Traditionally, manufacturing plants have halted operations and utilized the slow week between Christmas and New Year’s to perform much-needed maintenance and repairs on facility equipment. Any amount of downtime can be extremely costly for an operation – especially when it isn’t planned – which is why the idea of a holiday shutdown isn’t anything new. However, with more companies advancing towards an Industry 4.0 model with integrated automation, holiday shutdowns are taking on an entirely different meaning.
How Automated Guided Vehicles can Increase Productivity
With retailer events like Black Friday and Cyber Monday, holiday shopping has taken a large shift to the online space. According to Adobe Analytics, in 2019, online shoppers in the U.S. are expected to spend $143.7 billion in November and December, with $29 billion being spent during the 5-day period of Thanksgiving to Cyber Monday.
Seegrid Vision Technology Eliminates Downtime for Training (and Re-training) Automated Guided Vehicles (AGVs)
Planning for Growth with AGVs
When selecting an automation vendor for material movement, it’s important to consider not only your current needs, but future applications as well. As your operation grows, adapting to a rapidly changing industry and taking on new challenges, you need a solution with the reliability and flexibility to meet demand.
This article was originally published in SupplyChainBrain.
What’s the top next-gen technology that’s on strategic agendas across executive war rooms? The answer is automation and robotics, according to a recent survey of more than 800 financial executives from companies worth over $1bn.
This article was originally published in InformationWeek.
Despite the fact that suppliers who are adopting automation technologies have the potential to reap substantial cost savings and increase profitability, some fear that the proliferation of robots in the workforce may cause a decline in the value of human workers, ultimately reducing the number of available logistics jobs.
This article was originally published in IndustryWeek.
As manufacturers and distributors undertake new automation initiatives and push toward Industry 4.0 - the fourth industrial revolution - they have access to an unprecedented amount of data.
The industrial internet of things (IIoT), constantly streams data through different kinds of smart devices and software programs. The trick is figuring out how to use the data in an impactful way that brings immediate value and drives continuous improvement.
As an integral part of the Seegrid Smart Platform, Supervisor fleet management software is the key to your smart factory. With real time dispatching, vehicle status updates, and object interactions, Supervisor software was designed to keep your factory in sync.
This article was originally published in Entrepreneur.
A common thread in conversations about automation is the uncertainty people feel about their long-term job security. Despite (or perhaps because of) automation’s impressive ability to streamline operations and costs in certain industries, many people remain hesitant to double down on these technologies because of their fears about how automation could affect the future workforce.
Moving heavy materials throughout your supply chain all day, every day–accounting for labor shortages, peak season, and the potential of damaged goods–is no easy task. Even with the most skilled human labor, accidents can happen while picking and shipping goods. Despite efforts to reduce losses due to damaged, it’s a common occurrence the impacts the bottom line.
This article was originally published in Business 2 Community.
The advent of automation, artificial intelligence (AI), and machine learning is perhaps one of the biggest disruptions that the manufacturing industry has encountered. These technologies could impact the global economy by $15 trillion by 2030, according to PwC. Automated machinery has the capacity to perform traditionally human-centric work faster and more cost effectively than ever before. As robot-centered logistics become the new normal in manufacturing, distribution, and e-commerce facilities around the world, companies must consider the role of humans in these new work environments.
