In this eighth episode, Howard Coleman, Principal of MCA Associates, provides an update to the insights, provided in the Episode 1, which focused on Collaborative Robotics – and re-enforces why now, over a year later, events continue to make it the most significant advance in distribution warehousing.

The ongoing labor shortage has literally hit every industry. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, nearly 25 percent of the workforce is age 55 or older. Thousands of workers are retiring every day, some early. Others just moving on to something “better” - somewhere else. Younger workers who themselves are seeking specific workplace values are simply not replacing them quickly enough.

So, you may also want to listen to Episode 7 also, it explains this “Great Resignation” phenomena in more detail - as well as the reasons why.

Going forward, the underlying demographic impacts will not change anytime soon. It will make it even more difficult to have a reliable and trained distribution operations workforce.

So it seems that everyone is hastily looking to bridge this worker shortage. Surely automation will have a key role, and it’s probably by moving people from repetitive tasks that they really don’t want to do - into more needed roles – a reskilling of the workforce – leaving much of the repetitive tasks and traveling to warehouse robotics. 

So I present to you the “4 success factors to human-robot collaboration”.

Note: For this episode and for all future episodes, we have a special offer for our most engaged podcast listeners! 

For the first two (2) listeners who correctly answer a “learning question” that I pose at the end of each podcast, you’ll receive one of our brand new “Distribution on the Cusp of Metamorphosis” - Coffee Mugs - Free! And it’s a beauty! All you have to do is email me your answer to the question, your name and mailing address. Our email address is in the “show notes”.

Also, at the end of this episode, there is a free additional resource offer to optimize your overall episode 8 - take-away. 

Podcast Creator & Host: Howard W. Coleman, Principal of MCA Associates

Contact: [email protected] 

Telephone: 203-906-7268 

And thanks to these great sponsors for their support:

6 River Systems – https://www.6river.com

The Wholesaler Magazine – https://www.phcppros.com

Unified Payments Group:https://www.gounified.com/p21IntegratedDemo/

TeamEngine – https://get.teamengine.io/partner/mca