Can Autonomous Mobile Robots Ease Supply Chain Backlogs?

The COVID-19 pandemic is poised to accelerate adoption of autonomous mobile robots (AMRs) to ease supply chain backlogs. Even before the coronavirus pandemic shut down the global economy, leading companies that distribute large amounts of goods were deploying, or evaluating, AMRs such as DHL and Ryder. UPS yesterday announced that it has begun deploying AMRs in some of its facilities to consolidate orders. UPS wants to "create more custom and turnkey outsourced fulfillment services to meet our customers' unique supply chain needs," according to a statement from Philippe Gilbert, UPS's president of supply chain solutions. The weak link in warehouse automation efforts is the shortage of people to fulfill the steady rise in e-commerce transactions.