Archived Is Target going to hire robots?

[whippingboy]

Dumb title I know.. but I overheard our STL talking about a robot on display at last week's convention that will automatically scan outs. Are they that desperate to replace human beings that require health insurance? Is this the new tech that will "blow Wal-Mart out of the water"? Personally I'm wondering who will be the schlep required to fix it.

 

[redndkhaki]

Probably talking about the self checkout thats been rumored for a while now.

 

[jozk]

(No its not the self checkouts) Its basically a "Roomba" on steroids! LOL
I think it is a cool/innovative idea but see so many potential problems. The intention is to allow TM to do more tasking & to make sure the shelves are full... But judging by the amount of time our existing tools (PDA, timeclock, registry kiosks) are "down"-- I wonder how many robots will pile up in the corner of the backroom because they are "out of service".

 

[CanuckTM]

For starters, those robots could only work the overnight shift. Can you imagine the lawsuits when guests start falling over the unaccompanied roombas running about everywhere?

 

[whippingboy]

Or the guests' children start poking at them. It's a lawsuit waiting to happen.

 

[dabeastfromtheeast]

The RDC's are getting the Roverpick system over the next several years. It's a rack-based robotic picker that would speedily move freight faster and more accurately than our warehouse cartonnaires. How much it would displace our number of (human) cartonnaires has not been disclosed to us, yet. If you want to get very technical, we do already use some very primitive robots at the DC, such as our conveyor systems, A.R.T., the sorter and the auto-depal. As for hiring them, I doubt it. Can't see a robot answering those S.T.A.R.-based questions very well, let alone provide a certificate of live birth or an SSN card...

 

[PugMuffin]

The real question here is, what is this robot's conversion rate?

 

[Retail Girl]

Or the guests' children start poking at them. It's a lawsuit waiting to happen.

Forget their children! I would be happy if the adult guests, themselves, would stop poking the TMs and our equipment.

 

[oath2order]

The real question here is, what is this robot's conversion rate?

Can it come up for backup?

 

[Retail Girl]

The real question here is, what is this robot's conversion rate?

Can it come up for backup?

Probably about as much as some of the TMs do, now.

 

[Greenshirt]

Hmm, a decent vision system to identify and convert bar codes is easy to set up. getting a reliable 6 axis robot to handle the various carton sizes, is do able. Target already uses robots to build pallets at some of there FDC's. they could put in a system like this to supplement the personnel loading and unloading trailers. Of course it would have KUKA robots instead of Motoman so things could stay "Brand" while that might not make a HUGE difference at stores the potential to impliment it a a RDC would be worth investigating.

 

[Megaparsec]

My store already employed robots several years ago



Although that one was strictly for... my... amusement

 

[consume]

The real question here is, what is this robot's conversion rate?

Can it come up for backup?

Probably about as much as some of the TMs do, now.

so you're saying it's not coming up at all?

 

[dabeastfromtheeast]

they could put in a system like this to supplement the personnel loading and unloading trailers. Of course it would have KUKA robots instead of Motoman so things could stay "Brand" while that might not make a HUGE difference at stores the potential to impliment it a a RDC would be worth investigating.

Something like that would be awesome on the ART lines and on some of the slower doors in OB, if only cause it doesn't look fast enough to deal with a high volume store, especially during fall season. They would just need to figure a way for it to deal with non-con, PIPO, weird shaped boxes, and spills/breaks.

 

[commiecorvus]

they could put in a system like this to supplement the personnel loading and unloading trailers. Of course it would have KUKA robots instead of Motoman so things could stay "Brand" while that might not make a HUGE difference at stores the potential to impliment it a a RDC would be worth investigating.

Something like that would be awesome on the ART lines and on some of the slower doors in OB, if only cause it doesn't look fast enough to deal with a high volume store, especially during fall season. They would just need to figure a way for it to deal with non-con, PIPO, weird shaped boxes, and spills/breaks.

That was my first thought, you get it all set up and one of the bottom boxes collapses, piling everything around the robot and leaving a film of dish soap mixed with pickle juice all over the floor.
For a truck team that's Monday morning, for the robot that seems like a serious slowdown.

 

[Kompa]

>implying the current human workers aren't robots

CIHYFS?

 

[Circle9]

>implying the current human workers aren't robots

CIHYFS?

If I'm a robot, then my care.exe suffered an illegal operation and shut down weeks ago.

 

[NeoDarikona]

The moment they can they will. This is an inevitability for many jobs in the future. For now the service sector is still human dominated, but some places like restaurants are already trying to make headway.

 

[Goingstrong]

My STL told us it was cool little robot that was designed to replace the inventory company. It would do the store inventory on a monthly basis.

 

[Circle9]

My STL told us it was cool little robot that was designed to replace the inventory company. It would do the store inventory on a monthly basis.

Was your STL talking inventory on the sales floor, or in the backroom? Because I can't imagine today's state of robotics being capable of handling half the stuff you find in either area.

 

[whippingboy]

And I assume the shelves would have to be super zoned? Perhaps with barcodes faced forward? I'm interested in how accurate it could be without human support.

 

[Goingstrong]

She said for the sales floor. But it would require a superzone every night in whatever department it would be scanning. It would know the pog and how many eaches were in each spot.

 

[redeye58]

Imagine an ON store:
Someone accidentally bowls down the aisle the robot is in; next morning the SFT comes into a box of plastic shards & microprocessors.

 

[CaptainRevision]

First they need to change shelf labels from paper to digital... that would help a lot and save time!

 

[Circle9]

Imagine an ON store:
Someone accidentally bowls down the aisle the robot is in; next morning the SFT comes into a box of plastic shards & microprocessors.

I feel like that's going to happen regardless of what kind of store it is. If it isn't a guest its going to be a TM or just the robot being itself.