Nowadays, you only need to tap your mobile phone, and the goods you want will be delivered from the warehouse and delivered to you on time and quickly. Same-day delivery and next-day delivery have become the norm. Especially recently, in the new consumption era, e-commerce sales data has been rising, but behind the highlights is a big test for warehousing.
In the early years, traditional warehouse workshops generally used manual picking and transportation, but now, many warehouses have completed the transformation of intelligence and automation through technologies such as warehouse logistics robots and the Internet of Things. This change is also obvious to all. When we buy popular products, we can often get the experience of shipping within two minutes.
But it is undeniable that so far, many warehouses or factories still use lagging manual solutions. For them, improving the efficiency and cost of warehousing logistics is not at the same time, and they also have certain concerns about new technologies. In the game between intelligent solutions and traditional solutions, how should China’s warehousing and logistics industry change, and which solution can really solve the problem?
Cold thinking after the rapid development of industry
In the field of mobile robots, AGV (Automated Guided Vehicle, automatic guided vehicle) and AMR (Autonomous Mobile Robot, autonomous mobile robot) are two main technologies. The former transports on a fixed line according to existing instructions, and the latter is intelligent. Higher, able to flexibly avoid obstacles and plan routes independently. However, the unit price of AMR is much higher than that of AGV, and enterprises will choose different solutions according to different needs.
“In recent years, with the explosive growth of e-commerce and express delivery industry, and the continuous increase of market demand, we have seen the rapid development of China’s mobile robot industry. At the same time, driven by the demand for intelligent logistics and intelligent manufacturing, We believe that the acceptance of AGV and other warehousing and logistics robots in the Chinese market is increasing.” Kevin Masgrau, general manager of Boliyun China, said.
According to the data of the China Mobile Robot (AGV/AMR) Industry Alliance and the statistics of the New Strategic Mobile Robot Industry Research Institute, in 2021, the market sales of mobile robots (AGV/AMR) for industrial applications in the Chinese market will be 12.6 billion yuan (overseas sales 2.5 billion), a year-on-year increase of 64%.
Although the mobile robot market has bright prospects, in fact, at this stage, for companies that have transformed or have not transformed, they have to face the balance and game between safety, efficiency, and cost.
First of all, in the implementation of the plan, personal safety is always the top priority.
In the warehouse, robots need to cooperate with human employees in a complex working environment, which means that robots must have excellent perception capabilities and safety logic, and be able to predict risks and respond in a timely manner.
According to Kevin Masgrau, he has encountered several situations before, such as companies trying to keep night shift employees in remote areas, or experienced forklift drivers who are about to retire, or they are unwilling to take the risks that work brings them. …In this case, companies will start thinking about turning to automated solutions to mitigate the loss caused by staff turnover.
On the one hand, robots can replace humans to complete some dangerous work. On the other hand, robots also need to be able to safely cooperate with human employees to improve work efficiency.
Secondly, cost-effectiveness is the ultimate pursuit of manufacturers. If the implemented solution does not bring dividends, the meaning of innovation will no longer exist.
For the warehousing industry, project ROI is always mentioned repeatedly. Contrary to this, there is only a thin line between efficiency and safety, which leads us back to the first point of safety.
In addition, in China, warehousing and logistics robots are still an emerging industry, lacking long-term product application and experience running-in, resulting in problems such as uneven product quality in the industry.
On the one hand, upstream components lack uniform standards and industry standard constraints. On the other hand, downstream customers have obvious differentiated needs for products. Different segmentation scenarios and different industries have different requirements for the configuration and parameters of logistics robots. Different companies have different requirements for automated warehousing solutions, and these differences from customized requirements also complicate the formulation of industry standards and product reproducibility.
Judging from the results, due to the lack of norms and industry standards in the industry, product stability has not met expectations, which has brought certain hidden dangers to the safety of warehousing operations, and the operation and maintenance costs of downstream customers using logistics robots will also increase accordingly.
Finally, the industry is changing rapidly, and enterprises are facing the challenges of the industry’s constant change.
This includes changes in how warehouses operate, changes in talent, changes in logistics procedures and processes, and more. Usually, when a warehouse deploys a robot, it needs to consider the operation of the entire warehouse, from the way of goods into the warehouse (stacking/storage), goods/pallet data shuffling, temporary inventory, out of the warehouse… In the whole process, the robot is suitable for Where to put it, how to improve operational efficiency, how to maximize the return on investment, robots and manual cooperation all have many ways, without sufficient industry accumulation, it is difficult to solve the problems faced.
To sum up, there are certain contradictions among safety, efficiency, and cost. Only manufacturers with richer experience can truly integrate the three, break down barriers, and provide solutions that can truly enhance the competitiveness of enterprises.
Experience is the confidence to gain a foothold in the market
As a leader in the robot industry, BALYO has nearly 20 years of experience since its establishment in 2005. At present, the company has established a certain influence in places such as China and Singapore.
Last year, Boliyun successfully deployed four very narrow aisle (VNA) robots for SSW, a Singaporean warehousing and logistics company. These robots can handle pallets weighing up to 750kg at a height of 16.8m, which also broke the current industry record.
So how does Boliyun solve the above problems?
Kevin Masgrau said that BALYOTM embeds intelligent and safe working methods into the early hardware design. With its professional knowledge in component integration and algorithm design, BALYOTM has created a self-developed technology (Driven by BALYOTM), combined with the market Equipped with advanced security systems, and with the help of 3D sensors and cameras, endow robots with 360° environmental security awareness. Ensure accurate and safe pallet picking and handling for a safe human-robot collaboration environment. In addition, all Boliyun robot safety systems meet PL-d level requirements and comply with ANSI B56.5 or EN1525 standards.
Polywin’s standard project management process includes multiple on-site risk analyzes during each installation. Kevin Masgrau emphasized that this is the best way to educate and help customers continuously improve in their robot journey, and Boliyun hopes to create a safe and efficient working environment for customers.
How to help simplify the difficulty of warehousing and logistics automation and intelligent upgrading is the goal that Boliyun has been working hard for, hoping to help these enterprises release more value.
With Driven by BALYO’s self-developed technology, Boliyun transforms traditional standard forklifts into intelligent robots, providing global enterprises with intelligent storage solutions that meet international standards. Boliyun’s leading geographic navigation system enables the robot to autonomously locate and navigate indoors without any additional infrastructure, which can help enterprises effectively improve the efficiency of storage pallet processing and reduce enterprise operating costs.
When deploying robots, Boli Games will consider the details of the entire system, and will continue to communicate and refine project requirements. Because it has enough professional knowledge and has accumulated very rich experience, Boliyun knows how to help warehouses easily realize automation and intelligent upgrades.
For example, Boliyun’s eBudget tool can help warehouses easily assess the required robot resources, and Boliyun’s Road Editor technology can also help simplify task management.
During this period, through cooperation with customers and partners, Boliyun has witnessed the continuous development of the entire industry towards standardization, and industry standards have been continuously improved with the development of technology. Boliyun has also been fortunate to participate in discussions on some AGV standards middle.
So, how competitive is Boliyun in the mobile robot market?
Kevin Masgrau said frankly that all sales will claim that their robots are the best, but in fact, Boliyun AGV supports the design of the minimum distance from pallet to pallet in the shelf under the premise of ensuring safety. In addition, Boliyun’s AGV can reach a maximum working height of 17m.
Simply put, Boliyun can provide the best storage density in the market. This is also enough to prove the superiority of Boliyun’s positioning, navigation and 3D perception systems, because they are all designed to support more pallet storage, reduce slot costs, and work more efficiently.
Boliyun’s Competitive Advantage in Mobile Robots, Watchmaking丨Guoke.com
Constantly adapt to the rapidly changing market
The market is changing rapidly, and 2022 can be said to be the fastest year for mobile robots.
“In the past five years, we have seen that the e-commerce industry has been paying attention to the handling of small goods, and the market is paying more and more attention to AMR solutions. From 2022, we can clearly feel that large goods over 1 ton More and more people pay more and more attention to the handling of goods, and these goods are usually stored on pallets and shelves. In this regard, AMR is limited in the importance of handling and height. More and more customers find us and ask us What we can do for their shelves is also the market advantage of our Reachy and Veeny.” Kevin Masgrau said when referring to the market situation last year.
From the perspective of application scenarios, AGV technical equipment has gradually changed from a single application mode to a composite application mode.
The traditional AGV application mode is relatively simple. For example, the AGV in the storage link and the AGV in the material handling link have a simple division of labor in the past, and each performs its duties.
In recent years, with the continuous upgrading of key components and core technologies including PLC and control components, automatic identification devices, etc., today’s AGV robots are transforming into composite applications. Taking Boliyun as an example, its AGV robots can be used In multiple links such as pallet handling, transportation, storage and sorting, it can efficiently respond to the market demand for the flexible development of warehousing logistics and the centralized development of logistics centers.
From the perspective of changes in AGV equipment and manual collaboration methods, AGV goods-to-person picking technology is being widely used in emerging industries.
Taking the e-commerce industry as an example, in traditional large-scale e-commerce platforms and retailers’ own warehouses, the common means of transporting goods are conveyor belts and turntables. A large number of empty transmissions will also reduce the work efficiency of relevant personnel; on the other hand, the construction and deployment costs of warehouses are also very high, which is not friendly to enterprises that need to control costs.
In contrast, due to the absolute advantages of easier deployment, higher efficiency and more flexibility, goods-to-person picking technology is being favored by enterprises. Represented by Boliyun’s AGV pallet picking technology, the AGV robot can flexibly shuttle between shelves, aisles and picking sites without changing the layout of the warehouse building, intelligently and flexibly responding to complex warehouse environments.
From the perspective of warehousing deployment and operation, the advancement of AGV technology and equipment has also allowed warehousing deployment to undergo a development process of “from complexity to simplicity”.
At present, with the gradual improvement of the digital level of warehousing and logistics, looking at the competitive warehousing and logistics robot brands in the market, most of them follow the principle of minimizing changes in warehouse infrastructure and maximize the connection with existing warehouse equipment and management systems. Make the intelligent upgrade of the warehouse simple, easy and low-cost.
Compared with other large-scale solutions, such as automated storage and retrieval systems (ASRS), Polywin offers greater flexibility in the design and installation phase. It is conceivable that a new warehouse is equipped with several AGVs at the beginning, and as the business grows, more robots can be added every year under the same layout and shelf premise.
Facing 2023, Boliyun will continue to make efforts in the four major industries of logistics, automobiles, e-commerce, and FMCG, and the company is also constantly gaining insight into market trends.
In terms of third-party logistics, Boliyun has developed scalable logistics distribution solutions that can be integrated into existing infrastructure. Using WMS, Boliyun robots can manage goods transportation, storage, cross-docking or any task that may simplify the supply chain process.
In automotive, the automation of warehousing logistics in this industry must serve a rigorous production process, where fast time to market, timely delivery and cost management are key factors for success. Boliyun has developed a large portfolio of robots and services to meet the growing demand. Supply and removal from supply chain to production chain (e.g. stamping and forming chain, dock handling), to storage of spare parts, assembly lines (body shop, paint shop, WMS integration, KPI).
In terms of e-commerce, Boliyun has developed a large portfolio of robots and services to meet these needs. From logistics distribution, cross-docking, packaging, simplification of supply chain processes, to providing value-added services with integrated ERP solutions.
In terms of fast-moving consumer goods, Boliyun has developed a series of robots and services to meet the growing demand for fast-moving consumer goods. From transportation integration, cross-docking, emergency protection, supply chain smoothing and creating added value.
Bo Liyun’s insights into the four major industry trends of logistics, automobiles, e-commerce, and fast-moving consumer goods, tabulation丨Guoke.com
Kevin Masgrau emphasized that Boliyun has always attached great importance to the Chinese market. In the future, Boliyun will continue to increase its operational support for the Chinese market and further increase strategic investment in talent reserves, technology research and development, and market layout.
Text/Fu Bin
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