Witron cautions against over-hype around logistics robots
Martin Stich, CEO of WITRON says its important not to fixate on the robot but to focus on the supply chain process instead.
We have been experiencing a robotics hype in intralogistics for several years. Classic six-axis multi-link robots are supposed to make their way from the manufacturing to the logistics sector to carry out picking.
How broad is the range of parts that can be covered with a classic robot?Economically and technologically, depalletising, stacking, and picking is still difficult to achieve with the classic industrial robot.
The focus is on questions such as “should the robot grip the goods, use suction, or work with vacuum technology – or a combination of everything? I think this thought-process is missing the point because for users and operators it is all about the process as a whole – end-to-end – and not just about a single step in the entire chain.
The same applies to the topic of whether 50%, 60%, or 70% of the product range can be picked with a robot. The decisive factor is not the percentage itself – in this case it is to have two parallel material flows – and that complexities arise in terms of flows, inventory, synchronisation and consolidation, family groups, etc. Even a simple referral to Cobots does not solve this issue – the whole business case has to make sense – the individual consideration of the specific pick process is just a partial aspect. Ultimately, it is crucial for our customers to implement cost-efficient solutions – with the necessary products, performance, availability, and service life.
