Materials handling is a vast, but still growing, industry that has a powerful impact on many businesses connected to it. As materials handling changes to adapt to the world, the future holds few certainties, but many possibilities. Software, automation, robotics, new material development, and many more advances continue to affect materials handling in various ways. No single aspect of materials handling is immune, as the entire life cycle of product materials handling is changing.

 

Manufacturing

 

Perhaps the largest changes in the manufacturing aspect of materials handling by technological advancements is the increase in automated processes. Robotics and computerized systems have replaced human hands in the manufacturing of many products.

 

The future of materials handling in manufacturing will likely see the amount of automation continue to climb as advances in control software and precise, flexible robotics are developed.

 

In the past, robotics’ inability to sense and adapt to variations in expected conditions greatly limited their use. New advances in sensory technology, along with adaptive software and hardware, will allow robotics to automate more tasks than ever.

 

Warehousing

 

“The Internet of Things” (or IoT) is a relatively new term that basically refers to all the tracking data collected from objects with built-in tracking, monitoring, or control devices. As the IoT becomes more advanced, it will bring about many changes in materials handling, especially in the warehousing of products.

 

Robotics is also making headway in the warehousing of products. Advances in collaborative robotics – software that affects how robots interact with humans – are making it more feasible for robots to accomplish some tasks with people. In warehouses, this will likely result in robots and humans working side-by-side when picking items and boxing them for shipping.

 

 

 

If you consider these two areas of technological advancement (the IoT and robotics), some interesting possibilities develop. Robots that have constant access to the tracking data of an item in a warehouse can more efficiently pick it off the shelf than a human counterpart, even if the human has access to the same data through a mobile device.

 

One reason for lag between the warehouse and distribution of products is the difficulty in collecting and analyzing all the data that goes into efficient distribution. However, recent investigations into “big data” may reduce or completely remove this difficulty. “Big data” refers to data that exceeds the capacity of conventional database systems and also to the efforts to consolidate forms of data that have not been previously consolidated.

 

Another area of advancement with implications for materials handling, and especially warehousing, is that of alternative energy sources. Advancements in alternative energy could drastically decrease the cost of warehouse operations. Low-energy lighting and solar energy could use markedly less power across facilities. Alternative fuels for warehouse vehicles could bring about increased efficiency at reduced costs. Hydrogen fuel cells and lithium-ion batteries are the two leading contenders in this area for the foreseeable future.

 

Distribution

 

Automated driving systems may be the key to the future of distribution in materials handling. It is important to note a critical distinction between driverless vehicles and truly autonomous vehicles. Driverless vehicles either simply follow a set path or are controlled from a location outside of the vehicle. Autonomous vehicles are programmed to respond and adapt to the changing environment around them.

 

Automated vehicles used in distribution centers currently have serious limitations due to their relative inability to adapt to unexpected problems. An automated vehicle that runs into an unexpected object on its programmed route can only stop and wait for a person to move it and restart the vehicle. However, advances in technology could soon result in automated vehicles that would simply find a different path around the obstacle.

 

Within the next decade, autonomous vehicles are expected to be driving the roads. This technology has obvious potential for use in the distribution of products, which will lower the number of people needed to drive vehicles. It would also increase the efficiency of vehicular distribution. If automated vehicles are able to drive the roads, then other automated vehicles, such as forklifts, would not be far behind and would offer still more changes for the material handling industry.

 

 

 

Disposal

 

An increase in robotics and autonomous vehicles also means a safer disposal of products after use. As technology advances, more and more jobs with risks to worker safety will be done by machines. The potential savings in health costs due to these advancements is significant.

 

Increased data collection and analytics capabilities, through such advances as the IoT and big data, will allow the materials handling industry to better track the number of products being used, what condition they are in when disposed of, where they are being disposed of, and much more. Potential uses for these kinds of data include more efficient placing of disposal centers and methods of disposal and greater accuracy in predicting the amount of product to create. It could also help in spotting gaps in the distribution network and finding recycling opportunities, among other things.

 

Focus on the Future

As technology advances afford opportunities in all areas of materials handling, businesses must focus on industry-specific problems to address. No single materials handling company can implement every new advancement that comes along.

 

Realizing the problems most critical to specific companies and implementing advances to address them will require personnel trained in those areas. This is why the future of materials handling will see greatly increased education for people who work in the industry. Colleges are offering more supply chain programs now than ever before, as well as programs in other areas of advancement, such as software engineering, robotics, and data analytics that will all be necessary in the future of materials handling.

 

This future is a bright and varied one, but it will likely have many obstructions along the way. Perhaps the biggest barrier to technological advancement in the materials handling industry is simply that no one wants to go first. No company wants to be the first to risk implementing new technology that may backfire. But despite this, technological advances will change the foreseeable future. The question is – who will raise their hand first?