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The calendar may have flipped to 2022 but, seasonality aside, the same supply chain challenges remain. Whether you’re struggling to increase operational efficiency, offset warehouse labor shortages, enhance the experience for your customers (whether you are a retailer or 3PL), or reduce risk through improved resiliency of your supply chain operations, we talked (or wrote) about it. To help guide…
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Having experienced significant growth in demand for its ResinDek® engineered flooring panel and shelving products over the past two years, Cornerstone Specialty Wood Products, LLC® and its parent company, Universal Woods, have invested in the construction of a new, $15 million greenfield manufacturing facility. Located in a suburb of Louisville, Kentucky, the plant will enable Cornerstone to increase its manufacturing…
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The current challenge as holidays near Supply chain experts have been raising alarms for the 2021 holiday season for months. Shoppers have been told as early as mid-September to start buying well before November, thanks to supply chain woes and uncertainty around the delta variant. According to economist John Rutledge, we have quite some time before we are out of…
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Approximately 2.3 million people in various industries worldwide succumb to work-related accidents or diseases annually, according to the International Labour Organization (ILO). Although safety has improved tremendously throughout the years, particularly through automation, warehouses are one work environment that sees its fair share of common mishaps – everything from slips and falls to injuries from falling objects, overexertion and repetitive…
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About six years ago, the CEO of Toyota Research Institute published a seminal paper about whether a Cambrian explosion was coming for robotics. The term “Cambrian explosion” refers to an important event approximately half a billion years ago in which there was a rapid expansion of different forms of life on earth. There are parallels with the field of robotics…
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Contrary to popular belief, manufacturing and other industries are still very labor intensive. In fact, there are about 345 million people on the factory floor today, but only less than 2 million industrial robots. In this 21st century, humans still handle about 72% of manufacturing tasks (so-called “last mile” in factories). We are far from Industry 4.0 and smart factories.…
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Manufacturers in the United States account for almost 12% of the total output in the economy, according to a recent study by the National Association of Manufacturers. Over the next decade, 4 million manufacturing jobs will likely be needed, and 2.1 million are expected to go unfilled if the country does not inspire more people to pursue modern manufacturing careers.…
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The resounding reality is labor shortage is real and is not going away soon, if ever. Keynote speakers and daily reports emphasize labor shortage as new data and stories are released. Businesses scramble for headcount in the current employment market. In the next decade there will be enormous pressure to find labor. How will businesses adapt to long term labor…
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Crocs is a global leader in innovative, casual footwear for men, women and children. Its product line includes sandals, clogs, sneakers, boots and personalization accessories, called Jibbitz(™) charms. Crocs opened its Dayton, Ohio distribution center in October of 2019. 40% larger than its previous operation, the new warehouse was expected to deliver 50% more throughput. But when Crocs' ecommerce volume…
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Below we’ll take a closer look at why many techniques like prioritization and optimization fall short and how the 6 River Systems Guaranteed SLA (GSLA) solution helps operations meet more critical deadlines. Prioritization and Optimization Prioritization and Optimization are two approaches many operations use when deciding how to fulfill orders: Prioritization is how much a customer wants an order to…
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The company's ResinDek® flooring panels are engineered specifically for mezzanines, industrial work platforms and pick modules. Jim Staszewski, a Ridg-U-Rak Senior Designer: “We've partnered with Cornerstone to use their ResinDek flooring in our designs for more than a decade. They're on the leading edge of developing high-density, elevated flooring products that handle high traffic and highly concentrated dynamic loads, like…
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Last week, I attended the Automate Forward 2021 virtual conference. Interestingly, many of the recurring themes that were discussed by colleagues in the robotics space were aligned with RIOS’ thesis on manufacturing and automation (i.e., our vision on how the world will evolve). Here are some of the themes that we’ve predicted and are now seeing unfolding: Small and medium-sized…
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The economy heats up and workers are not available to fill all the open positions. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce released, The America Works Report: Quantifying the Nation’s Workforce Crisis. Now labeled a ‘crisis,’ the labor shortage is impacting companies in all regions, every size, and all industries. Organizations are facing enormous obstacles to find workers and are frustrated as…
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The latest bipartisan infrastructure bill being debated in Congress is a necessary response to the competitive threat posed by China. China is poised to dominate the industrial robotics market of the future, due to its national plan for technological supremacy and the billions of dollars its government has invested in critical technologies, compared with the U.S.’s focus on private-sector development.…
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Whether it’s a 15-month ROI, $8.5M in savings, or a projected net present value (NPV) of $7.1M, our customers shared exciting feedback that we couldn’t keep to ourselves. Gordon Mackenzie, VP of Technology, CSAT Solutions: “6 River Systems is helping us improve productivity, accuracy and our time to fulfillment.” You know the drill. To get a job done, you can…
From geometry preparation to AI-assisted analysis, integrated CFD workflows…
Software-based GripperAI manages mixed picking through basic geometry
Safety, communication and motion control components enable smooth operation
North America’s largest robotics and automation event winds down
