robots – OM in the News

Ottobots, Assemble! And Deliver.

Passengers at the Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport can now use their phones to order food and/or retail items and have their purchases delivered to their airport location by a fleet of fully autonomous robots called Ottobots.

Purchases are retrieved by customers from the robot’s secure compartment with a unique QR code that can be scanned by the robot’s camera. Contactless delivery, fueled by the pandemic, is made possible with Ottonomy’s proprietary Contextual Mobility technology. It enables Ottobots to navigate through crowds […]

By Anita Lee-Post, Ph.D.|2022-02-07T04:47:45+00:00February 7, 2022|Tags: automation, delivery, last mile delivery, order fulfillment, robots, service processes, technology|

Miniaturization of Warehouses for Retail Giants

Rick Cohen knows how a warehouse should work.

He grew up in the wholesale grocery business and spent much time observing warehouse operations. His ability to spot inefficiencies led him to develop technological solutions for the family business, C&S. In 2007, he partnered with a robotics expert, founded a company named Symbotic, and later introduced a robot prototype at a C&S warehouse. In 2014, Target became the first outside customer of the system and was followed by Albertsons. Walmart is the […]

By Corinne M. Karuppan, Ph.D.|2022-01-02T22:32:25+00:00January 7, 2022|Tags: automation, lead time, productivity, respsonsive supply chain design, robots, strategy, supply chain management|

Surging Productivity: A Potential Silver Lining to the Pandemic

The quick adoption of new technologies during the pandemic has boosted productivity.

This boost could trigger economic growth and benefit everyone for several years as government investment in infrastructure provides further impetus to accelerate the pace of innovation in the workplace. The pandemic had already forced companies to do more with less; the changes in work methods and processes are here to stay. A surge in productivity could alleviate concerns about inflation and ensure a higher standard of living in the […]

By Corinne M. Karuppan, Ph.D.|2021-09-08T15:42:49+00:00September 9, 2021|Tags: automation, competitivness, productivity, robots|

Highly Automated Microfactories for E.V. Start-Up

A developer of electric vans and buses bets that smaller is cheaper. UPS seems to agree.

Automobile production and assembly line have been intrinsically linked for more than a century. Volume production justifies the high capital investments. Nevertheless, Arrival, an E.V. start-up, believes that highly automated microfactories are the way to go to produce small volumes of delivery vehicles. The production relies on flexible robots able to perform a variety of tasks. This unproven approach is appealing to UPS, BlackRock, Kia, […]

By Corinne M. Karuppan, Ph.D.|2021-05-11T18:36:03+00:00May 11, 2021|Tags: automation, flexible-manufacturing, line balancing, robots|