The Robotic Revolution – A Guide to Choosing the Right Solution Provider

Every so often, a technology comes along that fundamentally changes the game. Like fire, the printing press or gunpowder, robotics is one of these.

Robots augment human potential, increasing productivity and driving economic growth. In the right hands, they can improve supply chain efficiency and reduce operational costs. However, they can also disrupt jobs and increase dependency.

1. Know Your Needs

Aside from the initial capital investment, you will need to consider other factors before selecting a robot solution for your company. For example, you should look at user-friendliness and whether the solution can be customized to fit your needs. It is also important to understand the return on investment (ROI) and key performance indicators (KPIs). Finally, you should take into account the long-term relationship with the vendor and assess their support and training.

In the field of customer service, robots are still a relatively new phenomenon. They offer several advantages over human employees, including higher efficiency, precision, and work capacity as well as faster adaptation to procedural changes. However, unlike industrial robots that work in factories, service robots are meant to interact with customers in a more complex manner and require more advanced technologies.

As a result, many companies are choosing to deploy service robots along with human employees, especially in call centers, retail stores, and health-care firms. When incorporated smoothly, these mixed teams can even outperform teams of human workers alone (Doorn et al. 2017).

To determine your company’s specific needs, start by conducting a comprehensive audit of your current processes and identifying areas where automation can improve efficiency or provide cost savings. You can also conduct a customer survey to assess how your customers perceive the benefits of robotics and identify areas where your company can make improvements.

2. Understand the Technology

There are many factors that drive the use of robots in distribution centers, such as technological drivers, market drivers, productivity drivers, and safety drivers. However, despite all these benefits, it is important to understand the capabilities and limitations of robotics, not only as an individual technology but also as part of a comprehensive fulfillment solution. To ensure successful integration of robotics, it is critical to brief all onsite personnel about their functionality and limitations, and to involve more employees in deployment exercises with partners and vendors to increase their confidence in the tech’s ability to meet their needs.

In the service marketing literature, scholars identify robotics as one of the most significant trends that will shape the future of customer service (e.g., Achrol and Kotler 2012; Bitner 2017; Huang and Rust 2017; Wirtz and Zeithaml 2018). However, the existing empirical literature on this topic is sparse.

This research addresses this gap by proposing a conceptual framework that examines the antecedents of customer-related aspects of robotic adoption, drawing insights from the literature on service quality, technology marketing, and human–computer interaction. We propose a model that differentiates between two types of user groups—employees who collaborate with robots to fulfill their working tasks and customers who interact with them during service encounters. The framework borrows from Speier and Venkatesh’s (2002) concept of person–technology fit with adaption to capture the extent to which employees perceive their collaboration with robots as a means to enhance their job performance, professional development, and long-term career success.

3. Choose a Solution Provider

When evaluating solution providers, it is important to consider their years of experience and depth of understanding in the field. Look for reviews and testimonials from previous clients, as well as any industry awards or recognition that they have received. It is also a good idea to assess the provider’s customer service approach.

Choosing the right solution provider is critical to the success of your automation project. A good partner will help ensure that the technology meets your goals, is cost-effective, and integrates smoothly into your operations. It is also a good idea to evaluate the long-term relationship with your provider, and determine whether they are capable of providing support and upgrades as your business grows. Lastly, it is important to secure buy-in from key stakeholders within your organization to help drive adoption of the new solution.

4. Select a Partner with Expertise

As a result of technological advancements in automation, engineering, energy storage, artificial intelligence and machine learning, robots are becoming more intelligent. This means that they can do more than simply perform repetitive tasks, but also learn and adapt to the ever-changing nature of their environments. This allows them to become a key component of an end-to-end solution in manufacturing, logistics, healthcare and retail industries.

For example, healthcare robots can do everything from assisting surgeons during surgery to delivering medicine to patients, filling testing swabs and even producing respirators. In manufacturing, industrial robots are able to handle arc welding, material handling and cutting steel. Robots have even entered the home, with consumer robotics such as vacuuming and lawn-mowing machines being very common.

In warehouses and distribution centers, robots can help address the need for faster fulfillment operations to meet e-commerce demand, while also easing a tight labor market with a shortage of skilled workers. And as technology continues to advance, collaborative robots can work alongside humans without safety fencing and even learn from the data they collect to make more informed decisions that help improve productivity. This is the true promise of the Robotic Revolution. Achieving this requires a comprehensive approach and a partner with deep expertise. If you want to install window display feel free to contact us.