Globally, it is estimated that more than 5 billion pallets are in circulation every day. In the United States, we rely on about 4.5 million manual operators for almost all pallet movements. As these workers retire or move to new opportunities, facilities face increasing challenges in moving pallets. The past two years have permanently changed the operation of global supply chains. It becomes more difficult and complex to manage risks and ensure the appropriate size of workforce and the continuity of profitable operations. At the same time, consumer demand is further intensified, which increases the pressure on distribution centers (DC) and manufacturers.
Expand personnel and reduce labor costs
Warehouse and DC are the main force of each global supply chain. The shortage of warehouse labor, from low skilled seasonal order pickers to certified high skilled heavy machinery operators, will seriously hinder the company's ability to fulfill customer orders. At the same time, labor costs are rising steadily due to the demand for workers.
According to industry research by Gartner Inc., many companies are now turning to intelligent automation and robotics to "antivirus" their operations. These companies are investing in technologies such as AMR, especially driverless intelligent forklifts. "Smart" driverless forklifts perform tasks independently, while human workers focus on higher levels of responsibility. Unmanned forklifts reduce or eliminate the need for employees to perform mundane and repetitive tasks, such as crossing warehouses on manual equipment to pick orders or replenish inventory. In traditional facilities, each mobile forklift needs one person, while in facilities with self driving forklifts, one person can now supervise the work of multiple autonomous units. Unmanned forklifts can also work around the clock to have time to properly charge. The result of using this technology is that warehouse employees will not be replaced, but will be expanded and liberated from dangerous repetitive tasks to engage in more interesting and higher value work. The productivity of warehouse is improved, the retention rate and job satisfaction are improved, and the overall labor cost is reduced.
Driverless forklifts help increase throughput
Truly intelligent forklifts can identify frequently crowded areas in facilities and learn to avoid them when planning routes, so as to consistently and quickly deliver goods to where they are needed. This improves the reliability of the workflow and helps avoid downstream interruptions.
Improve workplace safety
Traditional warehouse or DC is a workplace with high physical requirements. Employees are vulnerable to any work-related incident. Smart devices don't feel tired or distracted. They only focus on the safe execution of tasks and facility navigation. According to the design, the tasks they perform may cause injury to human workers if they are completed by manual equipment. This makes AMR forklift become a valuable "colleague" of warehouse employees.
Easy response to growing demand
Traditional DC is relatively inflexible. Workflow, labor force and overall operation management are difficult to expand or shrink rapidly to deal with unstable supply and demand patterns. The prosperity of e-commerce has tested the ability of traditional DC to meet the demand without significantly increasing the cost.
Autonomous devices can work around the clock during peak demand, and then stand by as needed
This helps to increase capacity and extend operating hours during peak hours, eliminating the need to reassign large numbers of employees or obtain temporary employees. The end result allows companies to add smart forklifts as assistants to their employees, thereby increasing a high degree of flexibility in facility operations while supporting warehouse personnel.
