Victoria Kickham started her career as a newspaper reporter in the Boston area before moving into B2B journalism. She has covered manufacturing, distribution and supply chain issues for a variety of publications in the industrial and electronics sectors, and now writes about everything from forklift batteries to omnichannel business trends for DC Velocity.
There’s no shortage of robotic material handling technology on the market today, and many organizations find themselves bombarded with solutions at trade shows and in other venues, enticing them toward automation, “Industry 4.0,” and the “smart” warehouse. The technological advances are impressive and the appeal great, leading many to seek out and implement robotic technology on a variety of levels.
But once a company decides to implement a particular robotic solution in its warehouse or distribution center—whether for picking, palletizing, automated truck unloading, or another task—it faces a critical next step: figuring out how to integrate that solution into its operation as part of a larger system. The technology will need to work with other equipment and infrastructure, including a longtime workhorse of the warehouse: conveyors.
Blending the tried-and-true with the up-and-coming is something conveyor manufacturers and systems integrators say is becoming a more important part of material handling system design.
“They must work hand in hand,” Tim Kraus, product manager for logistics and material handling at conveyor manufacturer Intralox, says of conveyors and robotics. “Even the most sophisticated lights-out order fulfillment designs have some supporting conveyor. The most cost-effective means to transport items—full cases, totes, individual items, packaged orders—in a consistent path is a simple conveyor.”
Kraus and other conveyor professionals say the convergence of robotics and conveyors can lead to increased productivity and quality while reducing error rates—factors that help improve a company’s competitiveness in today’s marketplace.
“If you look at all of those factors, the idea of integrating robots and conveyors has many benefits,” says Kevin Reader, director of business development and marketing for logistics solutions provider Knapp, pointing to software, design, and other technologies as keys to making it all work.
WORKING HAND IN HAND
Conveyor manufacturers are finding many ways to integrate with the plethora of robotic solutions on the market. As one example, Kraus says Intralox is working with e-commerce and parcel end-users and their integrators to “optimize the presentation of orders” to a robot—that is, conveying items to a robotic picking arm or sorter in a way that maximizes efficiency, accuracy, and, ultimately, payback of the robotic investment, which can be considerable.
“If a conveying system can optimize the conveying to that robot, it’s a huge opportunity” for customers, Kraus explains. “In some cases, you can see where an articulated arm is picking up an item, and if our conveyors and sorters can help singulate an item, presenting one thing at a time instead of a pile of items, that makes it easier for the robot.”
Barry Miller, integrator and subsystems manager for material handling equipment maker Interroll, agrees and adds that controlling the precise movement of a box on a conveyor helps in this regard as well. Advanced conveyor control systems make this possible, giving the systems integrator or robotics provider the ability to communicate efficiently with all aspects of the conveyor system so that items can be placed in the same spot over and over again to accommodate the robotic solution in use.
“Robots thrive off of repetition,” Miller explains. “So, if we can stop that box in the same location every time and make it easy for the integrator to do, then we’ve provided a proven solution” that can maximize productivity and efficiency.
FINDING COMMON GROUND
Palletizing is one of the most common applications in which conveyors and robotics converge, Miller adds, explaining that products are conveyed to a robot that then builds the pallets. In more complex applications, systems can feed cases of products to robots for picking and palletizing, and then convey the pallets farther down the line to forklift operators for truck loading. He says some integrators are blending conveyors and automated guided vehicles (AGVs) in unique ways as well.
Kraus agrees and offers additional examples of ways in which the technologies could work together. For instance:
A robotic operation to piece-pick individual items for order fulfillment out of totes might need a storage and retrieval system and supporting conveyor with right-angle transfers that can quickly deliver and exchange totes. If the supporting conveyor system can’t operate fast enough, it may require more robots to achieve the required throughput during peak seasons.
A robotic operation designed to pick up completed e-commerce orders for sortation will operate faster and with greater accuracy if the orders can be presented individually rather than in a large pile. It’s often cost and space prohibitive to keep orders completely singulated when they’re being conveyed to the robot, but conveyors and sorters can thin out this bulk flow and present it to the robot in a way that, again, keeps the robot working efficiently and optimizes the investment.
Traditionally, nonconveyable items that are large, irregularly packaged, or unstable eat up a disproportionate amount of labor in a material handling system. Many operations are looking for ways to reduce this labor, and they are looking at mobile robotics as an option. But getting these nonconveyable items to and from the robots can still be a manual-intensive process, Kraus says. Customers are looking for ways in which a conveyor system can work in conjunction with these systems to help minimize the strain and stress on a reduced available labor pool. The conveyor systems might be designed to feed or take items away from the robot.
Simplicity of operation is also an important factor. Reader adds that integrating the various software and controls involved in a material handling system becomes even more complex when robotics enter the mix; despite that challenge, every system must be streamlined and simple in its execution.
“This is not a trivial integration,” Reader says of robotics and material handling in general. “In order to make it streamlined and simple, the core technology behind it is quite complex. But it needs to be simple to execute from a customer perspective. That’s the challenge.”
Such challenges are likely to intensify as robotics take on a larger role in the warehouse and DC, Miller adds.
“Over the last few years, robots have become a major player in automation—in collaboration with conveyors and conveyor equipment,” he says. “As we move into what everyone calls ‘Industry 4.0’ and automating more things, you see more and more robots. And those robots are no good without equipment to feed them.”
Supply chain planning (SCP) leaders working on transformation efforts are focused on two major high-impact technology trends, including composite AI and supply chain data governance, according to a study from Gartner, Inc.
"SCP leaders are in the process of developing transformation roadmaps that will prioritize delivering on advanced decision intelligence and automated decision making," Eva Dawkins, Director Analyst in Gartner’s Supply Chain practice, said in a release. "Composite AI, which is the combined application of different AI techniques to improve learning efficiency, will drive the optimization and automation of many planning activities at scale, while supply chain data governance is the foundational key for digital transformation.”
Their pursuit of those roadmaps is often complicated by frequent disruptions and the rapid pace of technological innovation. But Gartner says those leaders can accelerate the realized value of technology investments by facilitating a shift from IT-led to business-led digital leadership, with SCP leaders taking ownership of multidisciplinary teams to advance business operations, channels and products.
“A sound data governance strategy supports advanced technologies, such as composite AI, while also facilitating collaboration throughout the supply chain technology ecosystem,” said Dawkins. “Without attention to data governance, SCP leaders will likely struggle to achieve their expected ROI on key technology investments.”
The British logistics robot vendor Dexory this week said it has raised $80 million in venture funding to support an expansion of its artificial intelligence (AI) powered features, grow its global team, and accelerate the deployment of its autonomous robots.
A “significant focus” continues to be on expanding across the U.S. market, where Dexory is live with customers in seven states and last month opened a U.S. headquarters in Nashville. The Series B will also enhance development and production facilities at its UK headquarters, the firm said.
The “series B” funding round was led by DTCP, with participation from Latitude Ventures, Wave-X and Bootstrap Europe, along with existing investors Atomico, Lakestar, Capnamic, and several angels from the logistics industry. With the close of the round, Dexory has now raised $120 million over the past three years.
Dexory says its product, DexoryView, provides real-time visibility across warehouses of any size through its autonomous mobile robots and AI. The rolling bots use sensor and image data and continuous data collection to perform rapid warehouse scans and create digital twins of warehouse spaces, allowing for optimized performance and future scenario simulations.
Originally announced in September, the move will allow Deutsche Bahn to “fully focus on restructuring the rail infrastructure in Germany and providing climate-friendly passenger and freight transport operations in Germany and Europe,” Werner Gatzer, Chairman of the DB Supervisory Board, said in a release.
For its purchase price, DSV gains an organization with around 72,700 employees at over 1,850 locations. The new owner says it plans to investment around one billion euros in coming years to promote additional growth in German operations. Together, DSV and Schenker will have a combined workforce of approximately 147,000 employees in more than 90 countries, earning pro forma revenue of approximately $43.3 billion (based on 2023 numbers), DSV said.
After removing that unit, Deutsche Bahn retains its core business called the “Systemverbund Bahn,” which includes passenger transport activities in Germany, rail freight activities, operational service units, and railroad infrastructure companies. The DB Group, headquartered in Berlin, employs around 340,000 people.
“We have set clear goals to structurally modernize Deutsche Bahn in the areas of infrastructure, operations and profitability and focus on the core business. The proceeds from the sale will significantly reduce DB’s debt and thus make an important contribution to the financial stability of the DB Group. At the same time, DB Schenker will gain a strong strategic owner in DSV,” Deutsche Bahn CEO Richard Lutz said in a release.
Transportation industry veteran Anne Reinke will become president & CEO of trade group the Intermodal Association of North America (IANA) at the end of the year, stepping into the position from her previous post leading third party logistics (3PL) trade group the Transportation Intermediaries Association (TIA), both organizations said today.
Meanwhile, TIA today announced that insider Christopher Burroughs would fill Reinke’s shoes as president & CEO. Burroughs has been with TIA for 13 years, most recently as its vice president of Government Affairs for the past six years, during which time he oversaw all legislative and regulatory efforts before Congress and the federal agencies.
Before her four years leading TIA, Reinke spent two years as Deputy Assistant Secretary with the U.S. Department of Transportation and 16 years with CSX Corporation.
Serious inland flooding and widespread power outages are likely to sweep across Florida and other Southeast states in coming days with the arrival of Hurricane Helene, which is now predicted to make landfall Thursday evening along Florida’s northwest coast as a major hurricane, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).
While the most catastrophic landfall impact is expected in the sparsely-population Big Bend area of Florida, it’s not only sea-front cities that are at risk. Since Helene is an “unusually large storm,” its flooding, rainfall, and high winds won’t be limited only to the Gulf Coast, but are expected to travel hundreds of miles inland, the weather service said. Heavy rainfall is expected to begin in the region even before the storm comes ashore, and the wet conditions will continue to move northward into the southern Appalachians region through Friday, dumping storm total rainfall amounts of up to 18 inches. Specifically, the major flood risk includes the urban areas around Tallahassee, metro Atlanta, and western North Carolina.
In addition to its human toll, the storm could exert serious business impacts, according to the supply chain mapping and monitoring firm Resilinc. Those will be largely triggered by significant flooding, which could halt oil operations, force mandatory evacuations, restrict ports, and disrupt air traffic.
While the storm’s track is currently forecast to miss the critical ports of Miami and New Orleans, it could still hurt operations throughout the Southeast agricultural belt, which produces products like soybeans, cotton, peanuts, corn, and tobacco, according to Everstream Analytics.
That widespread footprint could also hinder supply chain and logistics flows along stretches of interstate highways I-10 and I-75 and on regional rail lines operated by Norfolk Southern and CSX. And Hurricane Helene could also likely impact business operations by unleashing power outages, deep flooding, and wind damage in northern Florida portions of Georgia, Everstream Analytics said.
Before the storm had even touched Florida soil, recovery efforts were already being launched by humanitarian aid group the American Logistics Aid Network (ALAN). In a statement on Wednesday, the group said it is urging residents in the storm's path across the Southeast to heed evacuation notices and safety advisories, and reminding members of the logistics community that their post-storm help could be needed soon. The group will continue to update its Disaster Micro-Site with Hurricane Helene resources and with requests for donated logistics assistance, most of which will start arriving within 24 to 72 hours after the storm’s initial landfall, ALAN said.