Drones in the Warehouse
It doesn’t seem like drones, or unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) will be replacing pallets, forklifts or conveyors anytime soon in terms of moving materials through the air in the warehouse. They are now, however, being seriously looked at to provide inventory control duties.
According to news reports, Walmart is testing drones for use in the warehouse. While initial Walmart interest “hovered” around their applicability for home delivery as they compete with Amazon for the last mile (of the supply chain) competitive advantage, the retail giant has now changed focus. Walmart is now hopeful that drones can play a larger role in the laborious process of inventory control.
According to news reports, a drone can capture 30 images per second, and more importantly, can perform the stock counting work in a day what would take a month for a person. Drones offer the potential to deliver more accurate, timelier and more cost effective inventory management that could translate into a better shopping experience at retail. The drone tests, conducted as part of Walmart’s Emerging Sciences and Technology group, are scheduled to last the next four to seven months.
Importance for Pallets and Pallet Companies? More accurate inventory translates into lower safety stock requirements and faster pallet turns. Beyond that, warehouse drones could also inexpensively take frequent pallet counts, providing opportunities for better pallet management. Better inventory accuracy for pallet inventory should translate into more predictable pallet orders and the need for fewer last-minute heroics to meet customers’ needs. And at some point, will pallet rental companies offer the free use of inventory drones to their customers, which by the way will keep a near-to-real-time inventory of their pallets? Pure speculation on my part.
There is also the potential for drones to aid pallet and lumber companies in inventory control activities. They are being used for outdoor applications such as car lot inventories, but visual recognition wouldn’t work well once there is a snow cover. Drones are additionally being used for perimeter surveillance and site security.
Robots and AGVs
Robots and are being increasingly used to bring goods to pickers, while automated guided vehicles (AGVs) are being used to safely move unit loads of product across facilities, without the need for human operators. There are several forces pushing warehouse operators to give technology upgrades a serious look. The e-commerce explosion has left warehouse operators scrambling for space as the variety of items they carry continues to grow, and to maintain or boost productivity in the face of handling a greater variety of items, and having to pick very small e-commerce orders.
Robotics has been one approach to eliminating double handling and order picker travel time. Kiva Systems, the manufacturer of Kiva robots, was purchased by Amazon in 2012. Rebranded as Amazon Robotics LLC, the company now only serves Amazon fulfillment centers with its products. The company’s founder, Mick Mountz, had worked at the failed online grocery provider Webvan. He concluded that inefficient order fulfillment had been the key stumbling block to the success of that venture. With this in mind, in 2003 he launched Kiva, along with co-founders.
One of the key benefits of warehouse automation, including robots, is in bringing goods to order pickers, rather than order pickers having to travel to pick the goods, or to double handle merchandise to get to the items needed. This approach allows for enormous productivity gains. Other robotic systems accomplish the same goal of bringing the goods to the picker.
As for AGVs, these driverless machines eliminate the need for operators, improve safety and provide greater flexibility than conveyors in moving unit loads of product across the warehouse. Increasingly, they are used in conjunction with “islands of automation” installed within legacy warehouses to boost performance.
Importance for Pallets and Pallet Companies?
It is not clear how systems such as Kiva, which move products stored on shelving units, would impact pallet usage. One robot manufacturer, Clearpath, offers a solution where a pallet of merchandise can be placed atop the robot deck for movement. In this case, pallet quality would not appear to be critical (See photo on this page).
For AGVs with forks which move unit loads of goods, reasonable pallet quality is a concern, just as it is in a fast paced conventional warehouse. But will AGVs ever make sense for pallet companies moving stock within their yards? Unmanned ground vehicles are a mature application for dangerous tasks such as military and explosives duty, but as of yet, have not emerged as an option for outdoor palletized material handling as they have for duty inside of facilities.
Increasingly Optimized Conventional Warehouses
While many facilities have not yet made the leap in terms of drones, robots or AGVs, most if not all facilities are feeling the pressure to do more with less, and to do it faster and more cost-effectively. A recent interview in Modern Materials Handling (MMH) magazine provides a sense of how warehouses are changing. An executive from Hyster, the forklift supplier, commented that while the term “narrow aisle” has been around for many years, it doesn’t mean the same thing as it did just five years ago. Now, operators are trying to squeeze ever more product into their buildings, aided by engineering improvements that allow forklifts to operate in increasingly narrow aisles.
Warehouses are also racking upward, to take advantage of all vertical space. “I thought 400 inches would be as tall as a lift truck mast would ever get, now we have them going to 660 inches,” Lou Micheletto of Hyster explained to MMH. “As for speed, we used to accept 60 feet per minute, and now 130 feet per minute is more the rule than the exception.”
Importance for Pallets and Pallet Companies?
Faster paced, higher density warehouses would suggest that there will be little tolerance for any problems that might disrupt the flow of goods, including pallet quality or service issues. This is nothing new for most pallet companies, but watch for some customers which may have been less sensitive in the past, to become increasingly touchy as they are tasked to push the envelope in terms of warehouse product density and throughput.
In summary, technologies continue to change. The trends listed above do not signal dramatic shifts for pallet requirements, and perhaps, at some point, technologies such as drones and AGVs will provide interesting operational opportunities for pallet and lumber companies. For now, such changes underscore the importance of always being mindful of hearing “the voice of the customer” and having professional quality assurance protocols in place.
