiction. Today’s autonomous mobile robots (AMRs), automatic guided vehicles (AGVs), and fixed robotic arms are not only boosting productivity, but enhancing the work your associates perform.
Today’s robots improve the work environment for both your management team, and the employees on the floor. Robotic work cells take over all the tasks humans would prefer to avoid—the dull, dirty, and dangerous jobs. That’s good for everyone involved.
When your employees are happier and more satisfied with their jobs, they are more likely to stick around. This is critical in a labor environment that makes it easy for an employee to quit, walk down the road and find another, potentially higher paying position.
It’s also critical with the younger generation of workers. Where their parents and grandparents willingly took on well-paying manual labor jobs, Gen Z is the generation raised on technology. They don’t want to put in eight-hour shifts of lifting, pushing, and moving, or eight hours sitting on an uncomfortable lift truck. But what they do enjoy is technology, especially if it has an element of gamification to keep them engaged.
Robots can provide this, allowing employees to move off the floor, into an office, and behind the controls of the robots. You eliminate all the walking, the ergonomic considerations, the boredom typically associated with warehousing floor tasks.
Other collaborative arrangements between robots and employees involve picking. Rather than an associate needing to walk around the floor to locate and pick items, robots can bring the goods to the associate. This eliminates the discomfort caused by repetitive picking tasks, as well as the boredom. In the process, the robots also enhance your picking productivity. They are less error prone and can operate without fatigue, around the clock if you need them.
A key factor in using robotics on your floor is safety, and as the technology only improves and evolves, so does the safety. Today’s robots are loaded with sensors that help avoid collisions with humans, other equipment, and racks. This reduces the likelihood of injury and product damage. There’s a common saying in warehousing: “The most unpredictable thing in a warehouse is a human.” Robots are predictable and have the ability to make your floor a safer place, as well as keep your product safe.
For all the good robots can do, today is a period of transition between a largely manual environment to a largely automated environment. A decade from now, it’s likely that robots will have solved many common problems for human employees. Expect to see them on the loading dock, in picking applications, and even in packaging. The future of a dark warehouse isn’t impossible, either. For now, however, robots are here to help your associates and boost your productivity. Well worth the investment.
Source: Podcast
Learn more about The Robotics Group (TRG): mhi.org/trg
For further articles from the The Robotics Group (TRG):
How to Justify the Cost of Robotics–Part 1
Podcast: Robotics and Humans: A Synergistic Workforce
Order Orchestration Optimization Through Robots
Robotics in Logistics, Part 2 – You’ve Decided to Add Robots—Now What?
