On the road to factory automation: How to build your business case

Material handling has had a high annual turnover rate for many years, with a jump from 2015 (25.6%) to 2019 (31.3%) followed by a reported 37% in the past 12 months.

The reasons include health and safety, with OSHA estimating up to 62,000 forklift-related accidents and 87 fatalities on average each year. There are also the relatively low salaries (median of around $37,000 in the US, compared to a national median of around $48,000). 

The result is a labor shortage impacting manufacturing and material handling, where 1.9 million jobs are predicted to be unfilled by 2030. It’s against this backdrop that automation can plug the gaps on factory floors, rather than be seen as replacing existing workers. The challenge is to pick a solution that’s the right fit. And that’s not always the case with some robotics in factories.

Autonomous Guided Vehicles (AGVs) offer some automation capabilities, but they also require routes to be fixed, and tasks to be pre-programmed. Initial setup usually involves manually laying magnetic tape around the building. Any layout changes involve manually rearrangement, because the automated robots don’t have the sensors to dynamically readjust and continue. Instead, they come to a stop when meeting obstacles. Naturally, for busy factory environments this can cause delays until the obstacles are removed by human intervention. 

Autonomous Mobile Robots (AMRs), offer more flexibility, with advanced sensors allowing them to adjust and continue their journeys.They also come at a higher cost than AGVs. There are also payload limitations, in terms of sizes and shapes they can transport. Also there are restrictions in terms of space, especially when turning in congested spaces. To avoid these potential blockers, companies are looking toward new forms of automation.

Hyperautomation is on the horizon for 2025. In material handling and manufacturing, this is where organizations aim to accelerate automation so that it’s possible to transport goods without human intervention. Successful implementation is predicted to mean ‘more than 20% of all products will be manufactured, packed, shipped, and delivered without being touched — the person who purchases the product will be the first person to touch it.’ 

To achieve this within material handling, businesses will be harnessing newer forms of automated robotics. Those that allow greater process flow customization and more adaptability to payload sizes and shapes. And because this is a long-term strategic shift, it often pays off to take shorter steps at the beginning, to build momentum and help guide decision-makers in the right direction.