大图：对未来的窥视 关于四面墙内的物料搬运和其他活动如何在我们面前发生变化的五种观点。   作者：Gary Forger特约编辑·2018年6月8日 我们都喜欢谈论快速变化。人们在100年前就已经说过了，我们仍然在这样做，通常声称目前的变化速度是前所未有的。这是否真的不再是真正的重点。相反，变化现在是一个不变的状态。而且，我们都更好地应付它。 本月的“大图片”为特别改变的内容提供了五点瞥见。这里的评论从仓库的新设计和运营模式到称为物理互联网的全新供应链模式。然后，还有移动性和可穿戴设备以及移动式拾取机器人。更不用说房间里的大象 - 可持续性。 正如你将会意识到的那样，现在是时候在可预见的将来与选择，打包和发运今天的订单一样多。 福特纳公司总裁兼首席执行官John A. White III  关于华盛顿变化的影响 您不必回溯超过五年或七年就可以看到DC和仓库的重大转变。那时，仓库经理知道第二天的需求水平，并可以相应地进行计划。现在，全天新订单不断涌现，特别是在电子商务领域。 这意味着这项工作很难规划和执行，因为一切都是动态的。这种转变是巨大的。它会影响订单周期时间，及时访问SKU，整合订单项次，有效使用人工和工作流程，仅列出几个关键指标。还有设备和劳动力优化的问题。结果是地板上的复杂性要大得多，而且需要完全不同的设施设计和操作模式。 现在和未来面临的挑战是设计和实施系统，以随着全天情况的变化不断优化。我不是在谈论今天做这些决定的经理人。我正在谈论的系统向管理人员提出建议，甚至在许多情况下做出没有人力投入的实际决策。决策科学和优化是未来。 这一变化需要采用新的方法进行设施设计。像福特纳这样的公司设计方式不同，从设备选择和整合到工作流程优化。软件，特别是仓库执行系统，在实时执行所有这些操作中扮演着越来越重要的角色。它归结为优化工作流程，人力和设备以满足客户的期望，并且比以往更高效地完成。 沃尔玛和亚马逊可以承受在内部开发这些能力。其他公司的主要关注点是获得订单。他们需要从外部引入知识，专业知识和创新，帮助他们应用优化运营的技术和系统。我们相信公司需要制定一个课程，提供10％的课堂培训，20％的指导和指导以及70％的经验学习。 人必须是终生不断完善的学生。分销的未来取决于开发人才库，将决策科学和技术应用于实时优化的挑战。 可口可乐材料处理和分销主席Benoit Montreuil以及乔治亚理工学院教授在 物理互联网上 这一切始于2006年的经济学人头条。我在回到美国的旅程中在机场拿到了一份副本。物理互联网的想法听起来很有趣。不幸的是，这些文章从未解释过物理互联网会是什么。 但是这个想法对我来说非常有趣，所以我花了接下来的六个月来提出我自己的定义。物理互联网（PI）是供应链对信息互联网的隐喻。简而言之，物理互联网是通过供应链移动和部署商品的无处不在的处理和物流系统。这是一个真正开放的物流网络网络。 这个概念与世界各地的信息互联网对标准数据包的移动和管理并不完全不同。今天， 除了海运集装箱外，在供应链的任何阶段搬运货物都没有标准。物理互联网改变了这一切。它从标准化的模块化包装开始，向上移动到小型模块化处理容器和模块化运输容器。这很像乐高积木和俄罗斯娃娃的组合。 但是，它并不止于此。物理互联网也是一个超级连接设施的网状多方网络，通过供应链对货物进行跨库存和存储。这是一种连续流动的多式联运物流模式，一方面拥有开放式枢纽网络，另一方面拥有开放分销和履约中心。开放式集散中心并不是相隔很远的距离。 在长途运输中，它们相距100或200英里。司机们将他们的标准模块化运输集装箱放在一个枢纽处，让另一位司机参加下一站。然后，原来的司机可以拿起不同的负载，并返回到当天上午的本垒。在城市全渠道物流中，开放的城市间枢纽跨越几英里外的城市，允许他们从开放的城市周边枢纽和配送中心向最终目的地转运集装箱和包装集装箱，反之亦然，利用绿色适合城市环境的车辆。 一开始，物理互联网主要在学术研究领域。在这项工作继续进行的同时，业界现在正在美国，欧洲和亚洲率先推出创新的超级连接解决方​​案，技术和商业模式。在世界各地，行业可能有数十个明确的PI项目正在进行中。而且，数以百计的PI方面。 例如，仔细看看亚马逊的履行模式，很容易看到物理互联网的关键方面。它的履行中心对任何供应商都是开放的，就像亚马逊提供云计算和存储服务一样。这使供应商能够部署他们的产品，以确保全国各地的快速交付，而无需投资设施资产。 在欧洲，一个名为通过欧洲合作进行物流创新的ALICE联盟的组织是欧盟资助的欧洲技术平台，负责制定非洲大陆供应链和物流系统战略。它使PI成为其欧洲战略愿景的核心。数以百万计的欧盟和企业正在努力使基于PI的网络在2030年之前成为普遍的现实。距离“经济学家”的头条还有很长的路要走。 罗切斯特药物项目经理Gary Ritzmann  移动式采捡机器人 去年秋天，现代材料处理公司向全世界介绍了亚当。罗切斯特药物。现在，这不是一个科学实验 - 亚当一个小时挑选超过100个项目，就像我们区议会的人一样。 但是，我们正在慢慢地进行这个项目。当我们开始时，包括我自己在内的我们中的许多人，预计在六个月内将有多个机器人在场。那么，我们已经过去了六个月，而且我们仍然 只有一个人在场。这是第二个机器人，而亚当回到IAM Robotics升级。这并不是说这项技术运作不好。它是。这只需要比我们原先预计的更多的时间和精力。让我解释。 在罗切斯特药物公司，我们知道我们远远领先于移动式采撷机器人进入区议会的曲线。但是，这并不多。我充分预计，在两三年内，技术将开始 起飞。毕竟，各种规模的材料处理供应商都在追求移动机器人。而且，DC的劳动力市场肯定没有变得更大。 但要实现这一目标，必须先确定几个方面。首先，必须有一个强大的投资回报率。这并不是20世纪80年代，因为很多首席执行官都希望在他们的设备中使用机器人来制造酷炫的因素。移动式机器人已经远远超过了酷炫。此外，该技术还在发展中。你不能指望一个拾荒机器人能够像人一样处理物品。 正如我们在文章中讨论的那样，您将不得不做出一些调整。我们也低估了另外一个方面。这些机器人必须与您的操作集成。但是，将它们融入你的文化更为重要。回顾过去，我们做得不够。 我们向所有人表明，没有人会失去工作。受机器人影响的每个人都将转移到一个让他们个人对公司更有价值的职位。我们认为每个机器人将释放1.5名员工进行其他活动。也就是说，有些人还在抵抗。为了在这里取得真正的成功，每个人都必须购买移动机器人。 技术必须成为文化的真正组成部分。否则，您达到计算的投资回报率的可能性就不是他们应该达到的。我们继续致力于使机器人成为我们文化的一部分。我们必须或者我们不会成功。 研究副总裁David Krebs与VDC Research研究员Spencer Gisser  关于移动性和可穿戴设备 移动性和可穿戴设备现在已准备好在各种规模的设施中实现。我们称之为这些技术发展的第五次浪潮。它从无线局域网的标准化开始，批准了802.11b，随后Windows和Palm操作系统建立在掌上电脑和PDA上。 然后RIM给大众带来了无线电子邮件，成为第三波的催化剂，其次是iPhone和多点触摸用户界面，推动第四波。第五波是关于自然界面 - 特别是对话语音 - 以及它对下一代可穿戴移动设备的设计的影响。 此外，从数据和应用程序的角度来看，我们看到信息孤岛的持续崩溃以及通过投资云基础架构和API服务， 在正确的地点和时间无缝访问正确的信息正在成为现实。这第五次浪潮也将见证人工智能和机器学习的早期好处，真正利用大数据的好处。 我们面临的一个挑战就是避免编码的能力可能越来越难以消除。数据民主化和将来自不同来源的关键数据组织在一起的能力将改善工作流程并带来更高的效率。此外，这些设备本身将越来越能够使工作人员以更少侵入性和更自然的方式工作，从而提高工作人员的满意度，并在某些情况下甚至可以提高工人的安全性。 我们认为移动终端最终能够消除痛点和紧张点，而不是仅仅制定一种解决方案，从而实现渐进式改进。这些设备本身也在变化。我们目睹了从传统文本和以键盘为中心的移动解决方案向以企业为导向的设备的巨大转变，这些设备模仿了消费类设备中常见的设计和用户界面，同时仍提供对企业客户至关重要的支持服务。 随着功能性智能眼镜和平视显示器的出现，穿戴式解决方案也处于一个十字路口，释放了许多移动工作者的手。其结果是在众多行业的工厂中对工作流程进行数字化处理，这是一个巨大的机遇，因为它们都面临着严重的挑战，这些挑战不仅影响效率，而且影响盈利。对于从CPG和零售分销到工业制造和能源服务等多数行业的组织而言，提高运营效率和可见性的需求正在受到挑战。 显然，移动性和可穿戴设备已经过时了新兴技术的阶段。他们是下一波技术，通过大量易于使用的综合信息系统将操作工作流数字化。 绿色企业集团副总裁兼高级分析师约翰戴维斯 关于四面墙内的可持续性在 过去的十年中，我们用来观察四面墙内可持续性的镜头发生了很大变化。之前，可持续发展被认为是一个好主意，但追求往往太昂贵。今天，我们知道可持续发展是财务上可行并且能够为设施提供新的效率的必要条件。我将从DC太阳能开始。如今，该国许多地区的太阳能至少与包括天然气在内的传统能源相竞争。Prologis是DC的太阳能领导者。 根据Prologis可持续发展副总裁Jeannie Renne-Malone的说法，该公司在九个国家的太阳能足迹达到了175兆瓦（MW）的发电量。她说，这相当于每年为26,000个家庭提供清洁能源。据太阳能工业协会称，就美国太阳能的商业用途而言，其他领先企业包括Target，Walmart和其他几家零售商。 虽然Prologis的太阳能全部都在特区，但我的估计是零售业领先企业约有15％的太阳能在特区。余额在他们的商店。值得一提的是，苹果和亚马逊位居前10位。为了帮助普罗吉斯的观点得到实现，塔吉特在这份名单上是太阳能领域的全面领导者。总装机容量达204兆瓦。所以我估计大约有30兆瓦是在它的区议会。 即使是风电也成为DC可持续能源讨论的一部分。与太阳能不同，风能通常从风电场输入电网。但是，当地风力发电收益正在发展，现场储存在特殊电池中。照明改造是四面墙内可持续发展的另一大机会。LED（发光二极管）照明不仅更高效，而且更好的照明，改善了员工的工作环境。 这是建立区议会和其他建筑物的运动的一部分，运作更健康。  Big Picture: A Peek at the Future Five views on how materials handling and other activities within the four walls are changing right in front of us.   By Gary Forger, Contributing Editor · June 8, 2018 We all like to talk about the rapid rate of change. People said it 100 years ago, and we’re still at it, usually claiming that the current rate of change is unprecedented. Whether that’s true is not really the point anymore. Instead, change is now indisputably a constant state. And, we all better be coping with it. This month’s Big Picture offers five glimpses into what specifically is changing. The comments here range from new designs and operational modes for warehouses to a completely new supply chain model called the Physical Internet. Then, there’s mobility and wearables as well as mobile piece-picking robots. Not to mention the elephant in the room—sustainability. As you will realize, it’s now time to focus just as much on the foreseeable future as it is to pick, pack and ship today’s orders. John A. White III, president and CEO at Fortna On the impact of change in the DC You don’t have to go back more than five or seven years to see the big shift in the DC and warehouse. Back then, a warehouse manager knew what demand levels would be for the next day and could plan accordingly. Now, it’s a constant flow of new orders throughout the day, especially in e-commerce. That means that the work is harder to plan and execute because everything is dynamic. That shift is enormous. It has an impact on order cycle times, timely access to SKUs, consolidation of order lines, efficient use of labor and workflow, to name just a few key metrics. There’s also the matter of equipment and labor optimization. The result is much greater complexity on the floor, and that requires completely different facility designs and modes of operation. The challenge now and going forward is to design and implement systems to continuously optimize as conditions change throughout the day. I’m not talking about managers making these decisions as they do today. I’m talking about systems making recommendations to managers or even making the actual decisions without human input in many cases. Decision science and optimization is the future. This change requires a new approach to facility design. Companies like Fortna approach design differently, extending from equipment selection and integration to workflow optimization. Software, especially warehouse execution systems, play an increasingly prominent role in doing all of this in real time. It comes down to optimizing workflow, labor and equipment to meet customer expectations and do it more efficiently than ever. Walmart and Amazon can afford to develop these capabilities internally. Other companies’ primary focus is on getting orders out the door. They need to bring knowledge, expertise and innovation from the outside to help them apply technologies and systems that optimize operations. We believe companies need to have a program in place that provides 10% classroom training, 20% coaching and mentoring and 70% experience-based learning. People have to be life-long students who continuously improve. The future of distribution depends on developing a talent pool that can apply decision science and technology to the challenges of real-time optimization. Benoit Montreuil, Coca-Cola material handling and distribution chair and professor at Georgia Tech On the Physical Internet It all started as a headline in the Economist in 2006. I picked up a copy at the airport on a trip back to America. The idea of a Physical Internet sounded interesting. Unfortunately, the articles never explained what a Physical Internet would be. But the idea was so interesting to me that I spent the next six months coming up with my own definition. The Physical Internet (PI) is the supply chain’s metaphor for the Information Internet. Quite simply, the Physical Internet is a ubiquitous handling and logistics system for moving and deploying goods through the supply chain. It’s a true open network of logistics networks. The concept is not a whole lot different than the Information Internet’s movement and management of standard data packets around the world. Today, nothing is standard about moving goods at any stage of the supply chain except for maritime containers. The Physical Internet changes all that. It starts with standardized modular packaging, moves up to small modular handling containers and on to modular transport containers.  It’s a lot like a combination of Lego blocks and Russian dolls. But, it doesn’t stop there. The Physical Internet is also a meshed multi-party network of hyperconnected facilities that crossdock and store goods through the supply chain. It’s a continuous-flow, multimodal logistics model with a network of open hubs on one side and of open distribution and fulfillment centers on the other side. Open hubs aren’t many days of driving distant from each other. In long-haul transportation, they are 100 or 200 miles apart. Drivers drop their standard modular transport containers at a hub for another driver to take the next leg. Then, the original driver can pick up a different load and return it to that morning’s home base. In urban omni-channel logistics, open intra-city hubs span the city, a few miles away, allowing them to crossdock handling and packaging containers from open peri-urban hubs and fulfillment centers toward their final destination, or vice-versa, exploiting green vehicles fitted to urban settings. In the beginning, the Physical Internet lived primarily in academic research. While that work continues, industry is now leading the way in the United States, Europe and Asia with a flow of innovative hyperconnected solutions, technologies and business models. Around the world, industry probably has tens of explicit PI projects underway. And, hundreds incorporate aspects of PI. For example, take a close look at the Amazon fulfillment model and it’s easy to see key aspects of the Physical Internet. Its fulfillment centers are open to any vendor in the same way Amazon offers Cloud computing and storage services. This enables vendors to deploy their products to ensure fast delivery all across the country without investing in facility assets. In Europe, an organization called ALICE—Alliance for Logistics Innovation through Collaboration in Europe—is a EU-funded European technology platform charged with developing a strategy for supply chains and logistics systems on the continent. It has made the PI the heart of its European strategic vision. Numerous millions European Union and businesses are working to make PI-based networks a widespread reality by 2030. That’s a long way from a headline in the Economist. Gary Ritzmann, project manager at Rochester Drug On mobile piece-picking robots Last fall, Modern Materials Handling introduced Adam to the world. Rochester Drug. Now, this isn’t a science experiment—Adam picks more than 100 items an hour, just like the people in our DC. But, we are going slowly with the project. When we started out, many of us, myself included, expected to have multiple robots on the floor in six months. Well, we’re past six months, and we’ve still got only one on the floor. It is a second robot while Adam is back at IAM Robotics being upgraded. It’s not that the technology isn’t working well. It is. It just takes more time and effort than we originally expected. Let me explain. At Rochester Drug, we know we are well ahead of the curve of mobile piece-picking robots moving into DCs. But, it’s not by much. I fully expect that within two or three years, the technology will start to take off. After all, materials handling suppliers of all sizes are pursuing mobile robots. And, the labor market for DCs certainly isn’t getting any bigger. But to get there, several aspects have to be worked out. To start, there has to be a strong ROI. This is not the 1980s when so many CEOs wanted robots in their facilities for the cool factor. Mobile piecepicking robots are way past just being cool. Furthermore, the technology is still developing. You can’t expect a piece-picking robot to handle items just like a human. You will have to make some adjustments as we discussed in the article. We also underestimated one other aspect. These robots do have to be integrated into your operations. But, it is even more important to integrate them into your culture. We did not do enough initially in retrospect. We made it clear to all that no one would lose a job. Everyone affected by the robot will move to a position that will make them personally more valuable to the company. We figure each robot will free up 1.5 employees for other activities. That said, some people are still resistant. For real success here, everyone has to buy into the move to mobile robots. The technology has to become a real part of the culture. Otherwise, your chances of meeting the calculated ROI are not what they should be. We continue to work on making robots part of our culture. We have to, or we won’t be successful. David Krebs, vice president of research, and Spencer Gisser, researcher at VDC Research on mobility and wearables Mobility and wearables are now ready to break out in facilities of all sizes. We call this the fifth wave in the evolution of these technologies. It started with the standardization of WLAN with the ratification of 802.11b followed by Windows and Palm operating systems establishing themselves on handheld computers and PDAs. Then RIM brought wireless e-mail to the masses, becoming the catalyst for the third wave followed by the iPhone and multi-touch user interfaces driving the fourth. This fifth wave is about natural interfaces—especially conversational voice—and its impact on the design of next generation wearable mobile devices. In addition, from a data and application perspective, we are seeing the continued breaking down of informational siloes and through investments in Cloud infrastructure and API services, seamless access to the right information at the right place and time is becoming a reality. This fifth wave will also witness the early benefits of AI and machine learning, truly harnessing the benefits of big data. One challenge will be the ability to avoid coding in our own biases that could become increasingly difficult to undo. Data democratization and the ability to weave together critical data from disparate sources will improve workflows and bring greater efficiencies. Furthermore, the devices themselves will increasingly enable the workforce in a much less intrusive and more natural way, improving worker satisfaction and, in some cases, even worker safety. We think mobile devices are finally in a position to eliminate pain points and pinch points, rather than just develop a workaround that results in incremental improvements. The devices themselves are changing, too. We have witnessed a massive shift from legacy—text and keyboard-centric—mobile solutions to enterprise-oriented devices that mimic the design and user interfaces common in consumer devices while still offering support services critical to the enterprise customer. Wearable solutions are also at a crossroads with the advent of functional smart glasses and heads-up displays freeing the hands of many mobile workers. The result is a huge opportunity to digitize the workflow in facilities across many industries, as they all face strong challenges that undercut not just efficiency but profitability. The need for greater operational efficiencies and visibility is challenging organizations across most sectors from CPG and retail distribution to industrial manufacturing and energy services. Clearly, mobility and wearables are past the stage of emerging technologies. They are the next wave of technology to digitize operational workflows with a strong dose of easy-to-use, integrated information systems. John Davies, vice president and senior analyst at Green Biz Group On sustainability within the four walls In the past 10 years, the lens we use to look at sustainability within the four walls has changed considerably. Before, sustainability was considered a good idea, but was often too expensive to pursue. Today, we know sustainability is a necessity that is financially viable and able to deliver new efficiencies to facilities. I’ll start with solar power for DCs. Today, solar in many parts of the country is at least competitive with traditional energy including natural gas. Prologis is the solar leader for DCs. According to Prologis’ vice president of sustainability Jeannie Renne-Malone, the company has a total solar footprint of 175 megawatts, or MW, of generating capacity in nine countries. She says that equates to clean power for 26,000 average homes a year. In terms of commercial use of solar in the United States, other leaders include Target, Walmart, and several other retailers, according to the Solar Energy Industries Association. While Prologis’ solar is all in DCs, my estimate is that about 15% of solar at the retail leaders is in DCs. The balance is at their stores. It’s also worth mentioning that Apple and Amazon are in the Top 10. To help put what Prologis has done in perspective, Target is the overall leader in solar power on that list. It has 204 MW total of installed solar capacity. So I’d estimate that about 30 MW is at its DCs. Even wind power is becoming part of the discussion on sustainable energy for DCs. Unlike solar, wind energy is typically fed into the grid from wind farms. But interest is developing in local wind power collection that is stored in special batteries on site. Lighting retrofits are another big opportunity for sustainability within the four walls. Not only is LED (light emitting diode) lighting more efficient, but it is better lighting, improving the work environment for associates. It’s all part of the movement to making DCs, and other buildings for that matter, healthier to work in.