Adoption of warehouse robots is booming, with McKinsey & Co. reporting that the market is growing more than 10% per year. As business leaders and supply chain decision-makers opt to implement their own automation, they often overlook the seemingly small but important foundational considerations that can make or break a deployment.
Chief among these is the maintenance of warehouse robotics. Historically, automation — including shuttles, conveyors, mini-load ASRS, forklifts, vertical lifts/elevators, etc. — required warehouse operators to manually monitor, maintain, and mend the technology. Robotic maintenance was also a reactive practice, which often led to large, unexpected costs and disrupted facility operations.
Today, we see two interconnected trends unfolding that will affect the future trajectory of warehouse automation:
- The proliferation of warehouse robotics around the world
- The continued shortage of human labor for warehouses
Both trends share a common incentive: Warehouse managers and supply chain leaders must protect their technology investments and maintain operational excellence by prioritizing a predictive approach to robotics upkeep.
Business operators must also choose an automation provider that offers a robust maintenance package with built-in procedures to ensure the reliability of the systems. This limits stress and maintenance demands on the customer.
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Plan for costs and more accurate ROI calculations
Like any other technology, warehouse robots require regular maintenance to run smoothly. But as anyone who has taken their car to a mechanic can tell you, the cost of maintenance can quickly add up.
With predictive maintenance systems and robotics as a service (RaaS), warehouse managers and key decision makers can accurately budget for the upkeep costs of each system down to the penny, based on forecasts of usage and return on investment (ROI). This in turn can help them avoid financial surprises and headaches.
In fact, many maintenance plans for warehouse robots come with contractual performance and uptime guarantees from the provider or integrator. Customers can pay a monthly or quarterly fee for guarantees about system performance and assurance that any required maintenance will be recognized in advance and performed by their service provider.
When seeking predictive maintenance or implementing warehouse robots, facilities managers should ensure this guarantee is fixed within their maintenance contracts.
Accurate maintenance forecasts grant warehouse managers and business leaders peace of mind. Such estimates also grant them the ability to redirect financial resources to other supply chain initiatives such as multi-channel distribution, reverse logistics, implementing more robotics, or expanding their systems to meet heightened customer demand with little to no downtime.
Reduce disruptions and unexpected downtime
Unexpected malfunctions can sidetrack operations, risking labor productivity, order turnaround time, and on-time delivery. This, in turn, can quickly lead to a severe loss in revenue. Failures like these are particularly common with poorly managed and maintained warehouse robots.
On the other hand, predictive maintenance systems can detect potential issues more quickly than the average human operator. With this capability, disruptions are mitigated before they occur due to routine or planned maintenance and remote troubleshooting.
As an added benefit, remote system tracking and routine maintenance give human operators the flexibility to oversee multiple environments at once from any given location.
Optimize warehouse robots with dedicated support
The labor market is tight and volatile across all industries, even more so within warehousing and logistics. The turnover rate in the warehousing industry reached a staggering 46.1% in 2022, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Warehouse managers must exercise thoughtfulness to effectively allocate human operators’ time. With routine maintenance systems, users can direct more labor toward throughput-supporting functions, like working in tandem with their warehouse robotics for increased output, as opposed to fixing glitches in the systems.
While automation is central to any predictive maintenance system, the people who carry out the work play an integral role. Dedicated service technicians who know the systems inside and out can conduct both planned maintenance and ad-hoc repairs, as needed.
Specialized technicians can complete repairs as swiftly as possible with minimal delays if they are experts with the technology and familiar with each customer’s unique system.
Maintain warehouse robots for long-term value
As leading businesses continue to invest in warehouse robots, the technology will soon be a fixture in every logistics and fulfillment facility across the world. But as the technology becomes commonplace, companies must remember that its true benefits and cost savings lie in its longevity.
Incorporating a predictive and automated maintenance strategy when deploying warehouse robotics will grant operators peace of mind for stakeholders up and down the chain of command with fewer disruptions, lower costs, longer system lifespans, and optimized function.
About the author
Clayton Everhart is a sales executive at Exotec. He is responsible for helping businesses of all sizes update their warehouse operations and improve productivity. Everhart was previously a sales engineer at the company.
Exotec said it combines hardware and software to offer robotics that improve operational efficiency, resilience, and working conditions for warehouse operators. It has offices in Atlanta, as well as in France, Germany, Japan, and South Korea.
The company has sold more than $1 billion of automation worldwide, and its customers include more than 50 brands such as Gap Inc., Carrefour, Decathlon, and UNIQLO at over 100 sites worldwide.
Everhart was also a technology and product development engineer and an applications and solutions engineer at S&H Systems. Before that, he was a research and development engineering intern at Nephron Pharmaceuticals. Everhart has a Bachelor of Science in mechanical engineering from the University of South Carolina.
