Warehouse Picking During the COVID-19 Pandemic

           

            Hello Readers, This is Muhammad Jassim from Amrita School of Business Coimbaotore. Welcome to my Third blog on Supply Chain , Hope you find it interesting and insightful. This week blog is all about Warehouse picking during the Pandemic.

             These are the emerging technologies that can help workers, customers practice social distancing more successfully during this pandemic by means of intelligent automation, IoT and 5G may have come on the scene at precisely the right time.         

            That being said, we are quickly discovering many instances in which technology can help workers and their customers minimize close-contact scenarios, if not eliminate them altogether. We breakdown a few of them below:

  Artificial Intelligence (AI)

            As a general practice, patient diagnostics have been conducted in person by healthcare members. Now, some are being done online or over the phone with a list of pre-identified questions to minimize the risk of potential exposure to other patients and clinicians.

            Instead, AI could be used to conduct the initial screening of patients without human interface and likewise guide patients in the right direction based on the severity of their conditions. In-person diagnosis should only be conducted if deemed necessary. AI can gain info, process it, and provide the output to the patients and care team members via machine learning algorithms.

            The right combination of AI and predictive analytics technologies can also assist in optimizing hospitals’ operating efficiencies, increasing asset utilization, and maintaining required equipment disinfection.

Internet of Things (IoT)

            IoT-enabled thermometers could potentially be used to take patients’ temperatures from a distance. Similarly, patients can take their own temperatures and upload their data via mobile devices for virtual monitoring by their care team. This enables healthcare providers to efficiently collect more data while reducing their risk of getting exposed – or exposing their patients – to contagions.

            IoT-connected sensors can also prove valuable in healthcare, as well as retail, to alert people when they are not maintaining the mandated physical distance when standing in lines. Likewise, this solution can make a difference for public transportation systems seeking to maintain a certain physical distance between vehicle operators and passengers. Manufacturing and e-commerce fulfillment environments can also use sensors to maintain physical distancing between workers and/or co-bots.

5G

            Real-time data is essential in tracking  both people and assets, either to monitor compliance with stay-at-home orders or the current location of essential supplies and equipment. 5G provides the network bandwidth needed to expand such track-and-trace capabilities.

Co-Bots and Similar intelligent Automation solutions

           There is a strong case for smart robotics solutions in warehousing and retail environments right now. Employing co-bots to retrieve picked items and transport them to packing stations can reduce warehouse workers’ movements and interactions. And mobile automation solutions that roam grocery store aisles to check for out-of-stock or misplaced items can minimize the number of associates that have to be on the floor. Of course, intelligent automation solutions could be used to deliver essentials, such as food and medicine, to customers and patients as well.

Kiosks

           Self-checkout kiosks are another way of maintaining physical distancing between customers and associates in retail environments. My colleagues recently spoke about this in detail. Check out the blog post.