Full disclosure, although I sell many material handling products and services, my area of expertise lies mainly in forklifts and pallet racking. Therefore, I am not an expert on robots, AGVs, AMRs, automated packaging lines, or any automation, for that matter. But even a novice can often recognize when automation makes sense and is a ‘no-brainer’! Below, I will share some of the scenarios that I see regularly as an obvious opportunity to increase productivity, increase safety, and save money.

Palletizing loads

This is low-hanging fruit. So many companies still utilize employees to stack product on pallets or to unload incoming product. This is a repetitive job that can lead to sore backs and muscles is monotonous and is so much better accomplished by machines. A robotic palletizer, like those offered by Fanuc and collaborative robots as offered by Universal Robot can replace several people per shift, will perform their function 24/7, and typically run many years with little to no maintenance. Considering one of these can be installed, turnkey, in no time and will cost less than what you’re currently paying for people to perform the same task. If you lease it, you will have a positive cash flow from day 1. This is the perfect opportunity to dip your toes into the automation pool.

Orderpicking and parts picking

People pushing pick carts around between shelving or walking back and forth from shelving to a takeaway conveyor to assemble orders is a common occurrence in many warehouses. It works fine when the number of SKUs is small or the order volume is low, but once the business grows, these areas grow as well, and become very inefficient.

Why not reduce the number of people needed by 50% or more, reduce fatigue on the pickers while increasing their picking accuracy and lines picked per hour? Goods to person storage systems, like Kardex Remstar shuttles and carousels, AutoStore systems, or mini load ASRS systems reduce travel time, increase pick accuracy and, as a bonus, also increase storage capacity. These machines are great for orderpicking, supplying kits and raw materials to manufacturing and even storing spare parts. Out with the shelving, in with the automation! So, get rid of the shelving, add some automation, and save labor, space, money, and time!

Moving loads long distances repetitively

Quality forklift operators are hard to find, and retain, yet many companies still waste their valuable time moving loads from one end of a large warehouse to the other. They may be bringing completed orders to a stretch wrapper or shipping area, retrieving wrapped loads from the stretch wrapper, delivering to a P&D station, taking dunnage to a dumpster, or one of many other repetitive tasks. These moves can easily be handled by an AGV. These types of machines require no infrastructure and are nearly plug and play. And considering one of these machines can cost as little as $2,000/month, the ROI is easily justified for the right application.

Continuous improvement

These are the opportunities that I see most often, but the applications for automation in the warehouse and manufacturing world grow daily. New products will continue to be developed and introduced to address all aspects of manufacturing and warehousing, wherever they offer improvement.

To best utilize all the latest technology, contact an experienced material handling solutions provider like Abel Womack, and have an expert assess your operations. Every day that you delay, may be costing you money!