Published on March 15th, 2021 📆 | 3023 Views ⚑
0This Month in Modern: Startup buzz is accelerating technology investment
One of the running themes this year has been how the pandemic has acted as a āgreat acceleratorā for so many of the trends, challenges and innovations that define the environment in which we operate.
For one, it intensified the pressure on our global freight networks that were already bursting at the seams. That accelerated adoption of new software and automation to streamline operations to meet customer demandsāin order fulfillment and deliveryādespite shrinking labor availability and freight capacity while e-commerce volumes skyrocketed.
And as we pointed out in our Logistics Management and Supply Chain Management Review Virtual Summit in December, the crisis also accelerated the exposure of weaknesses in our current operations, and forced many to rethink the best way to rebuild their supply chains with resilience in mind. And for some industries, it even forced a major rethinking of how their business is done from the ground up.
But when history is being written, we may find the acceleration in technology and automation investment due to the persistent demands placed on our warehouse/DC operations to be the greatest, long-term upside to having managed in this unprecedented time.
Starting on page 60, senior editor Roberto Michel offers his Big Picture: āDissecting the startup buzz.ā Heās been tracking how the investment community has been placing sizable betsāstaggering numbers in some casesāon startup companies with artificial intelligence (AI) and robotics innovations specifically geared for DCs and fulfillment centers.
āFor many investors, itās an attractive market due to the extraordinary growth of e-commerce,ā says Michel. āAnd while the fundamental driver for this AI and robotics startup activity is clearly tied to the labor availability issue, the startups I interviewed arenāt narrowly focused on replacing human labor with robots.ā
The startups in the mobile robotics space are adding more analytics and dashboarding for managers, says Michel. āUsually, the value there lies not so much in automating what was once manual, but in optimizing a process, adding better analytics over issues like flow and productivity, or making sure different zones of automation are working better as a whole.ā
Michel adds that itās an over simplification to think of the whole reason for this startup activity as being the need to replace people with automationārefreshingly, thatās not the case. āWhat weāre going to see is that itās more about making the operation better and using a mix of hardware, software, and yesā¦people.ā
As this level of accelerated innovation continues to evolve, weāre going to start seeing more System Reports like this monthās featuring Bergen Logistics (page 22), an operation benefiting from early robotics and automation investment.
āFrom basic point-to-point transportation, weāre now seeing robotics solutions capable of performing more tasks in the DC,ā says executive editor Bob Trebilcock. āThatās the case at Bergen, where the solution from their robotics vendor not only does point-to-point delivery, but also storage, retrieval and slotting much like a shuttle system. Iām looking forward to seeing what comes next in this space.
About the Author
Michael Levans, Group Editorial Director
Michael Levans is Group Editorial Director of Peerless Mediaās Supply Chain Group of publications and websites including Logistics Management, Supply Chain Management Review, Modern Materials Handling, and Material Handling Product News. Heās a 23-year publishing veteran who started out at the Pittsburgh Press as a business reporter and has spent the last 17 years in the business-to-business press. Heās been covering the logistics and supply chain markets for the past seven years. You can reach him at [emailĀ protected]
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