Again: What does that have to do with robots in the warehouse packing boxes? Because there aren't humans? There are still administrators and such. They don't want to eliminate middle management (even though it would be easier to do that than replace the actual workforce with machines), just the laborers.
see my first reply: a packing robot can only follow directions within certain parameters and if those parameters change, a human can adapt instantly, a robot can't.
You asked how and why it might change and I gave some examples.
The packing robot has nothing to do with the supply chain though. The machine doesn't care if the products it packs come from one source or another as long as they are delivered to the same starting point and the packing robots are also not the ones ordering shit.
a packing robot can't change products without reprogramming
you said
there are two warehouses you know of that are fully robotic
I said
that takes more organization elsewhere though, e.g. supply chain
you said
how would supply chain affect the robots
I said
by changing the availability of certain products in different stocking locations
if the product has to come from somewhere that isnt one of the two robot warehouses it affects the robots because they aren't being used, if the product is a different shape / size / weight or in different packaging it affects the robots as they have to be recalibrated
edit to say most warehouse robots are more like giant dumpsters that follow a human around and the human puts the products in the dumpster.
if the product has to come from somewhere that isnt one of the two robot warehouses it affects the robots because they aren't being used, if the product is a different shape / size / weight or in different packaging it affects the robots as they have to be recalibrated
No... The robots are generalized to work with any product, any shape, size, packaging, etc. That was the point made in my first comment.
Your edit shows you don't even know what kind of machines are even using used. They are absolutely not just dumpsters filled by humans. It's multiple machines, working together, controlled by an algorithm. They can adjust their behavior on the fly to fit any order. That is the entire point of these testing warehouses; to develop a 100% machine controlled warehouse.
I guess we have different experiences. My prior experience was ITAM and ITSM procurement and third party maintenance on server equipment, support both sales and field maintenance spares on short term SLAs. And the warehouse robots there were very much calibrated per SKU and per warehouse.
I then moved into the supply chain software space, mostly covering similar supply chain but we've branched out to cover other use cases (fashion, cpg...) but everything we work with has a specific buyer <> supply chain set up.
It's totally understandable that different businesses could have different set ups