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How to Avoid the Wrong Automation Investment · Speaking of Supply Chain

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: This shows the whole industry if even Amazon, Okay, they
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: have a very big range of products, they still struggle
• 0:07
  Speaker 1: with robot picking. So this is a good signal for
• 0:10
  Speaker 1: the industry. And there we see where we are at
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  Speaker 1: the moment well.
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  Speaker 2: And I think that's also an interesting statement back to
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  Speaker 2: our previous point about finding the solution that is the
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  Speaker 2: right fit for the use case we're looking at in
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  Speaker 2: that moment, because while Amazon may not be able to
• 0:27
  Speaker 2: get that technology to work given their huge skew profiles,
• 0:32
  Speaker 2: you know, maybe another company that doesn't have that level
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  Speaker 2: of complexity could find very good use case out of
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  Speaker 2: this particular technology. Welcome to Speaking of Supply Chain, where
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  Speaker 2: mebock experts from around the world unpack the real stories, strategies,
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  Speaker 2: insights and innovations shaping the future of supply chain. I'm
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  Speaker 2: your host, Ellen Wood. As we approach trade show season,
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  Speaker 2: the industry is once again gearing up for bold announcements,
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  Speaker 2: innovation awards, and big promises about the future of inter logistics.
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  Speaker 2: But here's the question I think matters most what actually sticks.
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  Speaker 2: Every year we see impressive demonstrations, ambitious robotics concepts, AI
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  Speaker 2: driven optimization claims, and award winning solutions, but a year later,
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  Speaker 2: how many of those technologies have truly established themselves in
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  Speaker 2: the market. So today, instead of talking about hype, we
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  Speaker 2: want to talk about traction. What established itself after the
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  Speaker 2: last Logimat, Is the market reaching saturation, are we heading
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  Speaker 2: toward consolidation? And how should decision makers prepare to extract
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  Speaker 2: real value from the show this year. Joining me to
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  Speaker 2: dive into some of these answers today is my colleague
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  Speaker 2: from Berlin, Sasha.
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  Speaker 1: Welcome, hi Ellen, Yeah, good to talk to you.
• 1:52
  Speaker 2: Great to have you on the show today.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, short introduction from my side, So, Yeah, my name
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  Speaker 1: is Sasha. I'm based in Berlin. I'm working for me
• 2:00
  Speaker 1: Bach for about two years now and I'm doing concept designs,
• 2:05
  Speaker 1: detailed designs, and I do a lot of research about
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  Speaker 1: new technology. So I think that's the perfect podcast for
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  Speaker 1: me to talk about new technologies, what is established in
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  Speaker 1: the market, and maybe what's coming next week. Can talk
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  Speaker 1: about what we expect in the coming years.
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  Speaker 2: Absolutely what's going to happen this year and incoming years
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  Speaker 2: at Logimat. So looking back at the last one, when
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  Speaker 2: we separate show floor buzz and excitement from real commercial traction,
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  Speaker 2: what truly established itself in the market, what solutions stuck.
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  Speaker 1: So I think we should not only look at the
• 2:45
  Speaker 1: last logimat because one year to establish a new technology
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  Speaker 1: or a new product is quite a short time. So
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  Speaker 1: I would like to talk about maybe the last three
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  Speaker 1: to five years, what was announced and launched Loggimut and
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  Speaker 1: what really established from the market. And there are award
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  Speaker 1: winning categories or award categories from the Loggimut. There is
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  Speaker 1: a jury they announce every year in three categories the
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  Speaker 1: award winning solutions. And the first category is about order picking, conveying,
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  Speaker 1: lifting and storage technology. And I think this is maybe
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  Speaker 1: the most focused on category because it's the it really
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  Speaker 1: meets the heart of a new warehouse. So it's the
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  Speaker 1: pace setter technology in a warehouse. It's about storing, storage
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  Speaker 1: and retrieval system and picking systems. And when we look
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  Speaker 1: there the last five years especially, so it's very obvious
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  Speaker 1: that it's always about amos and AGVs. So these kinds
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  Speaker 1: of technology is driving the market the industry because these
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  Speaker 1: kinds of technology is providing flexibility and scalability compared to
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  Speaker 1: traditional technologies from the past ten years. And last year
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  Speaker 1: we had the Club Aerobot lounge at the Logimut and
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  Speaker 1: this and this solution won the award, and I think
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  Speaker 1: this was the right choice of the jury. Of course,
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  Speaker 1: the Club Aerobot belongs to the wreck climbing robots, so
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  Speaker 1: this is the basic principle behind these kinds of technology,
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  Speaker 1: and that's the first technology that is four times deep
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  Speaker 1: in this category. This is very innovative. So when I
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  Speaker 1: stood at the booth of Club last year, I was
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  Speaker 1: really impressed and excited when I saw this robot and
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  Speaker 1: with a small satellite that is driving through the wrecking
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  Speaker 1: and it's doing the retrieving of the bins and storing.
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  Speaker 1: So we really have now new opportunities with the rec
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  Speaker 1: climbing robot four time steep. What also was launched last
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  Speaker 1: year is from Have Robotics another red climbing system, the
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  Speaker 1: High Big Climbs. And I think the main impact on
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  Speaker 1: the market and on the industry by the award winning
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  Speaker 1: air robots from Club and also by the he Robotics
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  Speaker 1: side Big Climb system is that we have now a
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  Speaker 1: real competition, competition in this category of red climbing robots.
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  Speaker 1: Before that we only had ex attack on the market.
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  Speaker 1: This was the market leader and now we have competition
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  Speaker 1: on the market, and I think this is the biggest
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  Speaker 1: benefit of the industry we can have. So I expect
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  Speaker 1: that we will have a price decrease or discount in
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  Speaker 1: this category. So yeah, we can. We have very happy
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  Speaker 1: to have now a competition in this category. When we
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  Speaker 1: talk about the variety of solutions on the market. I
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  Speaker 1: can remember when I was in China. It was about
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  Speaker 1: one year ago and I was there for just technology
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  Speaker 1: scouting to see what is happening in China, what kind
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  Speaker 1: of ignoligy frees do they have there, and what is
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  Speaker 1: there the customer expectations and so on. And I also
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  Speaker 1: had a dinner with Professor de'andrel Fang and he's a
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  Speaker 1: representative for the Varnhofer Institute, but he lives in China
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  Speaker 1: and he knows the market very well, and so we
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  Speaker 1: had a dinner and he was talking about the market,
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  Speaker 1: and he was predicting for the Chinese market that there
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  Speaker 1: will be a consolidation on the market because there are
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  Speaker 1: too many suppliers with similar technologies and not every technology
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  Speaker 1: and every supplier can survive in this market. And I
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  Speaker 1: have the feeling that this consolidation has already started also
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  Speaker 1: in Europe. For the European market. When we look, for example,
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  Speaker 1: at the Cube systems, we have these outer store, we
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  Speaker 1: have Okado grit store, in teleystore and so on. But
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  Speaker 1: products like the atabiotics system or the power Cue they disappeared,
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  Speaker 1: they are discontinued. Yeah, because the market is full of
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  Speaker 1: other suppliers. So there's a market seration. And when we
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  Speaker 1: now look at the red climbing robots with this new
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  Speaker 1: technologies from Club and from hier Robotics, I think even
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  Speaker 1: with together with Exo Tech, the three of them is
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  Speaker 1: enough for the market. And every new supplier maybe this
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  Speaker 1: year he can enter the market. But if another company
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  Speaker 1: will want to enter the market in two or three years,
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  Speaker 1: it can be really hard for them to compete against
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  Speaker 1: these established companies. But I think we also should mention
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  Speaker 1: when it comes to what establishes on the market, we
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  Speaker 1: should look at the bright big Auto pickup, who was
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  Speaker 1: the award winner the year before. So and the very
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  Speaker 1: nice thing about this technology is that is the first
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  Speaker 1: technology with a robots to goods concept and not a
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  Speaker 1: goods to robots or goods to person system. So and
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  Speaker 1: this is what I expect. This year or the coming
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  Speaker 1: years at the Loggimut, that we will see more technologies
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  Speaker 1: of this kind, that we have robots that arrive through
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  Speaker 1: the wreckings and restoring and it's doing the storted retrieval
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  Speaker 1: process and in between the picking. So yeah, I think
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  Speaker 1: this will be what we will see, maybe also already
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  Speaker 1: this year, but definitely in the coming years. And for example,
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  Speaker 1: I talked to another company, a big company that is
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  Speaker 1: they have already an AMR, a solution on the market,
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  Speaker 1: and they are working on a solution like this like
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  Speaker 1: p's picking Robots AMR, and they wanted to launch it
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  Speaker 1: at the Logimut this year, but they weren't sure at
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  Speaker 1: the end of last year. So they will definitely launch
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  Speaker 1: it in twenty twenty six. Yeah, I think this is
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  Speaker 1: what we could expect this year. So it will be
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  Speaker 1: definitely again about amrs and AGVs, and I hope to
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  Speaker 1: see more about peace picking robots and more developments in
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  Speaker 1: this direction.
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  Speaker 2: I hear a lot of excitement about some of these technologies,
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  Speaker 2: and especially that they're being offered by more than one
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  Speaker 2: vendor in order to you know, maybe drive some of
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  Speaker 2: that cost down or one other question I would have,
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  Speaker 2: as you know, where are each of these culture clip
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  Speaker 2: Where are each of these more commercially mature. Are they
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  Speaker 2: still only in selective use case solutions or are they
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  Speaker 2: universally applicable in that warehouse, you know environment.
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  Speaker 1: That's a very good question, of course. So every technology
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  Speaker 1: has its specific use case. So we do not have
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  Speaker 1: technology that can be applied to every ware else concept. So,
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  Speaker 1: and this is the big challenge we are facing today
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  Speaker 1: when we do warehouse concepts and warehouse designing, because we
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  Speaker 1: have quite a bunch of technologies that are really different.
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  Speaker 1: They have pros and cons. And for example, the wreck
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  Speaker 1: climbing robots we were already talking about, they have there
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  Speaker 1: the robot has access to almost every toad in the system,
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  Speaker 1: and this is more the benefit of this principle applied
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  Speaker 1: behind the technology Compared to this, maybe the cube system
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  Speaker 1: for examples, where we have also a lot of a
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  Speaker 1: lot of suppliers on the market. They are the benefit
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  Speaker 1: of these kind of technology is that they have a
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  Speaker 1: very high storage density. So it really depends on your
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  Speaker 1: use case if you're more focused on high storage density,
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  Speaker 1: if you are limited in space, for example, a cube
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  Speaker 1: system can be the best choice for your wear. If
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  Speaker 1: it's about the order structure, it's probably more a rec
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  Speaker 1: climbing robot system, or if it's about high throughput and
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  Speaker 1: short put short lead times. If it's about high throughputs
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  Speaker 1: and short lead times in the warehouse, it's maybe more
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  Speaker 1: the shuttle. It really depends on your specific use case.
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  Speaker 2: So are we now past the proof of concept for
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  Speaker 2: these or are we still looking and trying and testing
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  Speaker 2: to see where these fit.
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  Speaker 1: Best technologies like tube systems and red climbing robots or
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  Speaker 1: robotic shuttles or mobile shelves. Some of them we have
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  Speaker 1: already about ten to fifteen years on the market. For example,
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  Speaker 1: out of store they the first outer store was to
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  Speaker 1: go Life was about the year around the year two thousand.
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  Speaker 1: So they are major technologies of course, but as you said,
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  Speaker 1: we have to be a little bit cautious when it
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  Speaker 1: comes to the choice of the supplier. When we see
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  Speaker 1: we see a lot of new suppliers on the market,
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  Speaker 1: and it will really have to question if this supplier
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  Speaker 1: will be on the market in ten years or if
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  Speaker 1: the technology they provide will be discontinued maybe in the
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  Speaker 1: next coming years, because it's not a very economic to
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  Speaker 1: bring this product on the market. Market For example, we
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  Speaker 1: just have a project for a company and they and
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  Speaker 1: this company invested into an Avett system from SZ Schaeffer,
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  Speaker 1: and this technology was discontinued after I don't know twelve
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  Speaker 1: fourteen years, and we are now planning to replace this system.
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  Speaker 1: And this is really what we have to consider now
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  Speaker 1: when we build a warehouse and we want to select
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  Speaker 1: the supplier, how mature is the technology, but also the
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  Speaker 1: company behind this technology.
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  Speaker 2: So that sounds a lot more like a planned obsolescence
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  Speaker 2: in when we're putting these things into place knowing that
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  Speaker 2: there's going to be so much shift in the market
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  Speaker 2: going forward, whether it's companies that come and go or
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  Speaker 2: just drop product lines in favor of newer and more
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  Speaker 2: affordable technology. Is that something that customers are or that
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  Speaker 2: is going to make customers, you know that come to
• 13:21
  Speaker 2: see these types of technology really pause and reconsider what
• 13:25
  Speaker 2: it is that they're trying to do. Because when we're
• 13:27
  Speaker 2: talking about these solutions, these are not small integrations. These
• 13:33
  Speaker 2: are not small changes to their supply chain or their facilities.
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  Speaker 2: These are major, major interruptions and major investments. So if
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  Speaker 2: we're looking at perhaps a ten to fifteen year obsolescence
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  Speaker 2: on equipment. Does that cause that consumer to be a
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  Speaker 2: little more hesitant to even consider doing anything that automated
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  Speaker 2: or anything that I should say that untested in the market.
• 14:04
  Speaker 1: We as a consultant, we were asked, or we are
• 14:07
  Speaker 1: asked at the end by our customers, which technology or
• 14:10
  Speaker 1: which supplier we recommend. And this can be a really
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  Speaker 1: hard decision or recommendation for us, just because as we
• 14:20
  Speaker 1: already talked about some we really have to be sure
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  Speaker 1: that the technology will be available also in ten to
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  Speaker 1: fifteen years. That technology from sz Schiffer I was talking about,
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  Speaker 1: it's not the only one that was discontinued. When we look,
• 14:35
  Speaker 1: for example, at Cube Systems. At the moment, we have
• 14:39
  Speaker 1: Ocado as a high end product, we have out Store
• 14:42
  Speaker 1: as a low cost mass product, or we have Intelli
• 14:45
  Speaker 1: Storre and grid Store. There is something in between. But
• 14:48
  Speaker 1: there was also in the cube system field products like
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  Speaker 1: from Atabotics or the power Cube system. So they wanted
• 14:59
  Speaker 1: to be a little bit fancy and they change the
• 15:02
  Speaker 1: core idea of this technology. They added free spaces into
• 15:06
  Speaker 1: a cube system, or they just put it up, or
• 15:09
  Speaker 1: they lifted up, or the power Cube system just lifted
• 15:14
  Speaker 1: up the toad stack from the bottom. So and this
• 15:18
  Speaker 1: is a little bit contradictive to the major idea of
• 15:21
  Speaker 1: this principle. So when we make a recommendation for technology
• 15:26
  Speaker 1: or I do it at least I really focus on
• 15:29
  Speaker 1: to have a very strict concept behind the technology and
• 15:33
  Speaker 1: not to do a recommendation for it to fancy technology.
• 15:36
  Speaker 1: I think this is very important at the moment at
• 15:38
  Speaker 1: the market.
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  Speaker 2: The flexibility there is really going to drive those decisions.
• 15:44
  Speaker 2: Knowing that there are some different options out there that
• 15:48
  Speaker 2: may be a little bit too niche almost that we
• 15:53
  Speaker 2: need a solution that has a little bit more, a
• 15:55
  Speaker 2: little bit more adaptability and can weather those technical logical
• 16:00
  Speaker 2: improvements over the years, that can be scaled up or
• 16:04
  Speaker 2: down as needed as business needs change. It sounds to
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  Speaker 2: me like those are the are the companies and the
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  Speaker 2: solutions that are going to last. Yes, And of course
• 16:15
  Speaker 2: we can't have a conversation in twenty twenty six without
• 16:18
  Speaker 2: touching on AI. So where do you see artificial intelligence
• 16:25
  Speaker 2: creating any practical value within these automated solutions right now? AI?
• 16:31
  Speaker 1: So AI of course belongs to the IT and there's
• 16:35
  Speaker 1: also a category of awarding of course about software communications
• 16:40
  Speaker 1: IT and this is where AI is sneaked on or
• 16:45
  Speaker 1: labeled on. And first of all, many products claim to
• 16:51
  Speaker 1: be AI powered or based on AI, and we really
• 16:54
  Speaker 1: have to be cautious what is really behind this. So
• 16:57
  Speaker 1: AI is not a legal protected terms, so everyone can
• 17:02
  Speaker 1: use AI for their advertisement. It's getting more and more
• 17:08
  Speaker 1: important to think about systems instead of machines. And this
• 17:12
  Speaker 1: is the same point when we talk about orchestration. It's
• 17:14
  Speaker 1: really about the synchronizing of different systems. So yeah, we
• 17:19
  Speaker 1: go away from this very isolated few on single systems
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  Speaker 1: on specialized machines. We can run them, they are established,
• 17:28
  Speaker 1: they do their job. It's more about the orchestration of
• 17:32
  Speaker 1: the full warehouse and the next step after we have
• 17:36
  Speaker 1: orchestrated the inside the warehouse, the next step will read
• 17:40
  Speaker 1: just to expand the scope to the upstream and downstream processes,
• 17:45
  Speaker 1: just for example like route planning, so this will be
• 17:48
  Speaker 1: one day integrated into one system and this is something
• 17:53
  Speaker 1: AI will support of course. For example, this was the
• 17:57
  Speaker 1: award winning in the in this category. It was the
• 18:03
  Speaker 1: p S I w M S who won the award
• 18:06
  Speaker 1: and that is based on AI. Where also AI helps
• 18:11
  Speaker 1: us in our industry is of course all about perception.
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  Speaker 1: We have robots a mrs that drive autonomous through the
• 18:22
  Speaker 1: warehouses and they need a kind of perception of the surrounding.
• 18:26
  Speaker 1: There can AI really do a lot. And of course
• 18:30
  Speaker 1: it's about image recognition, and image recognition is highly related
• 18:36
  Speaker 1: to autonomous or robot picking, and robot picking is still
• 18:41
  Speaker 1: of the one of the biggest challenges in the market.
• 18:44
  Speaker 1: In the industry, we have a lot of solutions for
• 18:48
  Speaker 1: unloading and loading, for as R as for storing and retrieval,
• 18:54
  Speaker 1: for for transports or for transport in the warehouse, but
• 18:58
  Speaker 1: the picking process, there are a lot of solutions. But
• 19:01
  Speaker 1: when it comes to a high variety in your SQUS,
• 19:04
  Speaker 1: in your your items, most of the systems still effacing
• 19:10
  Speaker 1: their limits. Source still come to the limits. For example,
• 19:15
  Speaker 1: even Amazon, they had a big initiative with a so
• 19:20
  Speaker 1: called blue Jay. It was an autonomous picking piece picking
• 19:25
  Speaker 1: robot and they stopped this initiative in January because they
• 19:31
  Speaker 1: so insiders say that the robot was or so the
• 19:38
  Speaker 1: blue Jay robot was introduced to Amazon and they expected
• 19:43
  Speaker 1: about seventy five percent coverage of their SKUs and they
• 19:49
  Speaker 1: discontinued this or they stopped this initiative because like insiders
• 19:54
  Speaker 1: say that they didn't reach the seventy five percent. And
• 19:57
  Speaker 1: on top the implementation was to complex for these robots.
• 20:02
  Speaker 1: So and this shows the whole industry if even Amazon, Okay,
• 20:05
  Speaker 1: they have a very big range of products, but they
• 20:11
  Speaker 1: with robot picking. So this is a good signal for
• 20:14
  Speaker 1: the industry. And there we see where we are at
• 20:17
  Speaker 1: the moment. So here also can AI support other products
• 20:23
  Speaker 1: because AI brings intelligence into the hardware.
• 20:27
  Speaker 2: Well, and I think that's also an interesting statement, you know,
• 20:30
  Speaker 2: back to our previous point about you know, finding the
• 20:33
  Speaker 2: solution that is the right fit for the use case
• 20:36
  Speaker 2: we're looking at in that moment, because while Amazon may
• 20:40
  Speaker 2: not be able to get that technology to work given
• 20:43
  Speaker 2: their huge you know, Skew profiles, you know, maybe another
• 20:48
  Speaker 2: company that doesn't have that level of complexity could find
• 20:53
  Speaker 2: very good use case out of this particular technology. Sorry,
• 20:58
  Speaker 2: just I know we were on the AI subject, but
• 21:00
  Speaker 2: I think that really you know, brings that point further
• 21:04
  Speaker 2: home that you really have to do look at exactly
• 21:07
  Speaker 2: what it is this individual company, this individual facility is
• 21:11
  Speaker 2: attempting to achieve in order to find the solution that's best.
• 21:16
  Speaker 2: Because when you go to affair like Logimat. It is
• 21:20
  Speaker 2: huge and there are so many, so many suppliers and
• 21:23
  Speaker 2: vendors with similar and slightly differing technologies and finding that
• 21:29
  Speaker 2: right fit is difficult, absolutely right.
• 21:35
  Speaker 1: So when you go to the logomat, you really have
• 21:39
  Speaker 1: to think about what is your goal from the logomat,
• 21:42
  Speaker 1: What do you expect from the logomo when you go there,
• 21:46
  Speaker 1: And it can be really overwhelming or it is overwhelming
• 21:48
  Speaker 1: when you go to logomo there are hundreds of new products,
• 21:51
  Speaker 1: and I think it's very important to be prepared and
• 21:55
  Speaker 1: not to go there and just go from booth to
• 21:58
  Speaker 1: booth and look at what products are they're presented. I
• 22:04
  Speaker 1: would really recommend and this is what I do. What
• 22:07
  Speaker 1: is really the need? So what is your use case
• 22:10
  Speaker 1: at the moment? Think about what is your three to
• 22:14
  Speaker 1: five year's plan or what is your plan for the
• 22:17
  Speaker 1: next three to five years, and what is your SKU profile,
• 22:22
  Speaker 1: what is is it a green field or brown field?
• 22:24
  Speaker 1: And really focus on only technologies like this and don't
• 22:28
  Speaker 1: be catched by these fancy technologies. So I really doubt
• 22:35
  Speaker 1: that if the technology is too complex, it maybe really
• 22:38
  Speaker 1: look cool. When you go to the logomot, it looks
• 22:41
  Speaker 1: cool and you are excited, but these kinds of technologies
• 22:44
  Speaker 1: often fail. So again I think it's really important to
• 22:48
  Speaker 1: focus on robust products, a really robust technology behind that
• 22:53
  Speaker 1: behind it, and mostly it's very simple. In the end,
• 22:57
  Speaker 1: we have the category about auto picking, conveying, lifting and
• 23:01
  Speaker 1: storage technology. This is one category for the awards, and
• 23:04
  Speaker 1: then we have the software Communication I T and the
• 23:08
  Speaker 1: last category is about identification, packaging, loading and load securing.
• 23:14
  Speaker 1: So this is also very interesting. The last year's the
• 23:19
  Speaker 1: focus was not really on this on this area, on
• 23:23
  Speaker 1: this field. But so the first thing is the last
• 23:29
  Speaker 1: couple of years we saw especially r of I D
• 23:33
  Speaker 1: Technologies technologies winning the award based on our of I
• 23:36
  Speaker 1: D r F i D. They generate data and these
• 23:41
  Speaker 1: generated data will be then processed by for example AI
• 23:46
  Speaker 1: based IT systems and the data processed by these r
• 23:52
  Speaker 1: of ID chips will be processed by AI powered the systems.
• 23:56
  Speaker 1: But what's also very interesting in this category is the
• 24:00
  Speaker 1: topic of packaging. Especially in Europe, the companies will really
• 24:08
  Speaker 1: have to face the packaging or especially in Europe, the
• 24:13
  Speaker 1: packaging the packaging technology will be more focused on in
• 24:19
  Speaker 1: the coming years because we have the PPWR Packaging and
• 24:23
  Speaker 1: packaging waste regulation in Europe that is coming yes and
• 24:28
  Speaker 1: from twenty thirty on, and there are some obligations and
• 24:33
  Speaker 1: this will impact the whole industry, especially, for example, the
• 24:36
  Speaker 1: e commerce industry, and companies have to reduce the shipped
• 24:42
  Speaker 1: air in their shipping cartons, for example, they have to
• 24:45
  Speaker 1: reduce the packaging material the waste and this is something
• 24:50
  Speaker 1: where automation really can help. So we had already twenty
• 24:57
  Speaker 1: twenty four packing machine winning the award, but I'm pretty
• 25:02
  Speaker 1: sure that in the coming years there will be even
• 25:05
  Speaker 1: new innovations in this direction and hopefully win the award
• 25:08
  Speaker 1: and bring the industry forward to fulfill the requirements by
• 25:13
  Speaker 1: this regulation. And I just recently have been to the
• 25:19
  Speaker 1: e Commerce Expo in Berlin, and the expo is more
• 25:25
  Speaker 1: focused on web shops and ERP systems, but I also
• 25:30
  Speaker 1: even saw there because it's about e commerce and it's
• 25:33
  Speaker 1: about this packaging regulation, that there are companies providing software
• 25:39
  Speaker 1: for manual packing packaging processes. So the software can, for example,
• 25:45
  Speaker 1: can support the operator who's doing the packing in selecting
• 25:51
  Speaker 1: the right curtain size, and the system can also show
• 25:54
  Speaker 1: him how to locate, how to position all the items
• 25:57
  Speaker 1: in the cartoon to be space efficient will get more
• 26:00
  Speaker 1: important because not every company can afford or for not
• 26:05
  Speaker 1: every company it's economic to invest into an automated pecking
• 26:08
  Speaker 1: machine with two hundred thousands up to more than one
• 26:13
  Speaker 1: million investment. So also these solutions will be very important
• 26:20
  Speaker 1: in the near future because of the regulation.
• 26:23
  Speaker 2: And I love that idea that the being at a
• 26:27
  Speaker 2: fair like Logimat is essentially technology tourism. You know, people
• 26:31
  Speaker 2: are going there to see what's new, what's innovative, what's exciting,
• 26:35
  Speaker 2: but others are going there to look for the practical solutions,
• 26:39
  Speaker 2: the things that they need for their business. It's not
• 26:42
  Speaker 2: just a sight seeing trip. It is a lot of fun.
• 26:44
  Speaker 2: There is a lot to see, but to your point,
• 26:47
  Speaker 2: you know, they get distracted by the bells and whizzles
• 26:50
  Speaker 2: and moving parts and the innovation. It's very inspiring, but
• 26:55
  Speaker 2: that doesn't mean that it's practical for use for every
• 26:59
  Speaker 2: single case. So I love your advice that people attending
• 27:03
  Speaker 2: these fairs that do have a solution in mind, or
• 27:06
  Speaker 2: that have a need that they're trying to fill, attend
• 27:10
  Speaker 2: with a little bit more intention.
• 27:12
  Speaker 1: We already talked about AI, and talking about AI always
• 27:18
  Speaker 1: reminds me about human EID robots, So I'm pretty sure
• 27:21
  Speaker 1: we will not see the humanoid robots on this logomat
• 27:24
  Speaker 1: maybe as a very very pilot humanoid robot at an early,
• 27:28
  Speaker 1: very early stage. There are already companies using human eye robots,
• 27:34
  Speaker 1: especially in the automotive industry. There are some companies they
• 27:37
  Speaker 1: have pilots just like Mecedes or bing Wu in Germany,
• 27:41
  Speaker 1: but especially in Apex, they are testing human eighte robots
• 27:44
  Speaker 1: and experts predict that we will have humanid's robot as
• 27:49
  Speaker 1: a mass product in three to five years, but they
• 27:53
  Speaker 1: tell us since ten years, so it's always about three
• 27:56
  Speaker 1: to five years. We will see when we really have
• 28:00
  Speaker 1: human eight robots. What just came in out of my
• 28:03
  Speaker 1: mind when I was thinking about human eight robots in
• 28:05
  Speaker 1: the last couple of days is currently we really build
• 28:09
  Speaker 1: these high automated warehouses where we have specialized machines for unloading,
• 28:14
  Speaker 1: for packing, for storage and retrieval and so on. The
• 28:19
  Speaker 1: picking process. It's still a little bit behind. There is
• 28:22
  Speaker 1: potential for developments, okay, but for almost the whole warehouse
• 28:27
  Speaker 1: functional areas, we have already specialized, high performing solutions that
• 28:30
  Speaker 1: are very efficient in these kind of warehouses. We do
• 28:34
  Speaker 1: not really have the need for a lot of human
• 28:37
  Speaker 1: eight robots because the goal at the moment is already
• 28:41
  Speaker 1: to reduce the number of fts the labor requirements in
• 28:45
  Speaker 1: the warehouses. So for these kind of warehouses, the benefit
• 28:50
  Speaker 1: from human robots is very limited. I think we will
• 28:54
  Speaker 1: we would adapt or maybe even we have just take
• 28:58
  Speaker 1: the picking process. As soon as the human eight robots
• 29:02
  Speaker 1: is able to do a proper picking we will have
• 29:06
  Speaker 1: I think we will have specialized picking robots even before
• 29:09
  Speaker 1: the human eight robots can do this. So the human
• 29:12
  Speaker 1: eighted robots, to my opinion, are very good opportunity for
• 29:17
  Speaker 1: smaller warehouses and for green field projects when we have
• 29:22
  Speaker 1: still maybe in five to ten years, when we then
• 29:26
  Speaker 1: have the human eight robots and we still have pick towers,
• 29:30
  Speaker 1: or we have warehouses where we pick from pellets. Usually
• 29:34
  Speaker 1: these are then smaller warehouses, then we need a human
• 29:38
  Speaker 1: eight robot. But for these highly automated warehouses, we do
• 29:42
  Speaker 1: not need them.
• 29:43
  Speaker 2: So what are some other things you might advise someone
• 29:48
  Speaker 2: in their preparation for knowing that they're going to logimat
• 29:51
  Speaker 2: Obviously they have vendors they want to see, but they're
• 29:54
  Speaker 2: going to be distracted by a lot of the moving
• 29:57
  Speaker 2: parts as they walk through the halls. You know, are
• 30:00
  Speaker 2: there any other practical steps they should take in order
• 30:04
  Speaker 2: to leave with actual insights rather than just dreams.
• 30:11
  Speaker 1: Yeah, you must be prepared, so I think so if
• 30:17
  Speaker 1: you really have, if you have a project that is
• 30:20
  Speaker 1: running and you are looking for that it right technology,
• 30:23
  Speaker 1: one advice would be just be prepared and even make
• 30:27
  Speaker 1: appointments for the with the companies you're interested in, and
• 30:32
  Speaker 1: also bring bring some some key facts of your project
• 30:35
  Speaker 1: and then let them explain why the solution could fit
• 30:38
  Speaker 1: or just discuss with them honestly and open what why
• 30:43
  Speaker 1: this technology may be not fitting for this use case. Yeah,
• 30:47
  Speaker 1: maybe you have your LUTTERP with you or or print
• 30:50
  Speaker 1: out with the key facts of your projects of your
• 30:53
  Speaker 1: demand at the moment and discuss this with the companies
• 30:57
  Speaker 1: on site and or with the companies at the Logimat.
• 31:01
  Speaker 1: And yeah, do appointments. So they are happy to have
• 31:06
  Speaker 1: customers with appointments there.
• 31:08
  Speaker 2: So yeah, truly, yes, the companies that are exhibiting at
• 31:13
  Speaker 2: Logimat are very very open to setting up appointments ahead
• 31:18
  Speaker 2: of time in order to go through these things, including
• 31:21
  Speaker 2: me boch so our team will be on the floor
• 31:23
  Speaker 2: at Logimat in Hall three at our booth BO nine,
• 31:28
  Speaker 2: to not to sell a product, but to help you
• 31:30
  Speaker 2: interpret what you're seeing benchmarket against market maturity and translate
• 31:35
  Speaker 2: innovation into real operational value. Reach out ahead of the
• 31:39
  Speaker 2: show to schedule time with our experts like Sasha or
• 31:42
  Speaker 2: anyone else who is in the booth at Logimat this year.
• 31:46
  Speaker 2: And as always, thank you for listening to Speaking of
• 31:49
  Speaker 2: Supply Chain.
• 31:55
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• 31:58
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