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What is a ‘dark’ warehouse? Many people think this refers to a ‘lights out’ facility which is saving energy, but the truth is a little more ‘dark’ than that – the term is referring to the lack of human labor involved due to the full automation of all material handling and associated processes. The idea is that, unlike humans, autonomous robots (AGVs/AMRs) can operate in higher extremes of cold or warm environments and without lighting, which reduces energy and heating consumption and in turn reducing operating costs.
With an automated solution improving manual picking activities ranging from around £400k-£800k and a fully automated solution costing up to £20m* (and plenty of ‘semi-automated options in-between), there can be a huge upfront investment required for a fully automated warehouse. This kind of cost may be prohibitive for some smaller providers in today’s climate, and it is estimated that only 5%** of warehouses are currently automated, so this is probably something that most companies would try to achieve in a greenfield site with a purpose built facility to support the infrastructure that is needed. The more complex the process, the more expensive automating that process turns out to be, so there is a very good case for keeping automated processes in areas that carry out large numbers of the same types of movements each day, or in a warehouse that stores at extremes of temperature where human workers can only spend short periods of time e.g. freezers. That said, advancements in AI and automated MHE are moving so fast the cost could start to become more attractive in a relatively short space of time.
According to a study conducted by Zebra Technologies, “61% of decision makers plan to enable partial automation or labour augmentation with technology in the warehouse; and three-quarters of respondents believe human interaction is part of their optimal operational balance, with 39% citing partial automation (some human involvement) and 34% citing augmentation (equipping workers with devices) as their preference.”***
We only have to look back to the events of 2020 to see that any facilities that were fully automated were the ones that kept fully operational and this seems to have increased the drive within some businesses to look at protecting themselves against further supply chain disruptions.
Of course, even automation can have limits of temperature and conditions, but for the vast majority of warehouses automated equipment can work 365 days a year, operate long shifts, take themselves off for charging when needed, and return to operation when their battery is recharged, without the need for lights or heating/air conditioning.
As operational costs rise and workers become harder to find, this sounds really attractive, but is it truly realistic? Human workers tend to be a lot more versatile than robots and can see problems prior to them happening. Many automated warehouses still require humans to be involved in some small way, and whilst there are many different fixed and mobile options available, currently most automation can only handle work that requires limited intelligence and problems occur where a scan is not successful or products are badly stacked or even missing from their location. All issues that deviate from the standard process will still require human intervention to ensure that the process does not come to a stop.
So is the dark warehouse truly a reality?
* Source: https://rapid-veyor.com/
** Source: https://www.forbes.com/
*** Source: https://www.forbes.com/
