February 2013

The Rise of Robotics in the Supply Chain

By Sara Pearson Specter

As the need for flexibility and adaptability throughout the supply chain continues to grow, a shift to robotics will comprise one of the biggest changes in material handling, says C. Dwight Klappich, vice president of research at information technology research and advisory firm Gartner Inc.

"The industry is getting to the point where people will be replaced with robots," he predicts. "Not for every process, but for the types of work humans are unwilling to do for eight hours a day, five days a week."

Industrial robots are already used in a variety of manufacturing and handling applications throughout the supply chain. These include:

For handling and manipulation of products as diverse as car doors or eggs, robots are fast and powerful as well as dexterous and sensitive. Applications include pick and place from conveyor line to packaging and machine tending, where the robot feeds raw materials into processing equipment.
Robotic palletizing uses robots to load corrugated cartons or other packaged items onto a pallet, building simple to complex layer patterns that maximize load stability during transport.
Laser, plasma and water jet cutting systems frequently use robots for precision accuracy, flexibility and safety.
Finishing processes—such as grinding, trimming, fettling, polishing and cleaning—employ multi-axis robots to produce a consistent quality finish.
Sealing and gluing applications use a robot that follows a path accurately with good control over speed while maintaining a consistent bead of the adhesive.
Spraying processes that apply volatile, hazardous solvent-based paints and coatings use robots to minimize human exposure.
Spot or seam (MIG, TIG, arc and laser) welding robots produce precise welds, as well as exact control parameters such as power, wire feed and gas flow.

Klappich cites advances in vision technology that enable automatic guided vehicles (AGVs) to navigate their surroundings autonomously, coupled with vast improvements to robotic arm dexterity, as reasons for his assertion that robots are on the rise. Further, the capital costs associated with robotics are on the decline.

"In the past, the cost, time and complexity associated with a highly automated warehouse deterred companies from making that kind of investment," he says. "Now, costs are going down. Plus, the flexibility and adaptability of smaller scale robotic systems allow them to be easily reconfigured to accommodate changing business needs. Both of those factors make the investment easier to justify."

Klappich foresees an evolution to robotic case pickers riding atop AGVs as they fill orders from standard dimension cartons, for example.

"There is, of course, the argument that robots will put people out of work," he continues. "But, the reality for many established economies is that—if you exclude immigration—there is negative population growth. As the cost of labor goes up and the costs of robots go down, it will become economically viable to offload certain processes to robots."

Henrik I. Christensen, PhD, KUKA chair of robotics and director of robotics at Georgia Tech, agrees: "We've seen tremendous progress in robotics and automation in material handling over the last few years," he says. "There has been a lot of development in automation that does the handling tasks that don't require a lot of intelligence and are physically challenging."

Further, robotic technology decreases the amount of space a facility needs to store and handle products. "And real estate is getting increasingly expensive," Dr. Christensen notes.

Dr. Christensen—who served as the principal investigator of the Roadmap for U.S. Robotics report, published in 2009—has dedicated his 30-plus year career to robotics research and development. His studies show that although using automation for material handling can increase efficiency by 20%, challenges exist, such as how to integrate robotics into existing infrastructure and how to retrofit existing DCs with this technology.

Dr Christensen covered those topics in his ProMat 2013 keynote presentation on Monday, January 21 entitled "The Impact of Robotics on Economic Growth." Dr. Christensen also detailed how advances in robotics are revolutionizing manufacturing and distribution operations, as well as insights into how these developments will propel future economic growth. To listen to this speech and all the ProMat 2103 webinars & keynotes go to promatshow.com/seminars.

# # #

About the author:

Sara Pearson Specter has written articles and supplements for many industry publications. Specter has worked in the fields of graphic design, advertising, marketing, and public relations for more than 15 years, with a special emphasis on helping business-to-business industrial and manufacturing companies. She owns her own marketing communications firm, Sara Specter, Marketing Mercenary LLC (www.saraspecter.com). Clients include companies in a diverse range of fields, including materials handling equipment, systems and packaging. She recently relocated to Oregon's Willamette Valley where she and her husband are in the process of establishing a vineyard and winery.