Many people fear industrial robots as "job stealers." Yes, they do replace people in certain types of jobs. But in most cases, we should be thankful for that.
Contributing Editor Toby Gooley is a freelance writer and editor specializing in supply chain, logistics, material handling, and international trade. She previously was Editor at CSCMP's Supply Chain Quarterly. and Senior Editor of SCQ's sister publication, DC VELOCITY. Prior to joining AGiLE Business Media in 2007, she spent 20 years at Logistics Management magazine as Managing Editor and Senior Editor covering international trade and transportation. Prior to that she was an export traffic manager for 10 years. She holds a B.A. in Asian Studies from Cornell University.
I'm definitely not a techie. Just ask the long-suffering co-workers who rescue me when my laptop, smartphone, or various
Google products (I'm talking about you, GVoice and Calendar) periodically become "uncooperative." I grumble about technology
all the time. But there is one aspect of technology that never fails to hold my attention and earn my admiration: robotics.
I know little about their inner workings or the nitty-gritty details of the technologies that make them do what they do. Still,
they mesmerize me at trade shows, and I can barely tear myself away from watching them while on factory tours.
In the past few weeks, I've had several occasions to think about robotics and its impact on supply chains. On recent tours
of the factories where The Raymond Corp. and Toyota Industrial Equipment Manufacturing make their forklifts, for example,
robotic welders and laser cutters were much in evidence. These machines were unaffected by the intense heat, searingly bright
light, and around-the-clock demand for perfect accuracy. And last month, my colleague David Maloney, chief editor of DC
Velocity, and I toured a giant, highly automated pharmaceutical distribution facility in Japan. There we saw brawny robotic
arms picking up individual packages of medicines and gently, precisely placing them on conveyor belts. At a demonstration center
showcasing the latest products developed by Daifuku, the company we visited in Japan, we saw a robot that can pick up, deposit,
and locate totes and boxes anywhere on a floor, without racks or storage structures; it can also remove individual items from a
tote and place them on a conveyor or in another container.
Without these and the many other types of robots, manufacturing, warehousing, and distribution would be slower and production
and shipment volumes diminished. More people would be required to carry out dangerous, exhausting, and mind-numbingly repetitive
tasks. In conditions like those, people get hurt, quality inevitably becomes inconsistent, and the need for rework grows. Yet
many people still view manufacturing and warehouse robots as competition for jobs.
Earlier this month, Joseph F. Engleberger, a robotics pioneer who developed a robotic arm for use on assembly lines
(way back in the 1960s!) that greatly accelerated production in many industries, passed away at the age of 90. Engleberger
had an answer to those who charged that robots were taking good jobs away from people. In a 1997 New York Times interview,
he asserted that the belief that robots stole jobs was "unjustified." The robots, he pointed out, "take away subhuman jobs which
we assign to people."
As we reported in our news story "Industrial robots: Friend or foe?," a recent white paper from the Association for
Advancing Automation (A3) advances that viewpoint. Of course you would expect A3, a group that includes the Robotic Industries
Association (RIA), to take such a position. But based on what I've seen in factories and distribution centers, it's hard to
dispute their—and Engleberger's—argument.
“ExxonMobil is uniquely placed to understand the biggest opportunities in improving energy supply chains, from more accurate sales and operations planning, increased agility in field operations, effective management of enormous transportation networks and adapting quickly to complex regulatory environments,” John Sicard, Kinaxis CEO, said in a release.
Specifically, Kinaxis and ExxonMobil said they will focus on a supply and demand planning solution for the complicated fuel commodities market which has no industry-wide standard and which relies heavily on spreadsheets and other manual methods. The solution will enable integrated refinery-to-customer planning with timely data for the most accurate supply/demand planning, balancing and signaling.
The benefits of that approach could include automated data visibility, improved inventory management and terminal replenishment, and enhanced supply scenario planning that are expected to enable arbitrage opportunities and decrease supply costs.
And in the chemicals and lubricants space, the companies are developing an advanced planning solution that provides manufacturing and logistics constraints management coupled with scenario modeling and evaluation.
“Last year, we brought together all ExxonMobil supply chain activities and expertise into one centralized organization, creating one of the largest supply chain operations in the world, and through this identified critical solution gaps to enable our businesses to capture additional value,” said Staale Gjervik, supply chain president, ExxonMobil Global Services Company. “Collaborating with Kinaxis, a leading supply chain technology provider, is instrumental in providing solutions for a large and complex business like ours.”
For example, millions of residents and workers in the Tampa region have now left their homes and jobs, heeding increasingly dire evacuation warnings from state officials. They’re fleeing the estimated 10 to 20 feet of storm surge that is forecast to swamp the area, due to Hurricane Milton’s status as the strongest hurricane in the Gulf since Rita in 2005, the fifth-strongest Atlantic hurricane based on pressure, and the sixth-strongest Atlantic hurricane based on its peak winds, according to market data provider Industrial Info Resources.
Between that mass migration and the storm’s effect on buildings and infrastructure, supply chain impacts could hit the energy logistics and agriculture sectors particularly hard, according to a report from Everstream Analytics.
The Tampa Bay metro area is the most vulnerable area, with the potential for storm surge to halt port operations, roads, rails, air travel, and business operations – possibly for an extended period of time. In contrast to those “severe to potentially catastrophic” effects, key supply chain hubs outside of the core zone of impact—including the Miami metro area along with Jacksonville, FL and Savannah, GA—could also be impacted but to a more moderate level, such as slowdowns in port operations and air cargo, Everstream Analytics’ Chief Meteorologist Jon Davis said in a report.
Although it was recently downgraded from a Category 5 to Category 4 storm, Milton is anticipated to have major disruptions for transportation, in large part because it will strike an “already fragile supply chain environment” that is still reeling from the fury of Hurricane Helene less than two weeks ago and the ILA port strike that ended just five days ago and crippled ports along the East and Gulf Coasts, a report from Project44 said.
The storm will also affect supply chain operations at sea, since approximately 74 container vessels are located near the storm and may experience delays as they await safe entry into major ports. Vessels already at the ports may face delays departing as they wait for storm conditions to clear, Project44 said.
On land, Florida will likely also face impacts in the Last Mile delivery industry as roads become difficult to navigate and workers evacuate for safety.
Likewise, freight rail networks are also shifting engines, cars, and shipments out of the path of the storm as the industry continues “adapting to a world shaped by climate change,” the Association of American Railroads (AAR) said. Before floods arrive, railroads may relocate locomotives, elevate track infrastructure, and remove sensitive electronic equipment such as sensors, signals and switches. However, forceful water can move a bridge from its support beams or destabilize it by unearthing the supporting soil, so in certain conditions, railroads may park rail cars full of heavy materials — like rocks and ballast — on a bridge before a flood to weigh it down, AAR said.
The North American robotics market saw a decline in both units ordered (down 7.9% to 15,705 units) and revenue (down 6.8% to $982.83 million) during the first half of 2024 compared to the same period in 2023, as North American manufacturers faced ongoing economic headwinds, according to a report from the Association for Advancing Automation (A3).
“Rising inflation and borrowing costs have dampened spending on robotics, with many companies opting to delay major investments,” said Jeff Burnstein, president, A3. “Despite these challenges, the push for operational efficiency and workforce augmentation continues to drive demand for robotics in industries such as food and consumer goods and life sciences, among others. As companies navigate labor shortages and increased production costs, the role of automation is becoming ever more critical in maintaining global competitiveness.”
The downward trend was led by weakness in automotive manufacturing, which traditionally leads the charge in buying robots. In the first half of 2024, automotive OEMs ordered 4,159 units (up 14.4%) but generated revenue of $259.96 million (down 12.0%). The Automotive Components sector was even worse, orders 3,574 units (down 38.8%) for $191.93 million in revenue (down 27.3%). Declines also happened in the Semiconductor & Electronics/Photonics sector and the Plastics & Rubber sector.
On the positive side, Food & Consumer Goods companies ordered 1,173 units (up 85.6%) for $62.84 million in revenue (up 56.2%). This growth reflects the increasing reliance on robotics for efficiency in food processing and packaging as companies seek to address labor shortages and rising costs, A3 said. And the Life Sciences industry ordered 1,007 units (up 47.9%) for revenue of $47.29 million (up 86.7%) as it continued its reliance on robotics for efficiency and precision.
The warm waters of the Gulf of Mexico are brewing up another massive storm this week that is on track to smash into the western coast of Florida by Wednesday morning, bringing a consecutive round of storm surge and damaging winds to the storm-weary state.
Before reaching the U.S., Hurricane Milton will rake the northern coast of Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula with dangerous weather. But hurricane watches are already in effect for parts of Florida, which could see heavy rainfall, flash and urban flooding, and moderate to major river floods, according to forecasts from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).
As it revs its massive engines with fuel from the historically warm Gulf of Mexico, Hurricane Milton could possibly hit Tampa as a Category 5 storm, according to the FEWSION Project at Northern Arizona University, which tracks supply chains throughout the country.
With that much power, Milton could shut down the port and seriously disrupt the fuel supply into western and central Florida, which could then hinder recovery efforts. That’s because fuel supplies for much of Florida, especially central Florida, arrive from Texas and Louisiana through the Port of Tampa. That means that anyone who depends on generators or fuel for critical functions should plan for an extended period without access to fuel. And recovery crews and logisticians should consider bringing their own fuel when responding to the storm, FEWSION said.
One of those disaster recovery efforts will be led by nonprofit group the American Logistics Aid Network (ALAN), which is already mobilizing its forces for Hurricane Milton, even as it devotes other energy to the Hurricane Helene response. “In an ideal world we’d have plenty of time to focus all of our efforts on Hurricane Helene clean-up and recovery,” Kathy Fulton, ALAN’s Executive Director, said in a release. “But in the real world, major hurricanes don’t always wait for their turn. As a result, we are officially activating for Hurricane Milton.”
In the meantime, many weary residents of the region are thinking of moving to another part of the country instead of getting hit by vicious storms several times a year. Nearly one-third (32%) of U.S. residents aged 18-34 say they’re reconsidering where they want to move in the future after seeing or hearing about the damage caused by Hurricane Helene, according to a survey commissioned by real estate brokerage Redfin.
“Scores of Americans flocked to the Sun Belt during the pandemic because remote work allowed them to take advantage of the region’s relatively low cost of living. Some thought Appalachia was insulated from hurricane risk, not realizing that the area is prone to flooding and that hurricanes can sometimes cause flash flooding far away from the ocean,” Redfin Chief Economist Daryl Fairweather said in a release. “Americans are beginning to realize that nowhere is truly immune to the impacts of climate change, and we’re starting to see that impact where people want to live—even people who haven’t experienced a catastrophic weather event firsthand.”
The report is based on a commissioned survey conducted by Ipsos on Oct. 2-3, fielded to 1,005 U.S. adults. After making landfall in Florida in late September, Hurricane Helene wreaked havoc across Appalachia, becoming the deadliest storm to hit mainland America in almost two decades. In North Carolina, the death toll has surpassed 100 and the city of Asheville has been devastated.
Shippers and carriers at ports along the East and Gulf coasts today are working through a backlog of stranded containers stuck on ships at sea, now that dockworkers and port operators have agreed to a tentative deal that ends the dockworkers strike.
In the meantime, U.S. importers and exporters face a mountain of shipping boxes that are now several days behind schedule. By the latest estimate from Everstream Analytics, the number of cargo boxes on ships floating outside affected ports has slightly decreased by 20,000 twenty foot equivalent units (TEUs), dropping to 386,000 from its highpoint of 406,000 yesterday.
To chip away at the problem, some facilities like the Port of Charleston have announced extended daily gate hours to give shippers and carriers more time each day to shuffle through the backlog. And Georgia Ports Authority likewise announced plans to stay open on Saturday and Sunday, saying, “We will be offering weekend gates to help restore your supply chain fluidity.”
But they face a lot of work; the number of container ships waiting outside of U.S. Gulf and East Coast ports on Friday morning had decreased overnight to 54, down from a Thursday peak of 59. Overall, with each day of strike roughly needing about one week to clear the backlog, the 3-day all-out strike will likely take minimum three weeks to return to normal operations at U.S. ports, Everstream said.