You have a lot of options, from conveyors to advanced robotics. The appropriate mix is determined by many factors, including your facility layout and processes.
If your company is just beginning a warehouse automation journey, and your core competency is not logistics, you might be surprised, or even a bit overwhelmed, by the number of options available to you. We’re here to help you sort through the noise.
Just in the last few years, the Amazon effect has resulted in a surge of new inventory tracking systems, picking automation of all kinds, sortation systems, and even collaborative robotics solutions. Whether you’re a VC-backed e-comm startup or an established operation hoping to expand into 3PL offerings, warehouse process automation is one of the keys to expanding your business and impressing your customers, but not every business actually needs AI-powered sorters and piece-picking robots.
If you ask a traditional warehouse automation vendor, the answer to the first question might be “the expensive ones” and to the second – “big”, “bigger”, and “you might need a larger facility for this”.
The reality is less extreme. Unless you are designing a facility with initial capacity targets or lights-out, it is not necessary to select all automation systems up front or implement everything in a big bang. Existing operations looking to optimize their processes can automate in an iterative fashion, gaining cumulative efficiencies without risking future opportunities. Effective automation can be, and often should be, incremental. It is also not mandatory to commit to one type of automation across your operation or stay within one vendor’s ecosystem if the process does not fit available hardware.
With that in mind, we will discuss general characteristics of four high-level warehouse automation options: Fixed, Flexible, and Software.
As a starting point, consider fixed automation for high throughput areas and parts of your process that are unlikely to change in profile (garment sorter for a clothing company, for example).
Flexible automation should be considered for operations that might change (3PL) and parts of the process that involve high amounts of human travel or vary in volume and profile.
Software automation is often the cornerstone that “holds it all together”, but can vary widely in price depending on the included business logic and capabilities.
Fixed automation is purpose-built hardware warehouse automation. This type is what many people associate with traditional warehouse automation, but the category has evolved to included advanced robotics and high-speed sortation capabilities. Examples include conveyors, traditional sorters, carousels, goods-to-person, automated storage and retrieval systems, pick-to-light systems, and robotic piece-picking.
These systems are optimized for the highest possible throughput with minimal human interaction. The drawbacks are primarily long capex payback periods (often 5-7+ years), difficulty of process changes due to physical hardware dependencies, and proprietary control systems. Due to the long payback period, it is sometimes necessary for operations to adapt processes to drive more value out of the automation, rather than optimize processes holistically.
Flexible automation is proprietary hardware that is not bolted down and not as purpose built. The hardware can fulfill any role in a process as defined by its software configuration. Examples include collaborative mobile robots, automated guided vehicles (AGV), autonomous mobile robots (AMR), and robotic sortation systems.
This model has become viable in the last few years as ruggedized computers have increased in processing power and broadband Internet access has become more common in warehouses. Flexible systems do not offer the level of throughput a fixed automation system affords, but they offer many of the benefits with everything-as-a-service pricing models and rapid implementation methodologies, dramatically reducing the initial outlay and long-term commitment to current processes. This type of automation is ideal for companies that have changing customer behaviors or evolving strategy that make costly construction projects unattractive. One major drawback of flexible hardware automation is black box software ecosystems that optimize work for a preferred or ideal process flow. A couple major vendors have more open workflow architectures, but this is still not the norm. It is usually still necessary to have a host system to optimize work holistically and to orchestrate the guest automation systems.
Software-based automation encompasses applications and platforms that optimize warehouse workflows and human labor. Examples include warehouse management systems, voice and vision picking systems, and connected worker platforms. Some software automation, such as legacy voice picking, employs capex pricing models, but most vendors, including the latest voice offerings, have transitioned to SaaS models, significantly lowering the cost of entry to introduce business process automation for manual processes in the warehouse. While connected worker platforms may be able to holistically orchestrate end-to-end automation as a WES-lite, an obvious drawback of software automation is that throughput is constrained by human performance if there is no hardware automation present.
There are many factors that will determine your optimal automation mix. For a smaller warehouse, you may be able to perform efficiently with some standalone conveyor, an inventory system, and a robot or two. Larger facilities will likely need much more.
As a starting point, consider fixed automation for high throughput areas and parts of your process that are unlikely to change in profile (garment sorter for a clothing company, for example).
Flexible automation should be considered for operations that might change (3PL) and parts of the process that involve high amounts of human travel or vary in volume and profile.
Software automation is often a cornerstone that “holds it all together”, but can vary widely in price depending on the included business logic and capabilities.
Flexible Automation Investment and Savings Analysis
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