Back in 2013, Amazon unveiled its Amazon Prime, putting the massive e-commerce company at the forefront of advanced automation. Since then, its automation efforts have continued to evolve. Now, the company is looking to increase efficiency with robotic carton packaging systems.
According to Amazon, “We are piloting this new technology with the goal of increasing safety, speeding up delivery times and adding efficiency across our network. We expect the efficiency savings will be re-invested in new services for customers, where new jobs will continue to be created.”
Amazon continues the move toward automating its warehouses with new automatic carton packaging systems. (Image courtesy of Amazon.)
The company is testing an automatic carton packaging system, CartonWrap, from the Italy-based CMC Srl. The system is capable of creating boxes from an inexpensive corrugated fanfold configuration in real-time and unique to what is being packaged. It is designed with e-commerce and fulfillment companies in mind, which often need manage large shipments with boxes of varying sizes.
The system is able to manage the process through product recognition or a database. It has the potential to complete 15 boxes per minute. The system’s robots create the boxes around the packages to ensure a custom fit for each order. It can also be programmed to add any printed material on the boxes, such as logos, trademarks or labels.
Full automation is not quite possible with these systems. Although it can package much faster than humans, around 600 per hour, a technician is needed to oversee in the case of a jam. Employees will also still need to be onsite to load customer orders and stock supplies.
These systems cost over $1 million, which could be recuperated within two years of operations. Although Amazon is considering implementing the systems at dozens of its warehouses, CMC is limited in how many of them can produce in a year.
Another matter Amazon, and other companies switching to automation, have to carefully consider is the loss of jobs. Implementing the CartonWrap system eliminates approximately 24 jobs for each rollout. With 55 fulfillment centers, the potential loss of jobs could be around 1,300.
On the flip side, many of these jobs require arduous, physical labor that is hard to sustain. High turnover rates and enhancing safety have been part of the reason to look toward automation as a solution. Although Amazon strives for a leaner workforce, the implementation of these types of systems opens the door for employees to move up the ranks to more technical roles.
As more robots and automation systems become available, businesses are faced with delicately balance incorporating them along with continuing to provide jobs. To learn more about it, check out How Automation Tackles Reshoring and Skills Gap Challenges.