As we have moved to virtual briefings, I have increasingly been excerpting short video segments (with permission ) as part of my Analyst Cam series.
This time, it is Tom Ryan, my former Gartner colleague. Along with Michael Wohlwend, Managing Principal at Alpine Supply Chain Solutions, they recently presented an hour-long webinar "Battle of the Bots" focused on warehouse automation. They kindly allowed me to excerpt about 18 minutes below.
One of the most sophisticated examples of warehouse automation has shown up in Amazon's massive fulfillment centers. I wrote about my tour to one here. I also excerpted from their virtual tour of 5 of their centers in the Analyst Cam episode here. I also interviewed the co-CEOs of 6 River Systems (now part of Spotify, both Amazon alums) last year, and also had an Analyst Cam episode on their bots here.
Tom discussed 6 fulfillment methods/use cases where robots increasingly participate. I have excerpted 3 below - Goods to Person, Order to Person and Long Distance Product Moves. He also discusses some of the vendors and models for each. I have also included his commentary on economics of such automation.
Very nicely done in plain English and with crisp graphics.
The full webinar which contains more commentary on the evolution of warehouse automation, some polling and q&a during the webinar and 3 other fulfillment scenarios is available here.
