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.

Comments

Gary is NOT a drone!

[NotDrWho]

That was a mean thing to say, Walmart.

now...the Drones of Walmart

[turkeydance]

taking pictures for the People of Walmart

corporatespeak

[Iamthecheese]

as it deals with wages costs while seeking to beat back price competition

This means "maintain high margins by laying people off"

Re:corporatespeak

[Sir_Eptishous]

This seems like something that will add capabilities not possible or practical with their current workforce.

It will synergistically disrupt platforms while enhancing cloud value.

Re:corporatespeak

[__aaclcg7560]

But why do you think they should pay living wages to run a check out counter?

Get families off of welfare and stop taxpayers from subsidizing Walmart's profits.

You are quickly costing families out of a job.

Wrong! Walmart's business model need to change. Of course, Wall Street won't be happy if they stop buying back stock shares to support Main Street.

Re:corporatespeak

[__aaclcg7560]

Reality is the precise opposite.

Doubt that. Walmart is a bad corporate citizen. Taxpayers have been subsidizing Walmart's profits for years.

http://www.forbes.com/sites/clareoconnor/2014/04/15/report-walmart-workers-cost-taxpayers-6-2-billion-in-public-assistance/#3301bbfa7cd8

Taxpayers are also subsidizing security for Walmart with police calls.

http://www.tampabay.com/projects/2016/public-safety/walmart-police/

Seems Too Expensive

[Anonymous Coward]

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.

Re:Seems Too Expensive

[TheDanish]

If you're talking about the back room of a walmart store, then maaaaaaybe. But installing static cameras and/or rails that capture EVERY location's contents accurately doesn't scale well with the 1 million sqft standalone warehouses they're talking about. The costs would far exceed any benefit. And gods forbid if you want to reconfigure your racks! Meanwhile, if you can make a $500 drone that can do inventory counts automatically, even if you have to manually program its flight path each time you change your rack layout, you've just saved a crapload of money.

Amazon behind?

[avandesande]

Seems like this would be applied readily to Amazon warehouses- you could even have drones pick small items right off the shelf.

Wal-Mart wages

[fiannaFailMan]

"... 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!

Walmart is Inexpensive

[RobotRunAmok]

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!

Because drones

[wcrowe]

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).

Hope you're happy....

[erp_consultant]

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.

Re:Hope you're happy....

[LiquidAvatar]

Let's do a thought experiment with some made up, but representative numbers.

We have French Fries 'r Us, which is open 16 hours per day. Each day, they have 2 employees dedicated to making the french fries (each doing an 8 hour shift), and the owner is considering automation to eliminate the position of Fry Frier. He finds that the French Fry Machine can be purchased for $180k.

Paying each of his 2 full time Fry Friers $15/hour comes to ~$62k per year. So, the machine has a 3 year ROI, what a deal! He decides to eliminate the positions and personally reaps the financial rewards (after 3 years).

Paying each of his 2 full time Fry Friers $10/hour comes to ~$42k per year. So, the machine has about a 4 and a quarter year ROI... what a deal! He decides to eliminate the positions and personally reaps the financial rewards (after 4 and a quarter years).

This is simplified, ignoring things like the costs of employee benefits, employment taxes, the impact of sick days or of employees just not showing up... and maintenance costs for the machine... but you get the point. Automation is coming; every day we build better machines that can do more work, and every day the cost of those machines goes down as we figure out better ways to build them.

The only way to keep those menial jobs around is to *reduce* the minimum wage so that human labor becomes cheaper than automated labor (which is constantly becoming cheaper). And there's a dangerous situation; we are financially incentivizing the degradation of humans, while pulling business away from the people who are inventing better/more efficient machines.

I think that the ideal end-goal is to have a population that is entirely capable of doing interesting, meaningful work... such as improving the automation of menial tasks. Rather than focusing on how to protect menial tasks for our unskilled labor force, let's focus on how those people can live decent lives while developing the skills that they need to actually contribute to society.

Re:Put some in the stores too

[Lord Bitman]

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.