St. Onge Company’s Tom Bonkenburg recently published an article about robotics in the February edition of Modern Materials Handling. He discusses what to look for when introducing new automation to your facility. Use the link below to read the article!
When looking at a new warehouse technology, here are a few simple questions you can ask to understand better how market-ready the system really is:
- How many full implementations of the technology are out in the field now, and how long have they been in place?
- Can the company show real-world working examples with products, order characteristics, shipment volumes, and IT integration similar to what you would expect?
- Does the company or their clients track system errors or failures, and will they share this information with you?
- What are all the system’s possible failure modes, and is there a back-up plan for each?
- Are there “edge cases” when the system will not function properly?
- How many human interventions are expected per hour, and is this based on real-life data?
- What is the expected working life of the equipment, and how does the company estimate this?
- Are there performance guarantees and is the company willing to sign up for them?
- Does the company seem financially healthy enough to be around for the entire life of the equipment?
- Is the company looking for “first clients” to learn from, and how can you benefit from this?
Click here to read the article!
