Robotics is going to play a definite role going forward

July 3, 2021 4:54 pm

The system has to be intelligent enough, and the system can only be intelligent, once we have systems like automatic storage retrieval systems in place.

Share your views about emerging challenges in automotive supply chain with pandemic effect on it, also, about robotisation effectiveness and manufacturing; robotics role managing warehouse execution system, PLI and other technologies relevant for the automotive industry of propagation.

We all know, that past one to two years have been real challenge for all the verticals, and automobile was one of the worst hit at that point of time. Now it is picking up. We have seen a lot of challenges in automobile supply chain in past, which has been there, this V shape, recovery means, we really need the supply chain to be more robust. We want supply chain to be from the standpoint that’s able to take this kind of demand, which is expected to be there in next year or two years, hoping that the pandemic goes down, and, there is no there is no third wave coming in.

Biggest challenge which I would like to mention is, overstocking, storage and right inventories, because visibility is not there. You need to be controlling the supply chain from all aspects. I will also talk about the pandemic effects which have actually affected supply chain and how things are moving as far as supply chain is concerned and what all needs to be done. Further Singh says, the majority of supply chain professionals today, already use some level of efficient tools, we know most of which only work on one specific task. So due to this complexity on the supply chain tasks, many tools can become a burden to managers right now. Often takes longer times for audit, and the reason for that is it’s totally manual or there is some level of automation, which is related to barcodes or rfid. Here robotics along with wms is going to play a definite role going forward, that’s what is going to improve the storage, inventory stage and overstocking of the supply chain.

So, while moving ahead the system has to be intelligent enough, and the system can only be intelligent, once we have technology and automation like automatic storage retrieval systems in place, intralogistics like smart conveyors, AMR and even picking is automated. Talking about any good brand today, like Maruti Suzuki or Hyundai or Kia, they are really looking at ramping up their supply chain, because of the kind of business, they are looking at going forward in next 6 to 7 years, and we are working very closely with three of them, making sure that, their warehouses get up to the mark. And, this is basically a combination of humans and robots. It’s not that only the robots would play a role there, whatever robots can do humans cannot do. You’re looking at a very high throughput, more than around 10,000 orders in a day, each order can have hundreds of skus, which probably humans cannot do. So, these are some the basic challenges, which are there in supply chain and automation is only the solution.

Whether automation will be impacting the human jobs, especially in next five years? You know, that it’s absolutely not going to be happening. All supply chain and manufacturing professionals can relate to this skilled professional being pushed to manage day to day activities, so automation is basically to help them, warehouse management systems is to make their life easy. All things would be taken care off.