Warehouse
automation
using robotics
can help alleviate
retail labor shortages

Whether they are focused on growing e-commerce sales, reopening brick-and-mortar locations or addressing staffing challenges, retailers are beginning to recognize warehouse automation as a way to tackle some of their biggest challenges.

Among the statistics captured by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics is the "quits rate," or the percentage of staff that voluntarily quit each month. According to data released in May 2022, the transportation, warehousing, and utilities sector had a seasonally adjusted quit rate of 2.6%, which amounts to 179,000 people at that time.

The increasing retail worker shortage has led to an understandable drop in morale, based on interviews with retail workers in a recent story published by the New York Times. Employees said staffing crunches are affecting everything from the ability to take breaks to struggles with serving a rising number of shoppers who are returning to stores post-pandemic.

Meanwhile, behind the scenes, warehouse employees are likely to see their workloads grow as more consumers shift to online shopping. In January, eMarketer reported that e-commerce sales will grow by 15.9% in 2022. That means managing inventory by getting products sorted quickly and accurately will be critical for retailers to fulfill online orders profitably and meet customer delivery expectations.

The labor shortages in the warehouse became so acute during last year's holiday season, the Washington Post reported that some companies were trying to lure candidates by offering prizes and assisting with college tuition fees. U.S. warehouse employees are forecast to grow to just under 2 million in 2024, up from 1.6 million in 2019.

Although there may not be a quick and easy way to stem the tide of workers exiting the industry, technologies such as warehouse automation and robotics can help to fill the gap. Indeed, some research suggests automation will actually drive sustained jobs growth as robots can boost overall productivity and encourage further investment. Advocates of this perspective point to the fact that countries such as South Korea, Germany and Japan have both the highest adoption rates of robots in the manufacturing industry and some of the highest percentages of manufacturing jobs in relation to all jobs (around a quarter of their workforce work in manufacturing).

The use of autonomous guided vehicles and autonomous mobile robots could assist in performing the kind of manual labor that would normally be performed by employees, such as moving goods. For example, analysts at ABI Research said some of the benefits from the use of warehouse robotics includes shorter dock-to-stock cycles, improved inventory accuracy and even enhanced safety and comfort among employees.¹

Other use cases for robotics in the warehouse include:

• Collaborative robots or "cobots" are semi-autonomous mobile robots designed to help human workers perform diverse tasks in the warehouse environment. For example, collaborative robots could follow human pickers around the warehouse floor and act as mobile storage bins for picked orders.
• Articulated robotic arms—a type of pick-and-place robot—have multi-jointed limbs used to manipulate products within distribution centers and warehouses. Since these arms can move, turn, lift and maneuver items, they can be used for picking/packing, receiving/storage and palletizing
• Drones can be used to move above objects in any location in the warehouse independently, making them ideal for conducting aerial inventory scanning, reaching hard-to-reach places in the warehouse and inspecting stock.

Harnessing artificial intelligence (AI) can allow autonomous mobile robots to move around a warehouse without human intervention, carrying boxes or palettes based on the optimal route.spected.

The adoption of these warehouse automation technologies is already well under way. For example, in its 2022 Warehouse/Distribution Center Equipment Survey, Logistics Management magazine found that 10% of firms are already using autonomous mobile robots or autonomous guided vehicles today, with nearly a quarter evaluating their use within the next 24 months. Meanwhile, a survey of 700 logistics experts by real estate firm JLL found that 90% believe automation and robotics are an important option for improving supply chains.

Business leaders may be exploring the advantages that warehouse robotics could bring to their organization in terms of productivity and cost optimization. However, there are encouraging signs of how the technology is perceived by those working directly within warehouses, too. A recent study published in the Harvard Business Review found that overall, 60% of warehouse staff show positive sentiment toward automation. A few of the reasons workers cited were the potential to improve safety conditions (42%) and that robotics could help them do their jobs better (20%).