Advances in robotic piece-picking technology are driving its adoption in the DC and attracting investor interest, thanks to e-commerce growth and soaring demand for more warehouses.
Victoria Kickham, an editor at large for Supply Chain Quarterly, 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 Supply Chain Quarterly's sister publication, DC Velocity.
Piece-picking robots are finding their way into more warehouses and distribution centers (DCs) these days thanks to steady improvements in the technology that are making it more attractive to a wider range of end-users. Advances in gripping technology and arm speed are making it easier to handle a broader array of items, for example, allowing companies to maximize their investment and reduce their reliance on human labor for mundane picking tasks.
The trend is part of a growing demand for industrial robots in general—a trend that is only expected to gather steam as fulfillment operations deal with rising e-commerce volumes and the labor challenges that accompany such growth. The Association for Advancing Automation (A3) tracked a 28% increase in North American robot sales last year compared to 2020; it was the strongest sales year on record, with $2 billion worth of robot units sold. Separate industry statistics valued the piece-picking robot market at more than $148 million in 2020, a figure that’s expected to surpass $3 billion by 2026, a nearly 63% compound annual growth rate.
The growth is spurring interest from the investment community as well. Earlier this year, robotic picking solutions developer RightHand Roboticslanded $66 million in venture capital funding, which the company said it will use to accelerate the development of its RightPick piece-picking solution. There’s been a steady stream of similar announcements regarding robotics-industry investments over the past year, which underscores the bullish market outlook for the technology.
“We foresee strong growth in this area,” explains A3’s President Jeff Burnstein, emphasizing e-commerce growth and a related demand to build more warehouses and DCs—all of which will need automation. “That means this segment will grow, and there will be innovation. There is a lot of venture capital [flowing] into this space as well, which shows you this will be a very aggressive market moving forward.”
Some of the most common logistics applications for piece-picking robots today are sortation and pick-and-place functions in general merchandise, apparel, and small-package operations, but experts say the opportunities are growing just as fast as the demand.
GETTING BETTER OVER TIME
There have been “massive improvements” in piece-picking technology over the past few years, according to Jake Heldenberg, senior manager for warehouse solutions sales consulting at material handling systems integrator Vanderlande. Piece-picking robots use a gripper attached to a mechanical arm for item picking and are most commonly used to pick single items from a source bin and deposit them into an outbound container. Heldenberg says grippers are able to manipulate and grasp far more items than they could just a few years ago and that arm speed has improved as well, allowing companies across many industries to meet productivity improvement goals.
“Four years ago, [robotic piece-picking solutions] could handle 60% to 70% of SKUs [stock-keeping units]. Now, they can handle 90%-plus for picking in general merchandise and fashion,” Heldenberg says. “The most successful products have been cosmetics—because they come in small boxes that are lightweight and easy to grip.”
The biggest challenge has been the robot’s vision system, but that technology is improving as well. Piece-picking robots incorporate three-dimensional (3D) cameras and software to “see” what they are doing. Robot developers are working to improve vision systems so that robots can more easily identify items of different shapes, sizes, and weights. Artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) can help with this process by allowing the robot to “learn” and improve on its own.
“Maybe the robot is being told to pick object ‘X’ out of a bin of various objects. To do that, it has to identify object ‘X,’” Burnstein explains, adding that understanding the item’s dimensions and weight are a crucial part of that process. “Robots can learn how to do this more effectively over time through AI and machine learning.”
Vince Martinelli, head of product and marketing at RightHand Robotics, explains that AI gives the robot the cognitive skills and “understanding” of its space that allow it to function more accurately and consistently in a complex environment. He says today’s piece-picking robots are more adaptable, reliable, and faster than ever before—thanks to advances in AI, but also because developers are gaining real-world experience as their products become more widely used. Real-world applications can reveal obstacles, errors, and scenarios in which a robot may not complete a task perfectly, for instance. Developers can then use that experience to further refine the technology’s capabilities.
“Some things are hard to do in a lab,” Martinelli says. “We can’t pre-imagine every scenario. If something isn’t perfect, how do you resolve that in the field? Learning how to collect, collate, and process the data coming from the machines [helps us] relentlessly drive overall reliability and performance.”
REALIZING SUCCESS IN THE FIELD
Piece-picking technology is becoming an increasingly important part of the automation mix for parcel carrier and logistics services provider FedEx, according to Aaron Prather, senior adviser for the company’s technology research and planning team. The company uses piece-picking robots for sortation and pick-and-place operations at facilities around the world, and plans to use them for even more applications at both new and existing facilities—thanks in large part to technology advances that have spurred creativity throughout the organization. Over the past five years, the company’s FedEx Ground business has added more than 60 automated stations to its network, with nearly 150 fully automated facilities in the ground network, which affect more than 97% of package volume.
“Right now, the technology is good at picking up small packages and placing them on a [conveyor] belt to go into the system,” Prather says, explaining that robots are replacing humans at drop-off facilities and larger FedEx warehouses where parcels and small packages are sorted, scanned, and sent on to their next destination. “But each day, we’re looking at doing something else [with the technology]. There is a lot of growth in this area. There’s nowhere to go but up.”
Prather says next steps for robotic piece picking include unloading trucks—another pick-and-place application where the company could free up human labor for other activities. The idea is to apply the technology at warehouses and DCs in the network as well as at airfreight facilities, where parcels and packages must be unloaded from large containers.
“That is the next big type of application a lot of us are going after,” Prather says, adding that the robots would pick parcels and then place them on a conveyor belt or possibly an autonomous mobile robot (AMR). “If you’re in logistics, that’s something you want to solve—it’s a labor-intense activity, so it’s something that everyone wants to automate.
“There are so many interesting use cases coming up now, because the technology is getting so much better.”
He says the technology is also spurring a workforce evolution that is creating higher-level career opportunities throughout the organization. FedEx’s new “robot team leader” positions are a case in point. These are hourly jobs in which an employee oversees a group of robots and is trained to manage, monitor, troubleshoot, and address any maintenance issues that may arise.
“Some are watching a bunch of [robotic] arms; others are watching a bunch of mobile robots. They are trained on robot support,” Prather explains, emphasizing the importance of the position as well as a growing interest in it among employees. “All of them love their jobs. They get to go home and tell their kids they work with robots. But we can’t create more robot team leaders until we put more robots in.”
And that’s in the works. Most recently, FedEx installed a sorting robot at a FedEx Express facility in China that handles small inbound and outbound packages for e-commerce customers in the southern part of the country. The project followed similar sortation solutions implemented here at home last year. One example is the implementation of robot developer Berkshire Grey’s Robotic Product Sortation and Identification (RPSi) system at FedEx Ground facilities in New York, Las Vegas, and Ohio. The AI-based system autonomously picks, identifies, sorts, and collects small packages that were previously sorted by hand.
That kind of innovation will only continue, he says.
“We know going forward that our greenfield sites will have automation. We’ll design sites with this technology in mind,” Prather says. “However, it is still critical for the industry to understand there are a lot of brownfield sites we are not going to give up on. Our volume continues to grow, people are shipping like crazy, so we are still going to look at ways to automate those sites as well. The challenge will be how do we take these technologies and fit them into these brownfield sites? That’s where our creativity is going to kick in.”
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.