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Introduction
Warehouse automation has been steadily gaining momentum, with robotic automation taking center stage in recent years. It is estimated that robot shipments to increase by up to 50 percent each year through 2030, with warehouse automation growing by more than 10 percent a year. The evolution from custom-built robots to modular and scalable platforms has marked a significant shift in the industry. This transformation is the result of advances in cloud technology, affordability of hardware for data storage and processing, significant improvements in sensor and computer vision technology, and more recently AI. Additionally, the availability of integration mechanisms and standards has enabled warehouse of all sizes to adopt robotic automation. While there is a wide choice of robot vendors, a robust and scalable warehouse management system is needed at the heart of the warehouse automation strategy.
In this blog series we explore how SAP S/4HANA Extended Warehouse Management (SAP EWM) enables robotic automation via seamless orchestration and task assignments while providing real-time visibility into the robotic automated processes.
Business and Operations Drivers for Robotic Automation
Warehousing plays a critical role in the logistics orchestration of any supply chain when it comes to order fulfillment. Companies must juggle multiple factors to maintain timely deliveries to their customers such as
- Keeping pace with order volumes while meeting customer service expectations of shorter lead times and order accuracy
- Handling increasing number of stock-keeping-units (SKUs)
- Addressing labor shortages while looking for ways to increase workforce productivity and worker safety
- Managing operating costs associated with handling and storage
- Ensuring accurate inventory
- Maximizing space utilization
Specific industry needs layer additional factors:
- Since COVID, e-commerce and retail industries went through a massive transformation. Companies around the globe have had to deal with massive increases in order volumes needing fast omnichannel fulfillment that require accurate picking in their warehouses and distribution centers, which in some countries has led to the evolution of quick commerce.
- The manufacturing industry has the need to precisely handle materials and components and synchronize warehouse operations with production, for example managing Just-in-Time supply to the production lines, and intralogistics operations.
- The third-party logistics companies who serve multiple clients need the ability to run their warehouses efficiently with a high degree of accuracy to be able to handle large volumes of products that flow through their facilities.
Lastly, disruptions caused by ongoing geopolitical tensions, extreme weather events, port congestions, maritime route disturbances, and trade wars continue to pressure companies to build greater resilience. As a result, to strengthen their end-to-end logistics process, companies are increasingly adopting robotics in their warehouse operations as an added dimension of automation to boost speed, throughput, and accuracy. Robots like high density storage and retrieval systems (ASRS), goods-to-person robots, collaborative robots (cobots) that work safely alongside humans, shuttle systems and AMRs perform functions that span a wide range of scenarios, providing several benefits to warehouse operations such as:
- Increased Efficiency: Robots can handle repetitive tasks such as picking, packing, and sorting faster and more accurately than humans. This leads to quicker fulfillment of orders and improved throughput.
- Reduced Labor Costs: By automating manual tasks, warehouses can reduce their dependence on human labor, which can lower costs like hiring and training.
- Enhanced Accuracy: Robots equipped with advanced sensors and algorithms can minimize errors in tasks such as inventory management, ensuring higher accuracy in order fulfillment and reducing the return rate.
- Consistent Performance: Robots can work continuous shifts without fatigue, maintaining consistent performance over time and increasing the reliability of operations.
- Safety Improvement: Automating heavy lifting and other potentially dangerous tasks can reduce the risk of workplace injuries and accidents, ensuring a safer environment for human workers.
- Scalability and Flexibility: Robotics systems can be scaled up or down depending on demand. They can also be reprogrammed for different tasks, providing flexibility in operations and facilitating adaptation to changing business needs.
- Optimized Space Utilization: Robots can navigate tight spaces and difficult layouts, making it possible to optimize warehouse layout and storage, thereby maximizing the use of available space.
- 24/7 Operation: Unlike human workers, robots can operate around the clock without breaks, enabling continuous operations and faster processing times.
- Data Collection and Analysis: Warehouse robots can gather valuable data on operations, which can be analyzed to improve efficiencies, forecast inventory needs, and optimize warehouse management strategies.
- Reduction in Human Error: Automation reduces the likelihood of human errors in processes such as inventory counts and order placement, enhancing overall accuracy.
Robotic Automation with SAP EWM
Before implementing robotic automation, companies should carefully evaluate their specific use cases to ensure that the technology aligns with their business needs and objectives. The use cases typically fall into the following areas:
- loading / unloading,
- put-away,
- robotic / collaborative picking,
- sorting,
- packing,
- palletizing / depalletizing,
- replenishing.
And there is a high likelihood that as the use of robots proliferates in the warehouses, there will be a heterogeneous landscape of robot vendors making integration into the warehouse management systems very complex. To orchestrate seamless warehouse operations, a robust warehouse management system is central to the system landscape. It should be agnostic to various robotic types and vendors, providing the necessary APIs and business objects to enable efficient integration.
With customers in 24 industries across 75 industries, SAP EWM has been serving the warehouse management needs for decades. SAP EWM provides comprehensive automation capabilities for various warehouse processes. SAP’s approach to robotic automation with SAP EWM is built upon these core capabilities and providing customers a choice of specialized partners with certified integration to SAP EWM as illustrated below.
Source: SAP EWM Product Management (Note: the partners listed are not an exhausted list)
These partners fall into two categories and work in concert with SAP EWM:
- OEM Fleet Management System that integrates and manages robots from different manufacturers within a single system
- Multiagent Orchestration Platform, a term coined by Gartner. These platforms act like intelligent middleware that integrates and orchestrates work between various business applications, heterogeneous fleets of operational robots, and other automated agents like doors or elevators. These solutions orchestrate and assign work and monitor and coordinate the activities of diverse fleets of robots.
Partner solutions for both categories can be found on SAP Store:
Partner | Solution | Description |
Locus Robotics, Inc. | Innovative autonomous mobile robots integrate with SAP Extended Warehouse Management to work collaboratively alongside workers in fast-paced logistics and fulfillment industries. Workers can pick 2-3 times faster with near 100% accuracy and less labor, delivering higher productivity. | |
Geekplus Technology Co., Ltd. | Improve efficiency of your warehouse operation by 2 to 3 times | Innovative autonomous mobile robots integrate with SAP Extended Warehouse Management to work collaboratively alongside workers in fast-paced logistics and fulfillment industries. Workers can pick 2-3 times faster with near 100% accuracy and less labor, delivering higher productivity. |
DXC Technology Services LLC | The solution, built on SAP BTP, seamlessly integrates SAP Extended Warehouse Management (EWM) with advanced automation technologies such as robotic picking systems, Automated Guided Vehicles (AGVs), and sophisticated conveyor belts. This integration greatly enhances operational efficiency in warehouses by streamlining processes, accelerating dispatch times, reducing the likelihood of human errors, and cutting labor costs. | |
Flexus AG | One fleet manager to control your whole fleet of mobile robots: traffic management, battery management, evacuations, idle management, and an overview of all errors. Monitor all vehicles with or without the VDA5050 and connect them seamlessly into your SAP systems like SAP EWM, SAP Production Planning or SAP Stock Room Management. | |
KINEXON Industries GmbH | Connect and automate operations: redefine manufacturing & logistics efficiency | Elevate productivity and sustainability: Track and trace all moving assets in real-time and orchestrate all mobile robots (AMR/AGV) in production and intralogistics. Enhance production speed, quality, scalability, and efficiency. Build a digital twin and automate at scale. Seamlessly integrate with SAP Digital Manufacturing and SAP Extended Warehouse Management for operational synergy and E2E process management. |
Roboteon Inc. | Plug into and optimize existing automated warehouse distribution operations running on SAP EWM. Plan, simulate and deploy greenfield automation projects. Design automation strategies in a mixed SAP landscape: part or fully automated, or fully manual operations looking to automate. Leverage IDOC or API based integration on SAP BTP. We also support older SAP EWM releases moving to SAP Extended Warehouse Management, industry add-on for SAP S/4HANA. |
To efficiently integrate warehouse robotics and fleet management systems to EWM on SAP S/4HANA, we are continuously working to enhance availability, capability and extensibility and providing the necessary APIs. You can find these APIs for EWM via the SAP Business Accelerator Hub by entering “warehouse” in the search bar.
Benefits of Warehouse Robotic Automation with SAP EWM
SAP’s approach provides several benefits to customers as they begin to adopt and / or expand the use of robots in their warehouses and fulfillment centers, all in a flexible manner. Standard connectivity and certified integration, including keeping pace with evolving industry standards, helps companies develop their automation strategies in all types of environments – fully manual, partially automated, as well as fully-automated. Working with a choice of partners, both the multi-agent orchestration platforms as well as OEM fleet management system providers, customers can plug into an existing or a greenfield automation environment running on SAP EWM and plan, optimize, simulate and deploy robots to enable collaborative and efficient warehouse task orchestration. The biggest benefit is that customers are not locked into a particular robot vendor, there is no proprietary dependence on any robotics solution. This approach provides the ability to integrate with multiple robot vendors and instances across their facilities allowing customers to choose the best robot solution for the process they are looking to automate.
Conclusion
The future of warehouse automation depends on seamless integration between SAP EWM and robotics and fleet management systems, where businesses that leverage this integration will gain a competitive edge in efficiency, accuracy, and scalability. In the future blogs in this series, we will explore some of the options SAP provides through our partner ecosystem that integrate with SAP EWM and help unlock the full potential of warehouse robotics.
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