The manufacturing industry is still heavily reliant on conventional MHE even as automated options are available. What are the impediments in modernisation? Sangeet Kumar, CEO and Co-Founder, Addverb, a company offering automation and robotic solutions, is of the opinion that the Indian industry is graduating and is graduating fast from go-downs to modern warehouses. “In yesteryears’ go-downs, the goods were kept on the floor in an unorganised fashion and material movement used to happen through people carrying the goods from one point to another point. But due to the rise of ecommerce, GST and tremendous competition, some companies started taking the first step to build quality warehouses, i.e., warehouses that are structurally strong, stable, with good flooring and a height of minimum 7m-10m, and these companies are gradually moving towards modern ways of handling material. Still, this is 20-25% of total warehousing, and is not enough to bring a significant transformation in material handling. In fact, automation is much more meaningful when vertical space is utilised along with reasons such as throughput requirements, which can’t be achieved by increasing labour, space constraints such as single facility operations, equity or customer demand for instant gratification such as a 2-4 hour delivery window, then people need automation,” explains Sangeet Kumar.
