Check out this great article we saw in Supply Chain Dive about the dramatic rise of robotics in distribution centers!

At Alpine, we’ve been working with many of our clients on the same thing. As the cost of labor is rising and the cost of automation is coming down, the tipping point for robotics is upon us. Many of our clients are analyzing opportunities for robots and we have recently helped three of them justify “goods to person” system. And, we are installing one right now!

In addition, the success of several robot installations in a “Layer” pick environment has been proven, so now we are working with several CPG companies to develop an adoption plan for this application. There are some great insights from Gartner in the article, as well, from their “Hype Cycle for Supply Chain Execution Technologies” report. Check it out!

Excerpt from the article:

RaaS warehouse solutions require little infrastructure and can be flexibly deployed in any facility, Parks said. InVia Robotics offers an automated picking system to manage a network of picker robots that can autonomously move inventory from one point to another. The compact robots are two feet tall by two feet wide, can reach up to eight feet high and can carry standard totes weighing up to 40 pounds.

“There really isn’t much infrastructure required,” he said. “You just basically put a bunch of stickers on your existing shelving and the robots go and pick.”