There has been much written about the benefits automation can unlock for businesses. But too often businesses think they need to jump in at the deep end and deploy automation right away, hoping it will solve the problems they are experiencing. But how will a process optimized for a manual workforce perform with automation – such as an Automated Guided Vehicle (AGV)? How will people respond when their day-to-day roles change?

If the aim is to improve efficiency and productivity, technology is just one part of the overall solution. When deploying automation, it is essential you take into account the process, the workforce and the technology. These considerations can ensure your business introduces automation that augments the workforce and transforms productivity.

Automation misconception

Industry 4.0 can transform organizations’ processes and operations. It can revolutionise productivity, improve accuracy and unleash new levels of efficiency. In operating environments where skills are thin on the ground and staff recruitment and retention a challenge, automation appears to be a fast track to nirvana. Yet the reality is somewhat different.

Automation is not a direct replacement for a human workforce – how could it be? By failing to truly consider how the technology will be deployed – and, critically, how it will work in tandem with a human workforce – organizations are fundamentally failing to understand the point of automation or reap the rewards.

Some mistakes are basic, such as installing a fleet of AGVs but failing to consider the need for automatic door opening. Others are more fundamental, such as overlooking the implications of dropping technology into a workplace without engaging the workforce. Either way, a misunderstanding of automation and its implications for both people and process can lead to serious operational problems that risk derailing essential investment in improvement.

Understand the process

Assessing the way in deploying automation will fit within an existing process is critical. If, for example, one of the biggest issues within a warehouse is vehicle congestion, especially at peak times, simply replacing human-operated vehicles with AGVs without considering the timing and location of the routes is not going to address the problem. Reconsidering the traffic flow, the way orders are batched, the tasks and schedules is essential to maximise the specific value of the AGVs.

Growing numbers of organizations are considering the use of automated vehicles to replace the highly manual task of driving around a warehouse, picking items and delivering those items to a loading station. Re-allocating those individuals to dedicated pick locations makes operational sense, but this is not a like-for-like situation. For example, while individuals may only be able to operate a single pick model, an AGV may be able to pick up to three, not only reducing non-productive time but also cutting the number of autonomous vehicles, and hence investment, required.

For companies investing in automated mobile robots (AMRs), analyzing the SKUs, the process, the distance traveled by vehicles on each route is key to understanding how many robots are required. Furthermore, by running a simulation of how the automated model would work in practice, an organization can highlight opportunities to optimize the batching of orders to dispatch to the AMRs, gaining further efficiency advantages.

Engage your workforce

Of course, the most optimized process can still be derailed if the workforce does not understand how to work with AMRs or, even worse, is actively interfering with the robotic vehicles. Ensuring people are part of this process from the very beginning is essential to deploying automation because their day-to-day activities will change.

The positive benefits for employees are significant – not least the use of solutions such as mobile conveyors to minimize the need for heavy and repetitive lifting. When technology can completely eradicate these arduous tasks – and the workforce is required to simply verify the item by scanning – individuals will respond well to the change. But people need to be educated, trained and confident. They need to understand how the technology works and how they work together. A workforce chasing AMRs down the aisle because they do not understand where the system is designed to stop does not represent a harmonious human-machine interaction.

There will, of course, be changes to the skillsets required – forklift drivers will increasingly be replaced by automated vehicles. However, in a market desperate to recruit and retain individuals with experience, this provides companies with a chance to retrain highly skilled forklift drivers to, for example, supervise loading or oversee picking teams. Highlighting the specific skills – such as picking – that are simply not in the purview of automation today is an important part of this automation evolution and key to creating an operating environment that combines excellent technology with an engaged and motivated workforce.

Embrace the technology

The automation technologies available to organizations today are compelling. From collaborative robot arms to AMRs and AGVs, as Industry 4.0 gains both momentum and maturity, confidence in the quality of the technology to deliver and enable significant operational change continues to grow. But, if businesses fail to get processes aligned and truly understand the goal of any automation investment, problems will arise.

By considering both the processes and the people who operate those processes today, organizations can take a far more intelligent approach to deploying automation. Add in simulation to understand how AMRs, for example, might operate at different times is critical to highlighting potential problems and avoiding inefficiencies.

Plus, of course, these systems deliver real-time data in huge detail. Combining analytics to monitor conditions in real time with dynamic fleet scheduling and route optimization will enable continuous improvement. The technology is brilliant, but it is the way it is deployed, orders are batched, schedules are planned, and people are managed that is the key to truly realizing the potential of automation.

About the author

Dr. Paul Rivers is CEO of Guidance Automation, a UK-based pioneer in guidance, navigation and control technologies. Guidance Automation has over 25 years of experience in developing advanced solutions for the global robotic vehicle market and has thousands of systems in service.

Rivers joined Guidance Automation in 2014. Prior to that, he was the Strategic Business Development Manager at Renishaw and the Technical [Commercial] Director at Measurement Devices Ltd.