The future of robotics especially in supply chain - Research Paper Example

The Future of Robotics: Supply Chain A robot is a device with at least three axis of motion and an end effector that may be programmed for different task. Robots are doing the types of jobs that would be considered to be done in high risk conditions like lifting of heavy things that hurt the back and working in place with chemical fumes, dirty and hot conditions. Placing reboots to work in these conditions have enabled increased production and employers have been able to produce these products ensuring they have protected their employees.

The first time we talk about robots was 1794 when Eli Britney invented the cotton gin. The concept interchangeable parts of mass production of manufactured products. His invention spurred growth in the United States increased production in variety of industries and created more job opportunities as the companies adopted which technological ideas (Bekey 10). Ever since then we continue to see more people come in with better and brighter technological ideas that increase the use of robots in the world.

The invention of all these robots has seen industries attain high production rate and hence increase in sales and income. Although these robots come with other major challenges as environmental hazards such as the chemical fumes release in the skies increased oil use they are also integrating and getting more ways to solve the problem they come in with. Lie for the fumes being released in the skies after burning diesel in the truck uses they have come up with the use of gas which reduces the amount of pollution (Blanchard 35).

As times go by and the changes increase we tend to agree more with Charles Darwin that it’s not the strongest species that survive, nor the most intelligent but the most responsive to change. We have seen the changes that Microsoft has put us through from using big PCs to small tablets that can still do as much but this time way faster. These are some of the future expectations we have for the robotics others are better consumer and health product, intelligent vehicles and even more to come.

The change is already here the only thing we can do is start adopting to it comes with several aspects that have been not only applied in the other industries but also being reflected greatly in the supply chain (Blanchard 35). They are: 1. Speed We are living in a world where need for speed is pushing global supply chain to the maximum so as to deliver faster from manufacture to the consumer. According to the 2nd annual state of logistics reports from the council of supply chain management has revealed that total logistics cost in 2012 and 2013 had declined by 2%.

This is the second year in a row meaning that the sector is not keeping up with the pace as to which the growth in the overall economy is growing. in 2014 the logistics match up to the 2007 peak meaning that the sector has only been declining or being stagnant for so long and not improving at all. 2. Technology growth rate The Boston Council Group reports there will be three billion users in the internet by 2017 this is almost half of the world’s pollutions. Mobile devices as smartphones and tablets will account for broad band connections this means that there will be more online orders being done.

Online retail sales will be at 10% by 2017 according to the Forrester report up from 8% that is where we are at today. The 2% increment looks like a small number but at the rate at which the sectors growth has been declining over the last 7 years it could be really difficult to up the game in the next few months. Bottom line is potential growth is taking place and we cannot keep up with the traditional supply chain since we will never catch up if we keep using it. 3. Automated warehouse Companies like sketchers has started using robot in their supply chain.

They have built one of the biggest warehouse in south California where the magic happens inside the 4 walls. The warehouse is so big it serve as the distribution centre for the united states and Canada.is is big enough to hold 40 football fields, Sketchers have retained the warehouse technology integrator to build a robot automation system for storage and retrieval system, conveyor, pack and hold process, sorting and tagging enough automated equipment to run 70000 SKUs from order to pallet with practically no human intervention (Bekey 10). 4. Work capacity and cutting costs The warehouse has tripled the companies shipping capacity.

It can handle up to 1700 pairs of shoes what more than double of what it used to be before the automation. And they foresee the number by 25% increasing in the next few years. In addition to the tremendous improvements in the in the system they have seen the cost of labour go down by 75% since they reduced headcount from 1200 to 500 during peak seasons and 300 off peak seasons (Sepúlveda 24). 5. Transport systems Sketchers product is done in china then then shipped to the long beach, CA from where forty truck load of sketcher travel daily for seventy two miles to the warehouse.

That’s a total tip of 144 miles with trucks returning empty for every work week that totals up to 10000 miles, that’s a whole lots of toxics going to the skies and with the new government rules and regulations on drivers insurance coverage it is becoming expensive and hard for them to achieve the main goal and therefore they are looking it automation for a solution. We still don’t have automated trucks but they will soon be there since they don’t tire and cause accidents and they will use gas instead of diesel reducing the of air pollution, cost of the drives and also staying in good books with the government (Ceceri and Samuel 54).

Future Prospects and expectations Supply chain is looking into the future to ease the transport part of the supply chain and also the whole supply chain process by looking into the automated guide vehicles that will not require to have a driver once it’s automatically packed then its guided and expected to deliver the goods as guided. The autonomous roads and the trucks are not ready now but it’s predicted that they will be ready by 2025.according to Daimler Trucks global head Wolfgang Bernhard the autonomous system called highway pilot is the center piece of the whole new concept in freight management logistics.

The system collects and analyses date ain overall concepts and transport systems in conjunction with the convoy transport system they work to enable flow of these trucks and other traffic in the roads to be easy flowing and costs are eventually reduced which finally lands the price of products and even services on the shelves down (Bekey 10). Conclusion It is not the machines taking away the jobs but the people thinking of making the job easier to satisfy the needs of the supply chain more efficiently with less complications, at lower cost and in better working conditions which eventually rolls down to better working conditions and leading to a grown economy (Blanchard 35).

Works Cited Bekey, George A. Robotics: State of the Art and Future Challenges. London: Imperial College Press, 2008. Internet resource. Blanchard, David. Supply Chain Management Best Practices. Hoboken, N.J: John Wiley & Sons, 2010. Internet resource. Ceceri, Kathy, and Samuel Carbaugh. Robotics: Discover the Science and Technology of the Future with 20 Projects. White River Junction, Vt: Nomad, 2012. Print. Sepúlveda, Estay D. A. Startup Operations and Supply Chain Road Guide Proposal, Based on Robotics Cluster Case Studies. , 2014. Print.