Types of Warehouse Automation Businesses Needed in 2023

Physical labor in a warehouse can entail loading and unloading, storing, organizing and managing inventory, and other tasks.  

Since it requires a lot of resources, only big companies such as Amazon and Walmart ever adopted such expensive infrastructures.

Which is why even if you decide to implement such a massive change, the lack of precedents for automated warehouses will lead you to get stuck on questions like: 

Should you have the product brought to you? Or do you want something to help a human get several products?

Although robotics and its applications such as CMR (Collaborative Mobile Robot) solutions are becoming more common, the principle behind warehouse automation was founded upon the idea of achieving maximum efficiency.

The Two Questions for Robotic Warehouse Automation

An R&D initiative taken up by Kiva Systems, this project went about the infrastructural implementation of robotic applications with two simple questions:

1- If labor was free and infinite, how would you go about warehouse management by utilizing labor to maximize efficiency in your operations?

The answer was to have each individual person hold a product and when needed, the person would come up.

2- If labor was expensive and restricted to a minimum, how would you go about making the most out of the situation?

The answer was that since there are no people, you would need the product to be brought to you.

This was the foundation of the principle used in early applications of robotics as businesses explored options to make products in the warehouse movable via machines.

As more experimentations happened, robotic mechanisms were adopted and infrastructures evolved to pave the way for cutting-edge automated machines.

Even now, several warehouses go for robotic shelves that are capable of carrying and supporting several different types of products with variable dimensions.

However, this can warrant businesses to build their warehouses from scratch in order to have an infrastructure in place that can support mechanization, making it impossible for established businesses to even think of it.

There are several types of robots available for warehouse management, some of which are explained below:

GTP

GTP or Goods to Person solutions refer to applications of robotics in warehousing that follow the principle described above.

There are several types of solutions that can achieve the goal of bringing the goods to the people of the warehouse. One major example of GTP is the Automated Storage and Retrieval System.

Think of a mechanized warehouse that comes with racks lined up to the top, designed to support massive volumes of a particular type of product.

This warehouse would primarily be designed to have thousands of racks and shelves in equal dimensions that are accessible for a crane-like machine that’s been customized to lift, push, pull and set down racks, pallets or even cartons that your products are packed in.

The machine would obviously be configured to work through a neat interface that houses all your warehouse’s information, helping it decide where to store which product and how to get it back later.

 The beauty of GTP is that it’s a simple yet miraculous innovation that is perfect for warehouses with significant volumes.

Other GTP systems like a conveyor belt are also famous for reducing the labor required to move things around. However, given the lack of the ability to pick and store products in their designated spots, conveyor belts had to be modified to become more efficient, paving the way for solutions like ASRS.

PTL

Pick to Light or PTL systems are modern innovations that were designed to not only streamline fulfillment and assembly processes but also aimed to reduce manual errors when it comes to picking the right product and performing designated tasks.

With a PTL system, you have all your labor work at designated stations with each handling a specific section of your warehouse storage. A conveyor belt that comes with the order barcode tag and a basket reaches the station from where the products are needed.

As it reaches the station, the station attendant scans the order tag. The racks and shelves housing the products light up accordingly, showing the attendant which product to get and the quantity required.

Lights are deactivated as products are added to the basket by the attendant and the conveyor belt takes the basket ahead to the front or to the next station from where it requires more products.

The PTL system doesn’t only reduce manual labor and errors but also reduces mobility requirements. Given that it’s not a Goods-to-Person solution, it highlights the significance and diversity that can be explored for warehouse automation.

Similar to PTL, there are different variations of automation systems that focus on helping the station attendant streamline the picking and packing process.

One prominent example is the Voice Picking and Voice Tasking system which entails equipping all station attendants with headphones that guide them through their job without having to check digital devices or sheets, essentially ending the need to look down.

While it may not seem much, analyses reveal that this can reduce the time it takes for workers to gather products by half.

CMR

Collaborative Motor Robots or Cobots are predominantly the embodiment of the idea of automation we all hold in our heads. 

Realizing the dream of having machines do our work, collaborative robots function as strong autonomous machines capable of lifting substantially heavy and a large variety of products.

Armed with all the technology that modern autonomous vehicles come with, these machines can be programmed to timely load, unload and even distinctively organize a large variety of products without errors.

Some Cobots also come with unique arms that allow them to imitate all the actions of a human hand or perhaps, even more, to get specific repetitive, sensitive and delicate tasks done efficiently and quickly.

Of course, while they offer all sorts of freedom, these machines demand substantial investment.

AGVs

Automated Guided Vehicles are a type of CMRs, a prime example of how every warehouse can implement robotic warehouse automation seamlessly. 

Think of automated forklifts, autonomous shelves with the power to lift a truck, or any vehicular model capable of helping you bring results.  

These vehicles are completely automated, meaning they can be programmed to do any number of tasks without having to install a heavy infrastructure for them. Not only can they lift a significant amount of weight, but they can also ensure the product is stored safely.

While some AGVs are used only to move products around and lift or lower inventory items down from high places, others can be programmed to palletize and store products individually and automate inventory management.

One famous type of AGV is the automated guided cart. As the name states, it’s an autonomous cart that can be used to automate repetitive tasks such as gathering a large variety of products from different sections of the warehouse.

AMR

Autonomous Mobile Robots are similar to AGVs, except, these robots are programmed to bring the stuff to workers who can pick up items they need.

Very similar to AGVs, the key difference between AMR and AGVs is that the former has the ability to anticipate territorial changes and make changes accordingly, meaning it can navigate and reroute itself to reach its destination.

Although both types of machines are able to sense intrusions and disruptions along their paths, AMRs prove more efficient as they can steer themselves around the object blocking the way.

Whereas, Automated Guided Vehicles (AGVs) tend to stop in their tracks whenever they sense an object is nearby and stay there until the object is removed.

Whether it’s with preloaded facility blueprints and drawings or advanced artificial intelligence systems, the AMR can seem to do a much better job at retrieving whole shelves of products for workers.

In fact, if an automated guided cart has the above-mentioned navigation ability, it’s classified as an Autonomous Mobile Robot (AMR).