Warehouse automation is a recognized trend, though some key elements were invented more than 200 years ago. Many generations of logistics specialists stepped on the path of efficiency improvement by implementing mechanization and later automation principles. Let's check some facts and then deep dive into the optimal selection process.
Quick historical snapshot
The first milestone can be called as "we want to transport items faster". It started back in 1795 with the invention of the conveyor belt and for the next 130 years this piece of equipment has been rolled out in production facilities and warehouses across the world.
Forklifts gained popularity starting from 1915, and later in 1923 Yale introduced the first electric forklift with a mast. The next year Clark modified Duat tractor with forks and a chain-supported mast. In the late 1920s, the first vertical racks began to be used. Our second milestone is the "standards to optimize storage and handling", which happened in the late 1930s when engineers introduced pallet standards.
Human factors have always been a limitation, "the era of robotics and intensive labor" started with an introduction of Automated Guided Vehicle (AGV) by Barret Electronics of Northbrook, Illinois, USA in 1953. Then in 1956, at a cocktail party George Devol introduced his latest invention to Joseph Engelberger. 3 years later, the first industrial robot Unimate was developed, and General Motors started using it for producing mold-cast products.
The next milestone goes with the moto "we want dense storage and fast items retrieval". It started in 1962, when the first semi-automated high-density storage-retrieval system was implemented for Bertelsmann book-club warehouse located in Gütersloh, Germany. The system was manually controlled; however, the process required the usage of punch-card, the ancestor of a file in modern warehouse management system. Demag (now Dematic) was the pioneer of the industry.
The period from 1965 to early 1970s stands for "we need more transparency to manage inventory". In 1967, IBM introduced the concept of warehouse management system for the aerospace industry. 4 years later, Walmart opened its first distribution center. By the end of 1974, American retailer J. C. Penney Company, Inc was managing more than 2.050 stores and was the first company to introduce real-time WMS. In the same year the first product with a UPC barcode was scanned. These events have changed the rules of the game by putting data and logic on the front line of automation.
Combine all the technologies described above and put them together, so you will have a fully automated warehouse facility!
There's been a lot of evolutions happening afterwards, lets call it "the IT era of warehouse automation". One is the EDI standards that emerged in early 70s supported by early Internet, another is the Machine Vision which rolled-out in the industry in early 1980s, radio-frequency identification (RFID) technology has also been encouraged since 1980s, and of course the Internet of Things (IoT) proposed in 1999 by the computer scientist Kevin Ashton who advised putting RFID tags on products to track them through a supply chain.
Conclusions
The world of warehouse automation is enormous. It can be frustrating to choose the right technology. In the next article we will introduce a solid warehouse automation framework that helped our customers to make the right choice.
Accentis team.
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