Automation: No Forklift Drivers

Automation is coming at us hot and heavy. There is little doubt about that in my mind.

Over the past few weeks, I pointed out some different aspects of the workforce that is at risk. It is starting to get very clear where things are heading in terms of employment. The fact that many in "leadership" roles are not even discussing this is very telling. Nothing will be done until it is too late.

In this article, we will cover another aspect of the employment pool that is in jeopardy: warehouse workers.

Amazon made a lot of news with their hiring of warehouse staff. Over the last couple years, this was the leading company in terms of new hires. They add hundreds of thousands of workers to their facilities all over the country.

There is just one problem: Amazon seeks to be an autonomous organization when it comes to their retail system. Their goal is to have the entire process, from order to delivery, completely sans humans. Instead, machines and AI will handle it all.

It is a scenario that is likely being repeated around the country among all the different firms.

Meet the PalletTransport1500 by Fetch, a San Jose robotics company. This is designed to replace forklifts in warehouses. The machine will lift up to 2,500 pounds.

Companies have a lot of incentive to automate the forklift process. In addition to saving on salary there is the safety issue.

This product category was no doubt one of its most highly demanded, given the fairly common occurrance of forklift-related accidents. Per numbers from OSHA, “forklifts cause about 85 fatal accidents per year; 34,900 accidents result in serious injury; and 61,800 are classified as non-serious.” That’s a pretty big source of workplace accidents. The agency adds if you assign one accident per machine, that means somewhere in the neighborhood of 11% of U.S. forklifts are involved in an accident.

Source

This amounts to a large expense for companies. Their insurance rates go up significantly as does their medical. Of course, those injured also miss time away from work, putting strain on the rest of the crew. Leaving the human impact aside, there is a large financial cost.

Make no mistake, warehouse automation is big business and there are some heavyweights in the field. The best known is Amazon's own Kava which are probably the best known warehouse robots. However, in addition to start ups, there are some large entities such as Honeywell working on fully automated warehouses.

We are looking at a process that will take place over years. This will not be an overnight transformation. However, we will consistently see people replaced as more options become available. Amazon is already doing this with part of their crew. As a new piece of equipment enters, it takes out a dozen or so employees per facility. When you have more than 100 warehouses, this amounts to a fair number of people.

Also consider that the goal is to have over 1,000 warehouses/locations before they are done. This means that they have a lot of incentive to reduce the number per warehouse. Add it all up and it is a lot of people who will not be employed in jobs that use to have people handling those tasks.

This is how automation affects the workforce. Rarely are people "replaced by a robot". Instead, the effects of automation are less noticeable. For example, one might be reassigned as that position is eliminated. Or perhaps when a person leaves, the position is not filled. Most commonly, people simply do not realize that it is technology that drives a company out of business or into merger with another company. This leads people to believe they were let go because of redundancy when, in fact, it was technology that drove it.

Ultimately, we are looking at hundreds of thousands of jobs that are in jeopardy of being replaced. This only adds to the totals that will be seen in other industries.

If we are going to create replacement jobs, we better get busy because things are not going to slow down on the automation end of things.


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The automation process on companies must be a huge del of investment for them, of course inorder to save later. I wonder what would happen when the whole industry is automatized and how that would affect supply and demand. Now that riches in theory are going to shift... I wonder.

We should keep an eye to new industries. Hive, Leo are industries itself. A way of living for the future.

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I firmly believe crypto is an answer to a lot of the income issues people will be facing. Many will find they make their living in web 3.0 going forward.

In 10 years, it will be a completely different world in terms of work.

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Bang, I did it again... I just rehived your post!
Week 43 of my contest just started...you can now check the winners of the previous week!
!BEER
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I'd rather it come slow and cold but I don't judge :P

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Hell, and I've been taking machinery handling classes, the last one was this one you see here, and I always wanted to drive a forklift to work on them, and according to you this has already gone down in history, my way, I guess driving a backhoe or a cane loader, or a combined rice, or machinery to harvest rice or corn, will also go down in history with these changes that are being seen in the industry, I think I better become a mechanic instead of a simple machine driver heavy, however at least my dream if I have realized it and will continue in it, my way the industry goes beyond our capabilities.
God bless us to be able to have work in the future with these technologies that are displacing us in the short term.

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Driving a car is going to be history in 15-20 years. By that time, driving a car will be like riding a horse to work, it just wont be done.

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My brother in law started working on the side for an Amazon warehouse last year. According to him the process for sorting and assigning packages to trucks is pretty complex and intense. I have no doubt that it could be improved by some sort of automation, but according to him it sounds like the are a ways off from that. Based on his stories it sounds like there is a lot of chance for human error given how fast the packages fly down the conveyor belt and need to be sorted. It probably doesn't cause as many deaths, but I once heard the "Stanley Knife" was the single largest cause of warehouse injuries.

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That's what's coming our way, but not just yet. There are still a good few years when we reach that level. However, we should be prepared, create replacement jobs, think of solutions for those affected.

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All of my buddies from High School all worked at the Local Pathmark Grocery Store and we all had a Forklift Incident. It was kind of a right of passage. I sometimes wonder how we are all alive still !

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Automation isn't going away so more jobs will be lost. I am interested in how the government will produce more jobs for those who lost their jobs. The jobs were great at distracting ordinary people from focusing on their wasteful and time consuming actions that benefited the rich more than the normal person.

Remember how angry people were when they couldn't pass anything for months after March with almost no progress. It will be that much anger multiplied as people realize that the economy will not be the same as before. Without a job and savings dwindling, I think many people will be examining everything Congress is doing. Are we going to see UBI or worthless jobs being created?

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Interesting questions you pose.

I agree they will get angry especially since it will sneak up on them. Since it is not being discussed, few are aware of what is truly taking place. As I said, most do not know anyone who was "automated out" since it usually comes in other forms.

That might not be the case in the future since there will be an acceleration.

As for UBI or worthless jobs, I think they will try to do the later if some have their way. That was already Bernie's proposal. Then there are those like Andrew Yang (I know not in Congress) who go the UBI route.

Personally, even though they fuck around, I dont see the constant "stimulus" going away. They are going to have to keep writing checks although their fake unemployment numbers could give them cover.

After all, if only 4% are unemployed, then all is well...ignoring the employed rate is at decades long lows.

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I actually can't wait for this all to roll out as I am not joking warehouse staff are shocking to have working for you. They go on go slows to increase overtime and hold business up as they know there is no one else. Programming a fork lift will save not only time and money on salaries, but also on damages. Damages can run into millions over a course of a year . Having less staff also means less shrinkage in theft so I only see positives.

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There are a lot of benefits to automation. This is something that people miss.

In the car industry, the workers already receive the attention but the fact is the cars are better built with less defects than ever before. This will only continue as humans are removed from more of the process.

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I think people need to have certain skills otherwise their jobs will disappear. If a machine can do your job then you need to think and change before it is too late. Unemployment will increase forcing people to become self employed or to develop new skills.

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I dont think most people can change. They do not have the skills for the "new economy" that is forming. Plus, the pace that change is happening is absolutely mind boggling. I follow this stuff and I am often caught off guard.

I can only imagine what the average person who is just going about his or her life will be confronted with. It will be a big time slap to the face.

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I think you are right as they wont see it coming. Walmart here has to use labor agencies for the warehousing staff as they have had huge problems with Unions. This will solve so many problems once automation happens.

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Walmart is investing heavily in AI and robots. I think it will end up buying some AI and robotic companies the same way Amazon has. This will help them to usher in their own solutions while also giving them a profit center as they sell the AI and robots to other companies.

Walmart is not a high tech company, few people realize that. I havent been in one lately but I bet they reduced the number of cashiers significantly.

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I've seen this guy on twitter as well. Gradually industry after industry seems to be leaving people home, living on UBIs as they seem to be planning, and buying into robots to get the job done. Kind of sad I'd say... Especially when knowing that many of the laid off won't be able to fit into other positions.

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There are millions who are going to lose their job yet not realizing it will be the last one they have.

The options for a lot of people are dwindling.

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Someday those machines may have crypto miners installed producing income for users. People can get paid and let the bots do the work. Maybe a little too utopian??

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That isnt so far-fetched. I recall reading an innovation in the Ukraine (I believe) where it was a mining heater. The Bitcoin miner doubled as a heater with the mining gains helping to offset one's heating bill.

I dont know what they did in the Summer but I guess, if it was the Ukraine, they dont have much of one.

So yes I think there will be a ton of ideas to supplement these devices.

How about decentralized video storage on each forklift?

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I think we have to admit there just won't be enough jobs for everyone in the near future.
You see replacement of personell in every industry.
Even news articles andc computing code can be automatically generated nowadays. It's just a matter of time that computers will be better in that (if that's not the case already).

Creating new jobs seems useless to me. I think we should just work less or switch to 'creative' jobs since computers aren't good at being creative. At least for now...

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