Q: What is your number one takeaway from ProMat 2019?
Matt Wicks: You asked for one but I’ve got three – robotics, robotics, robotics. The show has historically been all about traditional material handling equipment. And it was still there. But we have clearly moved into the age of robots at ProMat.
Traditionally, robots have been confined to manufacturing. Warehousing and distribution was just too chaotic for the technology. There were too many variations to accommodate, and the equipment was too slow and not economically viable for warehouses and DCs.
But now, we’ve hit a confluence of advanced technology and market demand spurred by labor challenges. At the show, you saw mobile robots as well as robots for picking. There were so many of them that the overall look of the show changed in 2019.
Q: What are the three key market trends from your perspective?
Matt Wicks: The first trend is what powered robots onto the show floor – expanding demand and use of them in warehousing, distribution and post/parcel. This is such a strong market trend that is making the use of robots pervasive in industry. They are well past being a novelty.
The second trend is three fold – strong demand for increased productivity, continuing labor challenges and a focus on safety in the workplace. It’s all about getting more out the door faster with maximum safety. You can see this everywhere, and it’s not going to let up anytime soon, if ever.
The third trend is demand for ever greater connectivity of data about what’s happening out on the floor at any given moment. Operations have to connect local data to cloud-based platforms for data analysis and resulting value-add decisions. This trend is all about reacting fast to ever-changing supply chain conditions both inside and outside the four walls.
Q: How is Honeywell Intelligrated reacting to these market trends?
Matt Wicks: To begin, we have our Honeywell Robotics initiative. It is our platform for addressing the needs for smart robotics in industry. While the primary focus here is warehousing and distribution, all of what we do can be applied to manufacturing.
At ProMat, we featured a robotic parcel induction solution that is a product of this initiative. Generally, induction is very manual and must accommodate a wide range of shapes and sizes of parcels. Our smart robotic solution makes induction an automatic process able to handle a wide-range of packages. Better yet, it does it faster and safer than people can.
We also introduced our robotic unloader during our press conference. It unloads floor-stacked boxes in trailers and containers, eliminating the need for people to do this manually, often in unpleasant climates.
The front end of the unloader uses a vision system to articulate up and down, locating and picking up boxes. An articulated arm then discharges each box to a conveyor for takeaway to the facility.
It’s amazing to watch. Clearly, Honeywell Intelligrated is well positioned to take advantage of the confluence of technology and demand for smart robots across industry.
To learn more about Honeywell Intelligrated, click here.
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