As of the late 1980s, heavy-duty industrial robots have been implemented by large system integrators to automate the manufacturing lines of large companies. They pay off at scale, but the huge investments and technical know-how necessary to install or operate them, created a significant barrier of entry.
Today, a new generation of robots, so called collaborative robots, makes warehouse automation affordable and useful for even one-off tasks. Yet challenges remain:
To mitigate these challenges, SAP now released SAP Warehouse Robotics. It comes as an add-on to Extended Warehouse Management (SAP-EWM) with out-of-the-box EWM scenarios. This new solution dramatically reduces the need for specialized system integrators, promotes re-use, and ensures compliant IT-security and management via:
SAP Warehouse Robotics works with warehouse robots of most vendors with very little adaptation and can run heterogeneous fleets. Users of the solution gain strategic flexibility and a low-cost entry into warehouse robotics:
Last, but not least, the solution is provided as Open Source. Anybody can download it for free and use it or make modifications. The Google part of the Code is here and the SAP part is here.
This is the first blog of a new series that will provide an introduction to Cloud Robotics. Stay tuned for more!
Go to part 2
Today, a new generation of robots, so called collaborative robots, makes warehouse automation affordable and useful for even one-off tasks. Yet challenges remain:
- High upfront costs: System integration is bespoke, time-and-material work, mostly in the hands of OEM or system integrators, that results in expensive and inflexible solutions
- Vendor lock-in: Vertically-integrated offerings provide more generalized solutions with high dependency but limited flexibility
- Silos: Multiple solutions are needed to cover use cases, but inter-operability is limited, and tooling is disjoint
- Inconsistent IT Strategy and Governance: Unclear security and management architecture across sites, de-centralized proprietary monitoring and management tools
To mitigate these challenges, SAP now released SAP Warehouse Robotics. It comes as an add-on to Extended Warehouse Management (SAP-EWM) with out-of-the-box EWM scenarios. This new solution dramatically reduces the need for specialized system integrators, promotes re-use, and ensures compliant IT-security and management via:
- OEM agnostic architecture – maximum flexibility, freedom of choice
- Multi-device and multi-use-case fleets – business demand driven roll-out (automation on demand)
- Out-of-the-box EWM integration with predefined scenarios
- IT Governance which automatically includes robots
SAP Warehouse Robotics works with warehouse robots of most vendors with very little adaptation and can run heterogeneous fleets. Users of the solution gain strategic flexibility and a low-cost entry into warehouse robotics:
- They can expand into areas where robots haven't been used. This applies to non-repetitive tasks and assistive tasks. It also applies more generally to small and medium-sized companies, who could not afford robots in the past.
- They can scale ad-hoc and, thus, optimize machine usage
- They avoid getting trapped into a vendor lock-in and can run fleets from multiple vendors without the hassle of managing a variety of software stacks.
Last, but not least, the solution is provided as Open Source. Anybody can download it for free and use it or make modifications. The Google part of the Code is here and the SAP part is here.
This is the first blog of a new series that will provide an introduction to Cloud Robotics. Stay tuned for more!
Go to part 2
- SAP Managed Tags:
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