A robot is an electro-mechanical machine with a wide range of potential capabilities depending upon the programming and/or intelligence built into the device. Robots can be programmed to perform a variety of tasks. The use of robots has grown more pervasive in warehousing as an increasing number of tasks are able to be performed efficiency and effectively by these devices. Material handling robots have increased profitability, cost effectiveness, and quality in warehousing automation. They have vision to precisely handle parts and place them in the right positions which leads to better quality and efficiency. Robots have mobility which means they can cover a long range in warehousing and move quicker to find parts and put them together. Lincoln has a great example of how efficient their robots were and when trying to make decision between offshoring or staying onshore, “Further analysis revealed other benefits with robotic automation: one minute and 23 seconds of weld time was reduced to only 61 seconds with significantly higher quality and improved process control. The cost, quality and lead-time benefits convinced Lincoln Electric’s customer. The final decision: Invest in rolxrtics automation and keep the manufacturing process in the U.S” (Teresko). A robot can palletize faster and without the chance of injury, whether the conditions having to be in sweltering heat, moving products from a truck to the warehouse or stacking heavy pieces that are hard to reach. Robotics can pair with additional automation technologies. For example, “a customer used a pallet dispenser to automatically supply pallets, while a short conveyor transported finished pallets from the robot to an automatic stretch wrapper. This eliminated several steps previously handled by forklifts” (Bond). Material Handling robots have put a great emphasis on driving efficiency in warehousing and operations. The efficiency robotics provides are critically important to drive optimal operational and financial performance.
Warehouse Automation: Material Handling Robots
August 9th, 2017 admin