Right after my morning ritual of reading an “actual” (print version) newspaper this morning, I came across an advertisement for a warehouse robotics product on YouTube. One of the articles from the paper, “E-Commerce Saves Bricks and Mortars“, was fresh in my mind. As I saw the warehouse automation system at work in that short advertisement, I could not help but think how useless such products are in the real world of logistics and distribution.

When it comes to logistics-intensive retail, warehouse automation, and robotics need to align with the challenges that companies are currently facing. Every technology-related solution needs to address a challenge, which is a priority. The keyword here is priority. Warehouse robotics solutions are no different. You do not build or implement warehouse solutions because you can.

Can you develop a fully automated warehouse that can function without a hitch in the e-commerce era? Not for another decade. I can’t predict how warehouse automation will develop after this decade. When I say this, it is in the context of hybrid warehouses. My definition of hybrid warehouses is warehouses that cater to both retail and E-Commerce demand.

E-Commerce has increased the complexity of warehousing for retailers. Unless they have dedicated warehouses for E-Commerce, the biggest challenge that retailers face, that can and should be addressed by technology, is to design and run warehouses that address both retail and E-Commerce optimally. Very few warehouse robotics solutions address this mix.

Because of the e-commerce boom, we have recently seen some good robotics and automation solutions focusing on the unique nuances of e-commerce storage and picking. But when it comes to hybrid warehouses, which fulfill both retail stores and E-commerce orders, investing in siloed robotics solutions can be counterproductive.

What does siloed robotics mean? Let us understand this from the context of a hybrid warehouse.

Assume that you are a Bricks and Clicks retailer. You receive pallets of Chips-Ahoy cookies from a distributor. If you are familiar with warehousing lingo, these pallets have cases, and within these cases, there will be eaches. If you are not familiar with this terminology, imagine this- One pack of Chips Ahoy is an “each.” Twelve of these are packed in a carton. That carton is considered a case. Then, 24 of these cases may be stacked to build a pallet. In a retail-only warehouse, if a pallet comes into the warehouse, under most circumstances, the pallet itself gets shipped out. Breaking the pallet may not happen. Even if it does, it may be at the case level.

As you can imagine, that is not the case with hybrid warehouses.

An optimal or modern-day warehouse robotics solution needs to factor in the hybrid nature of warehouses. To the best of my knowledge, there may not be a solution out there currently that addresses the hybrid requirements end-to-end. But if you must invest in warehouse robotics now, you need to factor in the alignment of your bulk robotics and eaches robotics. What does this mean?

Every retail warehouse robotics solution that helps move and break down pallets or builds one has a specific way of doing it. Similarly, every E-Commerce robotics solution has its own “style” of handling those “eaches.” The challenge in hybrid warehouses is that since the two solutions may be from different providers, the deliverable of one might not be the optimal starting point for the other. If the end-result of a warehouse bot that “picks” cases from pallets, is not optimal for a “picking” bot that picks or aids in picking for E-Commerce orders, your robotics solution actually ends up inserting more inefficiencies in your warehouse, vs. helping build efficiency.

The gist is, warehouse robotics solution providers and those buying these solutions, need to leverage the hybrid warehouse lens, when building or buying warehouse robotics solutions. Otherwise, we are just floating products that are already obsolete in the perspective of current trends.