(Courtesy: Don McCullough)
Ever since Jeff Bezos, CEO of Amazon, appeared on the CBS television show 60 Minutes in December 2013 showing off the feasibility of drones as a way to deliver packages to Amazon customers, the country has become infatuated with the flying gadgets. The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), the U.S. government agency that supervises the use of these machines, has been involved in changing its regulations concerning them and recently ruled that individuals could fly them as long as they don’t fly high enough to disturb private and commercial aircraft.
As for Bezos’ dream of using them to deliver packages, the FAA ruled in March of this year that Amazon could test fly prototypes over private, rural land in Washington state.
These machines are not only being considered as a means to deliver shipments. So-called futurists have predicted that they will be used inside warehouses to help count inventory and pick items off the top of tall shelves to prepare for shipping.
If you work in a warehouse, then you know how difficult it is to climb up and down ladders to either pick items or to count inventory. The fact that workers have been injured doing these tasks has made them a health and safety issue. Frankly, businesses don’t want to deal with the liability.
There is a company in Germany called Aibotix that is now developing and testing drones in a project it calls InventAIRY. The purpose is to develop drones to be used at indoor and outdoor storage areas. The device is expected to help warehouse managers save time and eliminate safety issues as these devices independently navigate the warehouse to perform inventories and picking.
The device includes ultrasound sensors, 3-D cameras, and laser scanners. So it will be able to interpret barcodes on the floor, on shelves, and on product boxes as well as Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) tags.
Futurists forecast that there will be two types of warehouses. One will be like what we see today. They will carry larger products and service many companies. The second type of warehouse will be smaller or may even be stores.
The second type of warehouse will use automated technologies that help create a distribution center where products come in and instantly go out without the need for storage. The individual store will have the capability of knowing the inventory of every store and process orders in-store or get items from the inventory of another store.
As the need for storage is minimized, more cross-docking activity will occur. Items will be unloaded from an incoming truck and loaded on to an outgoing truck, trailer, or rail car.
As a result, each freight item is handled less, dock layout becomes compact, staff needs can be matched with shipment volumes, the dock floor is clean and organized, and material handling equipment will permit boxes to move directly from a trailer that is being unloaded to a trailer that is being loaded.
According to John Rosenberger, product manager for iWarehouse Gateway for the Raymond Corporation, labor is 70 percent of the cost of a warehouse. Reduce that and better productivity and profitability will result