The internet of things (IOT) is a term that explores the notion of technological integration coupled with the interconnectivity of those devices. It is powerful to consider how our attentions, desires, needs or relations to real world things travel through digital devices and subsequently affect things and actions in the real world. This is a powerful notion alone. E-commerce has prompted big changes:
Investors (in Europe) pumped €19.8bn into properties such as warehousing and distribution hubs in 2014, a seven-year high and a 34 per cent jump year on year. Joel Lewin FT.com
The rise of e-commerce has been symptomatic of wide and ubiquitous changes in consumer and market behaviours. The introduction of WIFI enabled fork-lift trucks that are wirelessly connected in order to achieve time saving efficiencies in the logistics is just one for example.
What if we consider a warehouse plotted into grids onto a computer, every inch mapped, every piece of stock recorded, a scalable model that could be applied to the largest logistics businesses then we can imagine a fascinating level of automation.
In this environment – with hundreds of movements and operations per hour – efficiency, accuracy and speed are integral and this technology could be as revolutionary – albeit slightly eerie.
Companies like SSI Schaefer have particularly pioneered automation while KIVA Systems in the US have implemented ‘mobile-robotic’ warehouse automation of a sophistication not previously seen. There website inspirationally presents the idea that, and I quote:
What if every item in your warehouse could walk and talk on its own?. Kiva Systems – Solutions.
This climate introduces an exciting level of controlled pragmatism iot and apps can offer.
The topic of interconnectivity in the logistics sector is one that is topical and widely cited in a range of online articles; this quote from Caskell outlines the climate:
‘Automated vehicles have not been widely adopted in warehousing’ Jim Caskell, Future Forklift Trends: Connectivity, Big Data, Smart Products. Wednesday 24th July 2014.
Warehouse automation is a revolutionary – and seemingly futuristic – idea. The technology exists and the scenario is as such. Technology such as driver-less fork-lift trucks running on guided rail tracks that then extend to a coded height to scan a barcode and collect an item is not beyond the realms of possibility at all.
Indeed Argos has recently upgraded its warehouse systems facilitated by Vanderlande tech to achieve massive cost reductions. And as huge companies start to adopt this futuristic technology Hi-Tec Lift Trucks would like to be at the forefront and a thought leader in observing these changes.
By Joseph Harvey.
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