Feb 24, 2022

With labor shortages impacting warehousing, manufacturing, logistics, and virtually every industry, businesses must find solutions that can improve productivity and efficiency even with reduced labor. To combat this, warehouses of all sizes are increasingly turning to robotics and automation to stay productive and competitive. Orders of robotic machinery have increased by 37% year-over-year, and using robotics in your warehouse can reduce your costs by 25-30%. Furthermore, studies show that 4 million commercial robots are to be installed in over 50,000 warehouses by 2025. Without robotics and automation, your business could suffer more from the impacts of labor shortages as it will be unable to handle rising customer demands.

While they may seem disruptive at first glance, implementing automation and autonomous mobile robots (AMRs) into your warehouse can help reduce the impact of labor shortages while freeing up your workers to focus on other more pressing jobs, thus valuing their time and effort. Intelligent robotics improves throughput, efficiency, and productivity while working alongside people in fulfillment, distribution, and manufacturing environments. For example, robotics innovators like Fetch optimize picking systems by assigning AMRs to pick-paths, reducing worker travel time, so they can continue to assemble orders while the AMR delivers complete orders to the loading dock. Automated workflows ultimately accelerate order fulfillment without harming accuracy rates, equipping teams with:

1. Improved individual productivity - Implementing robotics into your warehouse can reduce the time pickers spend walking around the warehouse by as much as 60%. This helps workers spend more time working on tasks instead of walking around the warehouse trying to locate products.
2. Reduced training times and reduced stress - Faster and user-friendly technology solutions make it easier for your workers to get accustomed to than other systems. Capable technology like Fetch’s AMRs also reduces stress on your workers because it is easy to implement them quickly and they safely navigate warehouse environments.
3. Optimized end-to-end picking - Enhancing fulfillment and distribution center workflows and automation of manual material movement in your warehouse streamlines picking and boosts inventory accuracy.
4. Enhanced data accuracy and analysis - Choosing to enhance your warehouse with AMRs helps equip your workers with enhanced data visibility and asset visibility, so they can pinpoint which assets are coming off inventory shelves faster and locate those assets.
5. Reduced errors and storage costs - Using robots reduces the risk of mistakes in manual, routine operations performed in a warehouse. This is because these technologies ensure data information is smoothly transferred within the warehouse. 

Implementing robotics into your warehouse ensures that your workers have the help they need to improve productivity and efficiency. Contact us today to see automation and robotics solutions that fit your warehouse.