Next-Gen Smart Warehouses: How AI Is Shaping the Modern Supply Chain
Warehouses are the backbone of the supply chain industry. They are a critical link that ensures products are stored safely, tracked accurately, and dispatched timely to meet customer demands. The global warehousing and storage market grew to $714 billion in 2023.
Today’s fast-paced logistics industry has increased the complexity of modern warehousing. From maintaining precise inventory to handling diverse products and ensuring seamless collaboration amongst multiple stakeholders, the stakes are high. Any inefficiencies or errors could lead to delays, increased costs, and dissatisfied customers.
Since the Covid-19 pandemic, there’s been a strong focus on de-risking supply chains and spreading manufacturing facilities and warehouses. "It's clear that there's a strong effort to reshore back to the US,” Tom Ryden, executive director of MassRobotics said. “I think the only way you can do that effectively is with some form of automation."
Enter artificial intelligence. With the advent of autonomous drones, robotic arms, and intelligent human-machine collaboration, warehousing is undergoing a revolutionary transformation. Let’s understand these innovations, where they fit into warehousing, and how they can deliver value.
Tackling inventory challenges with autonomous drones
Maintaining accurate inventory has been a daunting task for warehouse operators. Traditional manual checks are time-consuming and prone to human error. This challenge is more pronounced in large warehouses that handle thousands of SKUs, where even minor errors could lead to big financial losses and erosion of customer trust. In a survey by Stitchlabs, 67% of companies shared that going out of stock after an order is placed is a top inventory mistake that frustrates customers.
Autonomous drones are changing the game by enabling real-time monitoring and precise inventory tracking. These drones can navigate the tightest corners of a warehouse, ensuring every item is accounted for accurately and efficiently. However, what about remote warehouse locations where GPS signals could be unreliable?
Rajeshree Deotalu, co-founder and head of autonomy of Vecros, told me how their drones leverage spatial AI and computer vision to determine precise location coordinates. This enables the drones to position and maneuver accurately, even in environments where GPS signals are unavailable. Equipped with advanced cameras and sensors, these autonomous drones can quickly scan barcodes and RFID tags, updating inventory records in real time with minimal effort and errors.
Efficiently handling diverse products with robotic arms
Warehouses often store several products varying in size, shape, and weight. This diversity poses a significant challenge, with traditional methods often leading to delays and increased labor costs. Manual handling is not only slow but also increases the risk of damage to products, especially those that are fragile or irregularly shaped. Annually, product picking costs for warehouses are a whopping $120 billion worldwide.
Robotic arms with advanced sensors and AI capabilities can handle items with precision, speed, and care. By utilizing machine learning algorithms, robotic arms can learn to recognize and handle various objects, adjusting their grip and movement patterns accordingly.
Mobile manipulators, or robots that can both navigate and grasp objects, are rising in popularity within warehouses. This ensures that even the most delicate items are picked and placed accurately, reducing the risk of damage. Such robotic arms can work tirelessly around the clock, significantly boosting productivity.
Enhancing human-machine collaboration with LLMs
Integrating robots into warehouse operations is a big trend today, but it has introduced its own set of challenges. It’s projected that 4 million commercial warehouse robots will be installed in over 50,000 warehouses by 2025.
Many warehouses struggle with integrating robotic solutions in a way that complements human labor rather than replace it. Poor human-machine collaboration in the workplace could lead to operational inefficiencies, safety concerns, and resistance from the human workforce.
Robots embedded with large language models (LLM) can bridge this gap by understanding and interpreting human language. By utilizing natural language processing, LLM-enabled robots can comprehend complex verbal instructions, provide real-time assistance, or ask clarifying questions, ensuring tasks are completed correctly and efficiently alongside human workers.
Communicating in natural language helps build acceptance of AI among human workers, facilitating smoother technology integration into daily operations. While LLMs have seen revolutionary progress in recent years in understanding human language, they have more ground to cover in stability, trust and consistency.
Aaron Prather, director of robotics & autonomous systems program of ASTM International, highlights the additional practical challenges of noisy warehouse environments and the need to accommodate language diversity. He shared with me that as LLMs improve their abilities, they could become invaluable in integrating smart machines into warehouses.
Improving AI adoption through subscription models
The rise of innovative Robots-as-a-Service (RaaS) models makes these advanced technologies more accessible in the warehousing industry. Such subscription-based models allow businesses access to innovation and state-of-the-art technology without the constraints of substantial capital investments.
RaaS not only reduces financial risk but also provides comprehensive maintenance and support, ensuring that robotic systems are always operational. This model is especially beneficial for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) that might otherwise struggle to afford the latest technology.
Citing the busy Christmas holiday season as an example, Mike Otizman, senior editor of WTWH Media LLC highlights the benefits of RaaS. “Warehouses can put more robots on the floor when they're shipping the Christmas deliveries and they can scale down in January. That was never possible before,” he told me.
RaaS models are invaluable to robot makers as well, enabling access to live customer data and behavioral feedback to help them continuously improve their products. It’s a clear win-win.
As AI evolves, such innovations address critical pain points in warehousing, paving the way for a more efficient, accurate, and safe logistics environment. Clearly, the warehousing industry is poised for transformational growth by tapping into new levels of efficiency and productivity.
This article was written by Ganes Kesari from Forbes and was legally licensed through the DiveMarketplace by Industry Dive. Please direct all licensing questions to legal@industrydive.com.
