One of the major applications in the distribution industry is the Supply Chain. Distribution managers deal with the struggle to fill in open position that go vacant very often sometimes with little success. If they manage to fill all the positions, there is never a guarantee that the new workers will deliver quality work.  Fortunately for some supply chains, cobots are taking over many of the applications such as material handling, assembling of the goods, packaging, palletizing, loading, unloading and even delivering. Cobots are also taking over other applications such as performing quality control checks and processing company returns. One of the robot manufacturing companies at the forefront of making modern cobots that are easy to implement is Universal Robots.  The company uses simulation software, sensors and programs that allow the cobots to integrate well with the needs of the supply chain companies. The flexibility of the cobots allows them to act as palletizing robots, packaging robots and anything else they can do to make the processes easier. Below are the reasons why supply chain stores and companies are using cobots for their applications.  Benefits of using cobots in the supply chain applications Faster deliveries One of the main applications in the supply chain business ids the delivery of goods. Some of the customers demand same day deliveries while others want their good within hours after ordering them. Using cobots to take over the delivery of goods improves the times and many if the customers are able to get their deliveries within hours or in the same day. Using artificial intelligence, distribution centres can predict demands and stay ready with the deliveries.  To make it easier to cope with the delivery times, supply chains also use cobots to pre-package the good and keep them ready for shipping, which saves time and costs. Cobots are also able to carry out just in time fulfilment orders much faster and better than human do. They are capable of meeting all the demands within the shortest time possible, which makes their deployment popularity with chain supply centres.  Efficiency Another reason why cobots are popular in the supply chain business is their efficiency. They are ergonomically scalable, use little space on the production floor and they come with end-of-arm tooling effects to make work easier. They have sensors, software and programs that allow them to pick items and identify them more efficiently than humans do products in supply chain distribution centres go through quality checks and inspections before packaging them.  Cobots carry out these processes with ease and you do not need to employ many humans for every task because one cobot will carry out all the tasks efficiently they have automated weight and vision systems that examine every package passing through the conveyors. Cobots can scan the barcodes and take images of all the products to verify and ensure that every order going out is accurate. Mobility Cobots are mobile, which is a big advantage to the supply chain stores. They have sensors that make them intelligent and aware of their surroundings. They work well alongside humans because they are independent and they can self-navigate themselves without the need of any assistance. Cobots to cobot communication also makes it easier for the collection and delivery of shipping containers to their respective picking centres.  The mobility of the cobots makes it easier to scale as compared to using traditional industrial robots, the cobots unlike the old automated machines are much smaller in size and do not require much space which the supply stores can use for other purposes such as extra storage. They navigate their... read more

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