Eighty percent of humans will engage with smart robots on a daily basis, and one in 20 supply chain managers will manage robots, rather than humans, by 2030, according to Gartner.

Organisations are placing greater emphasis on enhancing the capabilities of their existing workforce by supplementing with robotics due to factors like labour scarcity and rising costs.

Smart robots have been identified by chief supply chain officers (CSCOs) as an important investment area, though many acknowledge their organisation lacks internal robotics expertise to maximally leverage these innovative technologies.

“CSCOs must develop an organisational structure to support the management of growing fleets of robots by creating a warehouse automation strategy,” said Abdil Tunca, senior principal analyst in Gartner’s Supply Chain practice.

“Managers will encounter different scenarios when managing robots than they would with people, especially when managing fleets of task specific and polyfunctional robots, which will navigate more tasks and spaces within warehouses and fulfilment centres.”

As robot fleets expand rapidly, more companies will adopt and explore diverse applications for robotics.

Initially, when fleets are small and specialised, a technical professional or engineer will oversee operations within specific functional boundaries. However, as fleets grow and companies embrace varied robotics use cases, establishing a management structure to oversee robotics operations becomes essential.

Most organisations have well-established human worker management practices to guide managers on how to manage people and have the skills needed to be successful, yet there are few methodologies today for managing robots and almost none for managing varied fleets of robots.

While it won’t be necessary for supply chain managers to have the engineering skills required to build robots, they will need a general technical understanding of what the robots can do and how they work together with other robots and people. This knowledge will be crucial for understanding the business problems robots can reasonably address and provide this guidance to business leaders.

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For instance, if a mobile robot is tasked with retrieving pallets in a warehouse, but the specific pallets are situated at a considerable height within a zone where humans are also present, a manager must acknowledge the safety challenges involved. Additionally, they would need to allocate extra time and resources to ensure the mobile robot can successfully accomplish the task.

Gartner suggests that companies should develop a dedicated robotics competency centres, create holistic approaches to robotics, and include management for the entire robotics journey. Implementing strong governance is also important to address robotics selection processes, especially when it comes to cybersecurity.

“The journey toward adopting robotics will be valuable, but also challenging, and requires organisational support,” Tunca noted. “Initially, robot management will operate as a distinct role within supply chain. Over time, managing robots will become integrated into various departments and job functions, akin to how the IT function has evolved and gained prominence within organisations.”