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Wal-Mart Says It Is 6-9 Months From Using Drones To Check Warehouse Inventory (yahoo.com)
Multinational retail corporation Wal-mart announced on Thursday that it is six to nine months from starting to use drones to check warehouse inventories in the United States. The drones, which are capable of operating on autopilot, fly through the aisles snapping 30 images a second, and deliver real-time data to employees about whether the correct product is shelved in the proper place. From a Reuters report: Finding ways to more efficiently warehouse, transport and deliver goods to customers has taken on new importance for Wal-Mart as it deals with wages costs while seeking to beat back price competition and boost online sales. Wal-Mart said the camera and technology on top of the drones have been custom-built for the retailer.
That was a mean thing to say, Walmart.
SJW's don't eliminate discrimination. They just expropriate it for themselves.
taking pictures for the People of Walmart
This means "maintain high margins by laying people off"
If video games influenced behavior the Pac Man generation would be eating pills and running away from their problems.
Weren't these folks the same ones that pioneered importing everything from China back when? Now, everyone has to do it to remain "competitive". Now, robots staffing the warehouses, what next? Will they also replace the single employee that covers pretty much the entire sales floor with custom Cortana based customer service bots?
At the end of this mad race to the bottom we call capitalism who will be left with jobs so they can, you know, shop at Wal-Mart?
They'rere classifying employees as drones so they can pay less?
Why wouldn't static cameras work better? Or even cameras that travel along ceiling rails and can zoom in to the specific product location. Those sound cheaper than custom-designed drones.
Seems like this would be applied readily to Amazon warehouses- you could even have drones pick small items right off the shelf.
love is just extroverted narcissism
AKA video.
"... as it deals with wages costs ..."
LOL! Wal-Mart has to "deal with wages costs!" HAHAHA! That's a good one! From the company that pays starvation wages and accompanies pay checks with info about where to apply for food stamps!
Drill baby drill - on Mars
Can we also program the drones to crash into mobility scooters if visual analysis determines the rider to be a skinny ass punk?
FTFY
Wouldn't correctly placed cameras make this much less problem prone? Run the power and coax through the shelf frames so they don't get mangled by the boxes and you're in decent shape. Moving parts always fail, so removing a "flying drone" is a good idea. Plus it gets rid of the battery replacement problem.
People shop there for inexpensive stuff. Some of that stuff is made in China, so substitute "cheap" for "inexpensive," but the premise is the same. I shop there when "cheap/inexpensive" is what is driving the purchase. When "quality" is driving the purchase, I shop elsewhere. I have a choice, and I make it. Some people are poor, do not have a choice, and shop at Walmart all the time. Thank God for Walmart.
Let robots and automation take over whatever jobs they can, and free Man to do the jobs only he can do. Yeah, it will suck to be a Walmart stock clerk over the next ten years, just like it sucked to be a buggy whip manufacturer for the first ten years of the 20th century.
Focus less upon wringing your hands that robots and automation have finally arrived, albeit ten or so years later than expected. Focus your efforts on what we need to do to educate and re-educate people with the skills needed to adapt to the new workplaces. Or do you believe a man is entitled to a job that a robot can do better and less expensively.
>>"WallyWorld"
Grow up!
gotta take an umbrella, some stick or a fly swatter with you when you go there and the things are flirring around to hit them if they come too close.
Also, how would they count tightly stacked small boxes in rows of 1' deep shelfs?
Wmart saving even more on sub-living hourly wages using retirees on medicare shaving off some bucks and loading it on the general population.
Yeah! Capitalism is better than Socialism (not my statement, but another guy's who was unable to define what those terms mean and where pure forms exist successfully)
Surely they're not just relying on video alone. Maybe RFIDs play a role too. Otherwise, this seems like a really expensive and error-prone way of managing warehouse space. Other warehouse inventory systems would seem to be more accurate and cheaper (things like pick-to-light; put-to-light, etc).
Proverbs 21:19
Waaalll-eeeeee.
They can just rfid the whole warehouse and slopstack like amazon. Of course they're dumb and want to get "cutting edge" so some fat hick in a suit started talking about flying drones.
Their problem seems to be related to the inability to move their products from their store warehouse to their shelves so the public can actually purchase the products.
Wouldn't it be cheaper to rfid everything and then have sensors regularly throughout the warehouse? I swear there were crazy cheap rfid (paper?) being touted a few years back.
Whenever I encounter a blue-uniformed worker in the store other than at checkout, it's a vendor doing the employees' work for them.
all you out there clamoring for $15/hr minimum wage. This is the beginning of the end of low paying/entry level jobs. We're seeing this in the fast food industry as well with automated french fry machines, and probably burger makers soon too. When government decides to get involved and try to tell businesses how to do things this is the predictable response.
When you are in a low margin business like fast food, or WalMart for that matter, you simply can't make a profit paying people $15/hr for entry level jobs that require little to no skill. So they turn to cheaper robots. So instead of a bunch of $10/hr jobs you end up with zero, or close to zero, $15/hr jobs.
The test for whether or not someone ought to be provided a mobility scooter is "can they comfortably walk through a Wal-Mart in order to retrieve the item they want to purchase?", and has nothing to do with what the specific reason for their being uncomfortable with walking that far might be.
Wal-Mart's prime competitor is one which requires zero walking, so it makes sense to offer a reduced-walking option for any customer who might desire it.
-- 'The' Lord and Master Bitman On High, Master Of All
As anyone who knows pretty much anything about warehousing and SCM knows, the absolute worst possible way of determining the contents of your operational warehouse is to go and try to physically count what is there (i'm not kidding.) Seriously, even the most basic in/out inventory system will have a better idea. Every time I've had a client go and try to count what is physically there, they have made such a complete James Hunt of it as for the effort to have been entirely wasted.
Getting a drone to do this? Yeah, right.
the drones will be made in china
Star Trek transporters are just 3d printers.
I will build the greatest Walmart that you've ever seen. And I would never do this myself. But I hope it will be so -- actually, it will even look great. I already know what it should look like. You know, the other day, they were saying, I was watching these characters -- politicians that are running against me -- you can't get Mexico to pay for the Walmart! Of course you can. They can't because they never would even think of it.
Do you know how much Mexico is making from the United States? That's peanuts, the Walmart. And then they say, you can't build a Walmart! It's too big, it doesn't work. Well, 3,000 years ago -- right? The Great Walmart of China was built. We would like to have that Walmart. That Walmart, nobody gets through. That I can tell you. And that's 13,000 miles. right? And that was done between -- did it take them 500 years in all fairness. A pretty long time. They don't stop. We need tough people to negotiate with the Chinese. They don't stop. But The Great Walmart of China was built.
In Mexico, they were complaining 13,000 miles. It doesn't work. They have these Walmarts built. They said people go over these Walmarts with a ladder. Do you know how tall the Walmart is? Like this. It is not a Walmart. It is a little fence. People put up a ladder that they buy at home depot and they jump and that's the end of it. I'm talking about a Walmart. See that ceiling there? higher. Did you ever see -- okay. Did you ever see the plank for parking garages? As an example. Not a big deal.
I'm a great builder. What do I best in life, I build. Your infrastructure is crumbling. Isn't it nice to have a builder? A real builder. So you take precast plank. It comes 30 feet long, 40 feet long, 50 feet long. You see the highways where they can span 50, 60 feet, even longer than that, right? And do you a beautiful nice precast plank with beautiful everything. Just perfect. I want it to be so beautiful because maybe someday they'll call it The Trump Walmart. Maybe. So I have to make sure it's beautiful, right? I'll be very proud of that Walmart. If they call at this The Trump Walmart, it has to be beautiful. And you put that plank up and you dig your footings. And you put that plank up -- there's no ladder going over that. If they ever go up there, they're in trouble, because here's no way to get down. Maybe a rope.
Star Trek transporters are just 3d printers.
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Wal-Mart's prime competitor
I bet next you'll tell us that was unintentional.