In a recent survey fielded by the International Data Corporation (IDC), 600 decision makers across several industries were surveyed about their opinions on commercial service robots.
One key finding the IDC research unveiled was that despite the interest and potential plans many companies and their executives had regarding the adoption of robot technologies, many face large obstacles to adoption, the biggest challenge cited being a lack of understanding about the technology.
Here are the top five reasons why respondents would not consider robots:
- Not a valid use case (52%)
- Budget constraints (26%)
- Unclear state of robotics in my company (22%)
- Could not prove business case (20%)
- Organisation culture is not conducive (14%)
In an article by Supply Chain Dive, John Santagate, research director at IDC, was published as saying: “I do believe a lack of understanding of the current use cases and availability of commercial service robots is constraining [decision makers’] ability to view commercial service robots as a valid technology for their business.”
In the article, Santagate also listed other emerging use cases that businesses could use, but may not know about. They include:
- Autonomous mobile robots (AMRs) in order fulfillment
- Autonomous inventory counting
- Collaborative robotics in downstream operations
- Robots for industrial inspections
One thing companies that interested in incorporating robot technologies have to take note however, is that automation should always be accompanied by reason. In other words, just because something can be automated does not mean that it should. Be able to support the decision to use robots with a valid rationale, whether it be to improve operations, cost, safety of employees or provide some other tangible piece of value.