The Robots are Ready for Work

This is an excerpt of the original article. It was written for the September-October 2017 edition of Supply Chain Management Review. The full article is available to current subscribers.

September-October 2017

When it comes to the next generation of supply chain management, the future just may be now. That’s one of the conclusions reached by Greg Gorbach, an analyst at the research firm ARC Advisory Group, after surveying supply chain executives, including subscribers to Supply Chain Management Review, on the digitization of their supply chains. In “The Great Digitization of Industry,” Gorbach notes that while it may take years for the widespread adoption of new technologies such as machine learning, additive manufacturing, smart factories and advanced analytics to become commonplace, digitization across verticals is happening faster than many of us…

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Up on a 19,000 square foot mezzanine in a distribution center in western N.Y., order selectors at either end of a pick module are directed by voice as they walk through their zones, picking slow-moving SKUs.

There’s nothing special about that process at the Rochester Drug Cooperative, which goes to market as RDC. It’s the kind of piece picking solution you see in distribution centers every day. But in the middle of the pick module, something different is happening. Cleverly dubbed Adam because it’s a first of its kind, a mobile piece picking robot from IAM Robotics, a Pittsburgh-based startup, picks from 1,200 SKUs stored on static shelves in a four-aisle pick zone.

When a shipping tote representing a store order for one of RDC’s independent pharmacy members is conveyed into the robot’s work zone, Mike Collins, the robot operator, scans a bar code to send picking instructions to Adam. The robot then travels autonomously through the zone, utilizing an arm with a suction cup to pick items to a tote. When the order has been picked complete, the robot travels back to Collins. He scans the items into the shipping container, pushes it onto a takeaway conveyor and scans the next shipping tote to initiate the next order. Asked whether the robot is accurate

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