The reinforcements have finally arrived for eCommerce and omnichannel warehouse managers dealing with rising order volumes and shorter cycle times.
As the most labor-intensive task in the warehouse, demand for each picking has been growing steadily while the labor available to manage that demand continues to shrink. That’s led supply chain partners to focus on innovative solutions that address the labor challenges operators are facing and enable them to maintain service levels during peak periods seeing increasing fluctuations in demand.
Those reinforcements for each picking are coming in the form of assisted picking robots. These solutions partnered with the existing warehouse infrastructure provide a fast and minimally disruptive path to enhanced picking productivity.
For example, as Locus Robotics’ first and largest customer, DHL Supply Chain has deployed assisted picking robots that, working collaboratively as a team, enable warehouse associates to continually pick without leaving the zone they are working in. The assisted picking robot guides the picker to the exact location of the item to be picked and through a simple visual user interface, aids in the selection of the proper SKU, quantity and end location placement of the picked order. Once all picks are completed for a single location, the short-term relationship between the robot and the associate for that specific pick is terminated. The robot then moves on to its next pick, and the associate moves to the next robot that is ready to pick within their zone. When the robot has completed all of its picks, it autonomously travels back to the starting point to drop off current orders and to be filled with the next highest priority orders.
在DHL供应链仓库辅助选择ing robots have been deployed, picker productivity has increased by up to 140-170%, and the need for peak labor has been cut by more than half.
Multiple assisted picking robot solutions are available on the market today and selecting the right system for a particular application is essential to achieving desired results. While the process of technology selection can be very involved, it boils down to ensuring the selected solution matches the needs of the application in terms of the types of products being picked, the size of the facility and the need for future scalability. And, even more important to a fully successful deployment of these technologies is leveraging implementation experience and repeated practice in integrating that solution. At DHL, we learn, share and apply best practices from each deployment to the next. Attempting to implement robotics solutions alone without that prior knowledge – and playbook to guide your success – will not be as effective.
DHL takes a vendor-agnostic approach to technology selection in which the requirements of each application are evaluated, and the best technology is selected from the full range of solutions available on the market. For assisted picking robot applications, DHL has consistently selected the autonomous mobile robot solution from Locus Robotics.
Locus has successfully integrated agile, reliable robots with intelligent and configurable software to support effective robot-assisted picking across a broad range of product types and warehouse sizes. Autonomous mobile robots are designed to work safely around human pickers and offer a high degree of configurability and scalability that enables optimization based on multiple application variables. The solution is easy for associates to learn and ensures accuracy both in the products picked and where they are placed on the robot to support efficient unloading based on order type.
DHL has deployed more LocusBotsTM than any organization in the world, recently exceeding more than 100 million units picked across our North America warehouses, and even more units picked throughout our global network. Based on our experience, here are three key aspects to keep in mind if you are adding assisted picking robots or similar solutions to your supply chain operations:
With the right experience, assisted picking robots can be deployed with minimal disruption to operations and deliver a fast return on investment. By reducing the time and energy that pickers spend walking the warehouse floor, this solution can boost associate productivity, reduce employee turnover and minimize the need to scale up labor with increased peak demand. As the leading user of Locus Robotics solutions, DHL Supply Chain has proven processes and deep experience that streamlines implementation of these solutions and allows their full capabilities to be unlocked. As Locus and other robotics companies are expanding their offerings to carton- and pallet- handling robots, DHL is well positioned to lead the way in expanding the use of autonomous mobile robots throughout the end-to-end supply chain.
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