Humans have an intuitive understanding of the movement of objects, and fine motor skills that give them a firm hold on key warehouse operations like packaging and stowing goods. And on jobs that many thought robots would grab.
Many eyes may be gazing toward the sky in anxious anticipation of new drone delivery systems, but an increasing number of intelligent robot systems is already on the ground, in warehouses and manufacturing facilities, helping to manufacture and move products across the globe.
Robert Gordon, an economist at Northwestern University, likes to play a game he calls Find the Robot. As he goes about his everyday life - shopping, traveling through airports - he looks for machines performing tasks that humans once handled. Most of what he sees doesn't impress him.
Will a robot run my organization in 10 years? Maybe, even though a chief executive's job, which requires a fair amount of problem-solving and creativity, is probably less susceptible to automation than middle-skill jobs such as machining and bookkeeping. At the same time, new research shows that most jobs have some proportion of tasks that can be substituted by workplace automation. Including a CEO's job.
In the not-so-far-off future, teens won't bother getting driver's licenses, consumers will shun owning their own cars, and taxis will be replaced by "taxibots."
Over the past few years, supply chain management has evolved from a labor-intensive local process to a "low-touch" - in some cases "no-touch" - complex global network. Today, SCM involves end-to-end and integrated planning and execution processes with real-time collaboration across the value chain. Such a system possesses tremendous flexibility in adjusting to a dynamic and consumer-driven marketplace.
