On the surface, it would seem that the deficiencies the pandemic has exposed in the supply chain would encourage investment in automation and robotics.
However, the novel coronavirus has also shown the flaws in automation.
"One of the things that we know from automation over decades of experience with it is that, in general, automation likes steady, predictable volumes," says Joe Dunlap, head of Supply Chain Advisory at CBRE. "Those dramatic variances or swings, whether it's weekly, daily or hourly, creates challenges for automation." A manual solution, by contrast, can scale up or down.
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Leslie Shaver
Les Shaver has been covering commercial and residential real estate for almost 20 years. His work has appeared in Multifamily Executive, Builder, units, Arlington Magazine in addition to GlobeSt.com and Real Estate Forum.
