Supply Chain Predictions 2015 from the Analyst Community

First Thoughts By Dan Gilmore – Editor-in-Chief Ok, the last of our predictions for 2015, this year again with some highlights of the predictions from key supply chain analysts. Last week in this coluumn, we highlighted 2015 predictions from this years panel of supply chain gurus. we then ran the full text predictons from these gurus in our OnTarget newsletters. Let’s start with Gartner, which had three sets of "predicts" this year: global logistics, supply chain planning, and chief supply chain officers. On the global logistics front, Garter predicts that by 2018, 5% of companies with complex picking operations will pilot mobile, self-navigating and smart warehouse robots. 5% may not sound like much, but it would represent a huge increase from current levels. Gilmore Says: Gartner says "Fifty percent of today’s senior supply chain executives will turn over by 2018 due to misalignment between leadership skills and supply chain maturity." Gartner starts by noting that while robots have been around for decades in manufacturing operations, the use of robots in distribution centers has been limited by the typical architecture of industrial robots (though a few companies are using robots for automated palletization at the end sorter diverts). Industrial robots are typically large, heavy and designed to do specific tasks (such as welding or assembly) and are in fixed locations. However, "New types of robotics are emerging to address the limitations of complex automated warehouses of the past and are advanced evolutions of previous generations of automated guided vehicles (AGVs)," Gartner says. It adds that "While commercial adoption will remain low, warehouse robots will evolve rapidly during the next five years to address some limitations of previous generations of automation." That includes lower costs, flexibility to perform multiple tasks, and improved "intelligence," where the robots might communicate with each other […]