WHILE AUTOMATIONS WHIRL : MASTER GLOBAL ESSAY

 

One big reason to automate is the high turnover of warehouse employees. The work is often physically demanding and pays modest wages. Less-skilled warehouse workers earn around $16 to $17 an hour.

Among the lower paid jobs are truck unloaders, who grab boxes and move them into conveyor systems.

That job can be done with a robotic arm called Stretch, developed by Boston Dynamics, an automation company.

A Stretch working in an inbound dock of a DHL-run facility in Columbus, Ohio, recently reached deep into the back of a tightly backed truck and steadily removed boxes filled with apparel.

A warehouse employee who oversees Stretch referred to it as ''he'' and spoke fondly of his ability to pick up dropped packages. Ms. Miller said Stretch unload roughly twice as many boxes per hour as humans.

She declined to say how much Stretch cost, but said : '' It doesn't call in sick, and it can work for several hours. It's a great solution.''

Stretch can do the work of four to 6 workers over two shifts, DHL said, and the company has moved workers whose tasks are now being done by the robot to other jobs in different parts of the warehouse.

Some executives said their aim was to have robots do all the monotonous tasks.

'' Menial, mundane, repetitive tasks will be replaced by automation,'' Mr.Brady of Amazon said.  

'' That may freak people out, but it's going to allow people to focus more on what matters. ''

Amazon has over 750,000 robots in its operations. While it does not disclose a specific number for warehouse employees, the company had 1.55 million employees at the end of  September, up from 800,000 in 2019. Many work in fulfillment centers.

In the outbound dock in Nashville where Cardinal and Proteus operate, there were still scores of employees at work. But Amazon did not say how many people worked in the bay before the introduction of the two robots and how many worked there now.

Amazon says deploying robots creates new jobs that involve overseeing and maintaining the machines. But the number of such workers does not appear to be large.

On a recent tour of the company's Nashville facility, a manager said there were around 100 such jobs, out of 2,500 people at the center. An Amazon spokesman said such facilities typically had 200 robot maintenance employees.

Amazon robots do seem to be helping it process more parcels with fewer employees.

Mr. Brady said a new Amazon warehouse in Shreveport, La, using its latest technology, including an automated inventory management system called Sequoia, appeared capable of processing packages 25 percent faster and 25% more cheaply than the one in Nashville. Like Nashville, Shreveport will have 2,500 employees.

The structured, predictable environment of a warehouse makes it easier for robots to operate.

The Publishing of this essay continues into the future. The World Students Society thanks Peter Eavis.