The hottest robot in 2020 will be the protagonist

In 2020, robots will be the protagonist of the future supply chain. The latest research shows that the United States has been facing the biggest problem of the shortage of supply chain professionals in the past four years, especially digital technology talents. It is reported that logistics enterprises and retailers employ thousands of temporary workers during the peak shopping season every year, but it is more difficult to recruit workers this year than ever before. According to the latest data from the U.S. Bureau of labor statistics, its unemployment rate hit a 50 year low in September this year

with the progress of technology and the continuous change of customer demand, the application of robots in the supply chain will become an inevitable trend. In an environment that increasingly pursues efficiency, speed and accuracy, when the temperature has a great impact, robots are undoubtedly the most perfect human substitutes. With the deepening of the automation of the supply chain, many warehouses have begun to use robots, automated truck transportation, and daily digital analysis, which also puts forward higher requirements for the operation level of existing employees

benefiting from the emergence of new technologies and new scenarios, AGV robots ushered in explosive growth in, with e-commerce warehousing and intelligent logistics as their application footholds. According to the report, the market space of intelligent logistics warehousing system is huge, which brings great development opportunities to AGV. In recent years, the AGV industry has shown a vigorous development trend, and the market scale has increased by more than 38%. It is estimated that by 2022, the market scale of AGV in China alone will be close to 10billion yuan

the trend of automation

according to SAP's white paper "opening the era of robot process automation (RPA) intelligence", now many office workers often spend a lot of time switching between different applications. They often need to repeatedly switch from one program to another (such as ERP and excel) to copy and paste the same data (such as material and supplier customer information) in order to complete specific work. This manual work is time-consuming, laborious and error prone. Robot process automation (RPA) uses software robots to simulate human users and automate these boring and common tasks as much as possible, which is the general direction of supply chain optimization

it is understood that in September this year, UPS announced its plan to employ 100000 people in the peak season, and FedEx plans to employ 55000 people by the end of this year. Ups and FedEx are full of confidence in temporary recruitment. A UPS spokesman said that in the last week of October last year, the company had achieved 60% to 70% of the 100000 recruitment target

at the same time, American supply chain enterprises have increased investment in automation and data analysis. UPS' super sorting center in Atlanta can sort 100000 parcels per hour, and its more than 20 automated sorting facilities around the world are 35% more efficient than traditional facilities. It is reported that by the end of last year, 70% of UPS ground packages were processed through automated facilities, and supply chain optimization is a global trend of change

e-commerce promotes progress fused by online sales

the International Federation of Robotics (IFR) predicts that global shipments are expected to grow at an average annual rate of 12% from 2020 to 2022. In the logistics industry, AGV robot is the core of the global warehouse automation movement and the leader of the construction machinery industry; Although the growth rate of the industry in the second half of the year has fallen back. It is estimated that the global storage and logistics robot market will quadruple by 2022

the surge in e-commerce transactions has largely driven this growth. For example, the sales volume of "buy Monday" in 2019 reached US $9.4 billion, higher than that of any previous purchase day in the United States. In addition to the large number of E-Commerce orders currently handled by retailer warehouses, these facilities must also support consumers' uncontrollable desire for rapid delivery. Companies such as Alibaba and Amazon have gained a competitive advantage by encouraging consumers to expect perfect express services. We have reached such a stage: with the service of high-performance aero engines representing the world's advanced level becoming more and more common on the same day or even two hours, the delivery commitment on the next day is becoming a slow lane

for this reason, American automatic express service company starship recently announced that after completing the 100000 commercial delivery test of its developed Street delivery robot, starship will launch delivery robots at the University of Pittsburgh in the United States this autumn, and will expand its business scope to 100 universities in the past two years

technology improving

in order to meet these expectations, the warehouse, which is crucial in the e-commerce supply chain, must receive orders accurately and load goods faster and faster. In response, leading enterprises have invested billions of dollars in automation, taking the lead in deploying robots, improving the efficiency of picking and packaging, and using ground robots or flying robots to continuously track inventory

Suning logistics opened the live road test of 5g unmanned delivery vehicle at the end to the media on August 17, 2019, which is also the first time that 5g technology application has successfully landed in the logistics and distribution link in China from the experimental stage to the commercial application. The intelligent distribution robot newly developed by jd.com is equipped with a four-wheel 180 ° steering system, which can realize horizontal driving, front and rear wheel steering, independent steering, synchronous steering, diagonal steering, four-wheel steering and parallel steering

in addition to being faster than humans in picking goods, robots do not need to go to the toilet or rest. Moreover, they will not complain about poor working conditions, nor will they have a negative impact when such complaints are made public (as Amazon has experienced in Europe and the United States)

although the rise of robots and their threat to jobs have caused many panic, the historically low unemployment rate in the United States has made enterprises more persuasive and it is easier to speed up the automation of warehouses and other facilities. The difficulty of finding workers has prompted companies to achieve automation, and people who have been replaced by robots are also easier to find alternative jobs

in the next few years, the complexity and ability of robot technology will improve the degree of automation in the warehouse. At present, human beings cannot compete with robots in terms of operation speed and accuracy, but machines still lag behind human beings in terms of dexterity. Tell a warehouse robot to get things, it will perform very well; Let it beat an egg cleanly, and the result will be a mess. Therefore, the operation involving fine objects still needs human operation, but this situation is changing

in the United States, take the work being carried out by MIT to make robots more dexterous as an example. MIT researchers are making robots capable of fine control when manipulating objects and handling fine objects such as wine glasses. They hope to achieve better results through new technological discoveries

in China, before 2014, AGV was only a small sub category in the industrial robot industry, which did not attract enough attention from the outside world, and the industry was relatively extensive. With the continuous expansion of the market, more and more organizations and forces, media platforms, capital and so on have set their sights on this. At present, AGV is in a period of market prosperity. The rapid development of its industry has brought about a competitive influx of the whole industrial chain related to it. Traditional forklift manufacturers, logistics system integrators, other types of industrial robot enterprises and even application enterprises have entered the AGV industry. These technologies have brought new technological changes to the whole system, and the market advantages are undoubtedly revealed

automated ground delivery

last mile - final delivery to customers is another area of the automated process. Improving the customer experience and paying more attention to personalization are the primary tasks of every company. However, large-scale personalization is a major differentiation advantage of more advanced companies. There are three main points to capture customer needs digitally, flexibly convert design into physical products and packaging, and quickly deliver it to customers, which will undoubtedly improve this automated final process

technology is paving the way for the wider application of robots in the supply chain. This change has occurred in countries such as the UK, where autonomous test robots are already delivering pizza. But we have just begun this journey. For example, engineers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) have developed a navigation system that enables robots to deliver packages to a specific "front door" or "garage" rather than to an address delineated by coordinates on a map

larger traditional means of transport, such as trucks and trucks, are also being automated, although it will take many years to achieve full autonomy in public space. However, institutions including the US postal service are testing self driving trucks and may deploy them to designated routes in the next few years. At the same time, some innovative technologies, such as individual formation control of multiple trucks, are promoting the automation of freight vehicles

these are just a few examples of how the supply chain, as the basis of Global trade, can be automated. By 2020, the supply chain will have to twists and turns in a highly uncertain world, and the person at the helm is unlikely to be human

looking ahead, supply chain leaders should prepare their processes and infrastructure to accept new technologies and the ability to use more data than ever before. Although we have made great progress in this area, the development of a regulatory framework around workplaces and "public" spaces rather than behind the scenes robots will become a major factor in determining the speed and degree of robotics and automation

the successful enterprises in the future will be those that can adapt to the accelerated changes in procurement, production and distribution we see today, and have enough flexibility and flexibility to take advantage of new technologies