Logistics Slowdown

 A Logistics Slowdown.

 U.S. Warehouse Sector Loses Jobs for Fourth Month in Cooling Sign  in SupplyChainBrain

The U.S. warehousing sector lost jobs for a fourth month in October, suggesting employment in an industry that’s boomed during the pandemic may have peaked.

About 1.7 million people worked in warehousing and storage in October, a 1.1% decline from September, government figures released Friday show. The drop — at a time of the year when companies typically start to ramp up staffing ahead of the holidays — was the biggest since April 2020.   ... ' 

Amazon Launches Warehouse Robot That Can Do Human Jobs

ACM TECHNEWS

Amazon Launches Warehouse Robot That Can Do Human Jobs  By Financial Times, November 11, 2022

Amazon has rolled out a new warehouse robot in order to automate more jobs as the company seeks to reduce logistics costs.  The company said the Sparrow robotic arm is the first robot that can "detect, select, and handle individual products in our inventory," jobs once performed only by warehouse employees.  The robotic arm identifies and picks up small objects with the help of computer vision technology and suction cups.

Amazon, which has developed 700 new robotics-related job "categories," said Sparrow will "benefit" employees by allowing them to focus more on less-repetitive warehouse tasks.

Joe Quinlivan, Amazon’s vice-president of global robotics, wrote in a blog post, “Robotics technology enables us to work smarter — not harder — to operate efficiently and safely.” ... 

From Financial Times

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Robots Reshaping Warehouses

Towards improved supply chains.

Robots Aren't Done Reshaping Warehouses

By The New York Times, July 13, 2022

When Digit spends an afternoon unloading boxes from a tractor-trailer in 100-plus-degree heat, co-workers never hear a complaint. Digit, a blue-and-white humanoid robot, was designed to handle the tough, menial and dangerous tasks at warehouses.

The robot's movements, informed by years of studying how birds walk, include a slight sway in its frame when it is at rest, to dispel the discomforting stillness that bothers humans. It also doesn't talk, because voice recognition tech is not advanced enough yet.

"Instead of designing the whole warehouse around the robots, we can now build robots that are able to operate on our terms, in our spaces, in our environments," said Jonathan Hurst, the chief technology officer and a founder of Agility Robotics, the firm behind Digit.

From The New York Times

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Smart Warehouses

 Effective management and delivery.

Delivering Smart Warehouses

By Jake Widman, Commissioned by CACM Staff, January 4, 2022

Recent trends have presented major challenges to warehouses and distribution centers. According to data from the U.S. Census Bureau and Department of Commerce, the e-commerce share of retail sales has risen from 10.5% at the beginning of 2019 to 13% this past quarter, with a spike to 15.7% in Q2 2020. That increase has put pressure on those facilities to increase efficiency and speed.

At the same time, the warehouse sector has been wrestling with a labor shortage. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, job vacancies in the U.S. warehousing and storage sector reached or exceeded 5% of the total number of jobs in the sector throughout 2021, representing some 75,000 jobs unfilled.

There are differences between warehouses and distribution centers: the former are used for longer-term storage and inventory building, while the latter are better suited to high-velocity, quick-turnaround operations. The bottom-line need for both is knowing where their stuff is, where it needs to go, and how to get it there.

"At a basic level, it's asset tracking," says Srini Samudrala, senior vice president for Digital and Internet of Things for Zyter, a Rockville, MD-based company that describes itself as a "digital health and IoT-enablement platform." Says Samudrala, "If you think about it, about 70% of all use-cases in the IoT world are around tracking the location of something."

Both kinds of facilities are addressing the challenges of such tracking through increased use of "smart" technologies such as machine vision, artificial intelligence, and the Internet of Things, along with autonomous and supervised robotics. According to market research firm ABI Research, over 4 million commercial robots will be installed in over 50,000 warehouses by 2025, a significant increase from the 4,000 robotic warehouses the company tracked in 2018.  ... '

Amazon Autonomous Warehouse Robotics

Advances in Amazon Warehouse robotics to improve safety and operations. Note includes autonomous operation.

Amazon Details Warehouse Robots, 'Ernie' and 'Bert'

CNBC, Lauren Feiner, June 13, 2021

Retail giant Amazon is testing new robots designed to reduce worker stress and potential for injury. An Amazon blog post said the test involves four robots programmed to move items across warehouses, in close proximity to workers. Ernie helps remove items from a robotic shelf; Amazon said testing indicates it could improve worker safety. Bert is one of Amazon's first independently navigating Autonomous Mobile Robots (AMRs), which the company said can function safely even when moving among employees who also are in motion. Two more robots currently under development, Scooter and Kermit, are cart-transporting AMRs that Amazon said could move empty packages across warehouses, allowing workers to concentrate on less-strenuous tasks that involve critical thinking.  ... ' 

Stretch Robot Works the Warehouse

Having much analyzed the process, I much like the self staging and unloading of a truck demoed above. 

Say hello to Boston Dynamics’ newest robot: Stretch  By Trevor Mogg in Digitaltrends

Boston Dynamics has just unveiled its latest robot, but don’t expect the kind of entertaining shenanigans that we enjoy with its other creations like Spot and Atlas.

The new wheel-based robot, called Stretch, is designed for straightforward warehouse work. Using a long automated arm and a “smart gripper” featuring embedded sensors, the machine is able to work quickly, handling around 800 boxes an hour. ... '

Amazon Gamification Example

Intriguing example, where can gamification work in supply chain?    Our own efforts in the space were often not taken seriously?

 Amazon expands gamification program that encourages warehouse employees to work harder

The program, FC Games, is expanding to at least 20 fulfillment centers in the US

By Nick Statt@nickstatt   in TheVerge  .... 

Amazon Enforces Distancing with AI

Somewhat novel application which I assume uses location and image analysis to report and manage distance rules.   More details at the link.

Amazon uses AI-powered displays to enforce social distancing in warehouses
By Ryan Daws | June 17, 2020 | TechForge Media,  Editor at TechForge Media.  

Amazon has turned to an AI-powered solution to help maintain social distancing in its vast warehouses.

Companies around the world are having to look at new ways of safely continuing business as we adapt to the “new normal” of life with the coronavirus.

Amazon has used its AI expertise to create what it calls the Distance Assistant. Using a time-of-flight sensor, often found in modern smartphones, the AI measures the distance between employees.  ... " 

Gap Adding More Robots

Warehouse Robotics expands.

Gap Rushes in More Robots to Warehouses to Solve Virus Disruption   By Reuters

Gap Inc. is deploying warehouse robots more quickly amid the coronavirus pandemic, which has resulted in more online orders and fewer staff to fulfill them due to social distancing rules.

The U.S. apparel chain had reached a deal to more than triple its number of warehouse robots to 106 by the fall, but it called on Kindred AI to deliver the robots earlier.

Kindred has deployed 10 of the eight-foot-tall robotic stations — each of which can handle the work of four people — to Gap’s warehouse near Nashville, TN and another 20 near Columbus, OH.  Kindred will deliver the final robots to four of Gap's five U.S. facilities by July.

Gap and Kindred said the robots are meant to complement, not replace, human workers.

From Reuters

Boston Dynamics Handle Robot

With video of the robotic system being used in real warehouses.

Handle Teams Up With Mobile Robots on Warehouse Logistics
Boston Dynamics and OTTO Motors partner to show how a heterogeneous robot team can be faster and more efficient

By Evan Ackerman

Boston Dynamics' Handle robot and OTTO Motors

Boston Dynamics Enters Warehouse Robots Market, Acquires Kinema Systems
Boston Dynamics' Handle is a humanoid robot on wheels, and it's amazing.
Boston Dynamics Officially Unveils Its Wheel-Leg Robot: "Best of Both Worlds"

Clearpath's OTTO Robot Can Autonomously Haul a Ton of Stuff
Today, Boston Dynamics and OTTO Motors (a division of Clearpath Robotics) are announcing a partnership to “coordinate mobile robots in the warehouse” as part of “the future of warehouse automation.” It’s a collaboration between OTTO’s autonomous mobile robots and Boston Dynamics’s Handle, showing how a heterogeneous robot team can be faster and more efficient in a realistic warehouse environment..... "

Intel's LIDAR for Inventory Logistics

We spent time experimenting with a means to determining accurate inventory and location accuracy positions in warehouses and on store shelves.    Here a relatively new approach in the space.  Originally noted in AppleNews. 

Intel’s latest RealSense lidar camera is designed for inventory logistics
Brian Heater@bheater in TechCrunch

Intel today introduced the latest addition to its RealSense line. The L515 is roughly the size of a tennis ball, targeted specifically for warehouse logistics — a hugely important and increasingly automated aspect of global trade.

Other potential applications for the new camera include retail, healthcare, 3D scanning and robotics. The little hockey puck is capable of scanning a scene and creating a point cloud with millions of depth points a second, per Intel — a fairly impressive spec, given its size.  .... "

Amazon Using Gamification in Warehouses

Had not heard of this, but always looking for ways we can augment work by tweaking behavior.  Like adding some elements of fun.   Don't know if it actually works in practice,  but it is worth the try.

‘MissionRacer’: How Amazon turned the tedium of warehouse work into a game  By Greg Bensinger in the WP   

Inside several of Amazon’s cavernous warehouses, hundreds of employees spend hours a day playing video games. Some compete by racing virtual dragons or sports cars around a track, while others collaborate to build castles piece by piece.

But they aren’t whiling the time away playing Fortnite and Minecraft. Rather, they’re racing to fill customer orders, their progress reflected in a video game format that is part of an experiment by the e-commerce giant to help reduce the tedium of its physically demanding jobs. And if it helps improve the efficiency of work like plucking items from or stowing products on shelves for 10 hours a day or more, all the better. .... " 

Boston Dynamics Acquires 3D Vision

May lead to better sight for warehouse operations via 3D Vision.  Smart Factories will likely need autonomous sensing and manipulation abilities for dynamically varying contexts, goals and environments.  A factory or warehouse is by its nature a less than always organized and stable environment.   3D vision could act as an agile way to make sense of human workplaces.

Boston Dynamics' acquisition will help its robots see in 3D
Its robots might find work in factories sooner rather than later.      By Christine Fisher, @cfisher  writes in Engadget 

While Boston Dynamics' robots make for fascinating -- sometimes disturbing -- internet videos, they haven't quite crossed into everyday life. That could change sooner rather than later. Boston Dynamics took a big step toward bringing its box-moving (and running, jumping, dishwashing) robots into the real world with its acquisition of Kinema Systems.

Kinema is a Menlo Park-based company that uses deep learning to give robotic arms the 3D vision they need to locate and move boxes. It can recognize different products and handle boxes of different sizes, even if they're not perfectly level.  .... '

Handle Robot for Warehouses

Looking for an autonomous and adaptable robot for warehouse environments.  Some quite impressive examples have now come from Boston Dynamics.

Boston Dynamics' new Handle robot heads to the warehouse
Play time is over.   By Richard Lawler, @Rjcc in Engadget

When we first met Handle the wheeled robot was hopping and jumping to show off its agility, but a new demo video from Boston Dynamics is much more practical. In this one, larger Handle units work autonomously to move boxes around inside a a warehouse environment. According to the company, the boxes weigh about 11 pounds each, but the robots can handle up to 33 pounds. ... "

Kroger to Build Robotic Warehouse for Home Delivery

Kroger continues to advance.   Now testing home delivery robotic warehouses.   Also direct robotic delivery testing in Arizona. The latter being a particularly tough challenge, given its need for autonomous decision making in varying environments.

Kroger announces first US robotic warehouse for home delivery in Monroe in Cincinnati.com

The Cincinnati-based supermarket chain will spend $55 million constructing the facility that will create 410 new jobs.

Called a customer fulfillment center, the facility will be heavily automated with "innovative robotics technology, allowing for next-generation automated storage and retrieval." Also nicknamed a "shed," the center will be 335,000 square feet – two to three times the size of the typical Kroger Marketplace. ... "

Also more in Chain Store Age.

Wal-Mart Expands Test of Pickup-only Store

Not a new thing.  In the 90s was pitched to look at what amounted to a highly efficient warehouse attached to a parking pickup drive-through.    Being set up, not by a major retailer, to test a similar concept.  You were informed when your shrink-wrapped order was ready.  See tag AutoCart below.

Walmart expands test of pickup-only grocery store concept   in Retailwire by Tom Ryan include Expert Comments.

Walmart is seeking approval to open a pickup-only grocery store in a former Dominick’s store in the suburbs of Chicago in spring 2019.

Standalone pickup facilities have been tested near Walmart’s headquarters in Bentonville and with a location in Metairie, LA, but the proposed facility — called Walmart Pickup — appears significantly larger at 41,700-square-feet.

Shoppers will order groceries through Walmart’s website or mobile app and arrive at an assigned canopied bay in the parking lot at the specified time to pick up their purchases. The primary focus will be on groceries, although customers will be able to order other products and have them delivered to the location in Lincolnwood for free pickup.

Walmart predicts the number of pickup trips at this facility, which includes 24 stalls, will be about 180 per hour or 1,960 daily, according to Supermarket News. The retailer will also make home deliveries from the site — an estimated 30 per day. Thirty to 40 employees are expected to run the facility. ...  "

Kroger Links to Ocado

In FMI Daily Lead:

Meet Ocado, Kroger's Newest Weapon in Its Grocery Delivery War with Amazon and Walmart ... Kroger to become exclusive US licensee of Ocado technology ... 

In Fortune.
Kroger has forged a deal with British online grocer Ocado, which has been on the forefront of warehouse and delivery automation for online grocery orders. Kroger will be the exclusive US licensee of Ocado's technology and now owns a 5% stake in the UK firm. ... " 

Forward on Automated Warehouses

Automated warehouses are not new, but their use has expanded and improved as part of broader fulfillment process.

Robot Makers Fill Their War Chests in Fight Against Amazon

Locus Robotics is raising serious cash in its bid to automate warehouses, bringing industry investment to $70 million this year.     By Kim Bhasin  and Patrick Clark  in Bloomberg

A few years ago, Amazon.com Inc. triggered a robot arms race when it purchased a company called Kiva Systems, maker of automated warehouse robots. Now its would-be rivals are landing bigger and bigger cash injections to try to compete with the e-commerce giant.

Locus Robotics, a spinoff of a warehouse company that decided to build its own robots after the Amazon deal in 2012, raised another $25 million in venture capital, bringing its total funding to more than $33 million, the company announced last week. 

The new cash for Locus followed a $15 million injection in July for 6 River Systems Inc., a robotics company founded by ex-Kiva executives. In March, China warehouse robotics startup Geek+, which boasts Alibaba as a client, raised $22 million. Competitor RightHand added $8 million in venture funding this year as well.  .... "

Towards Lights-Out Fulfillment

'Lights-Out' used to be a favorite term when we worked in AI applications for the enterprise. Dramatically implying no humans, or lights needed to be involved.    Near total automation is still not here, but is approaching.  Consider the implications.  I note that Amazon now has 341K employees.  
Also it seems that most significant technological change mentioned here has Amazon involvement.   Now well over the tipping point for Influencing broad changes. Towards lights-out.  Keep watching their activity in this space.

Bezos move spurs $20B of growth in logistics robotics
Lights-out fulfillment will be the new norm within a decade   By Greg Nichols for Robotics.  In ZdNet.

This year is turning out to be a tipping point for how companies manage e-commerce fulfillment.

Worldwide sales of warehousing and logistics robots hit a respectable $1.9 billion in 2016. By 2021, according to a forecast by research firm Tractica, the market will hit a whopping $22.4 billion.

To better conceptualize the market explosion underway, consider that 40,000 units of warehousing and logistics robots were sold last year. A projected 620,000 units will be sold in 2021.

Why the change? In short: Amazon. If the last couple Prime Days proved anything, it's that a) Jeff Bezos is allowed to declare national holidays, and b) the investment Amazon made in warehouse logistics when it bought Kiva Systems for $775 million in 2012 presaged a complete transformation in global commerce.  ... " 

Warehouse Science from Georgia Institute of Technology

Brought to my attention.   ©  by colleague John J. Bartholdi III • Georgia Institute of Technology

Warehouse Science
Mathematical models to optimize management of time and space in a warehouse

Free text book, with …

Supplementary materials
Warehouse tours
Class projects for industry
Order-picking by bucket brigade

Free-to-use software

Draw a “heat map” of a warehouse
Identify product affinities from sales history
Slot pallets in a forward case-pick area
Slot cartons in a forward piece-pick area

Classes (not free)

ISyE 6335, a core course in Georgia Tech's program leading to a Masters Degree in Supply Chain Engineering
Executive education
Professional education