The supply chain of the future is likely to see continued growth of autonomous robots in these areas, allowing people to shift to more strategic, less dangerous, and higher value work.Īutonomous robots will be more ubiquitous in the supply chain of the future as advancements make them operate with more human-like abilities. Autonomous robots have a strong presence already in manufacturing, final assembly, and warehousing, for example. Autonomous robotics have the potential to improve operations, and they offer new opportunities to increase productivity, reduce risk, decrease cost, and improve data collection, particularly as customer expectations and volumes of packages, shipments, and orders reach unsustainable levels for traditional approaches.Īutonomous robots are expected to see strong growth over the next five years, particularly within supply chain operations that include lower-value, potentially dangerous or high-risk tasks. Reduce the risk of employee injury in dangerous environmentsĪutonomous robots are helping define the supply chain of the future by helping companies decrease long-term costs provide labor and utilization stability increase worker productivity reduce error rate reduce frequency of inventory checks optimize picking, sorting, and storing times and increase access to difficult or dangerous locations.ĭeloitte recommends: Continue to monitor advancements in autonomous robots for applicability to supply chain.Add efficiency through side-by-side work with humans.Improve speed and accuracy of routine operations, particularly in warehousing and manufacturing.No longer the stuff of science fiction, autonomous robots are already bringing innovation to the supply chain and delivering significant value, chiefly because they can help: Increasingly, autonomous robots are programmed with artificial intelligence to recognize and learn from their surroundings and make decisions independently. They can vary significantly in size, functionality, mobility, dexterity, artificial intelligence, and cost, from robotic process automation to flying vehicles with powerful image and data capturing capabilities. Autonomous robots are in a growing category of devices-including drone aircraft (aerial robots)-that can be programmed to perform tasks with little to no human intervention or interaction.