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<blockquote data-quote="wkmac" data-source="post: 2508688" data-attributes="member: 2189">As someone who repairs and maintains some automated equipment, price of technology has and continues to drop and thus the cost of automation verses human labor is tilting into the hands of automation.&nbsp; Even factors in initial costs, comparing automation to human, in many respects the automation start up costs may still be cheaper depending on the application.&nbsp; Variables will also apply location to location as it pertains to scale.&nbsp; Obviously automation is more cost effective with 100,000 packages as opposed to 100.&nbsp; You can&#039;t just judge the human employee vs automation from a purely wage cost basis but also factor in all benefit costs, various taxation (Social Security excise tax for example) and then the costs of not only training and continuing training but also costs to infrastructure to meet employee needs or regulatory concerns.&nbsp; Also productive output factors in as in the case of UPS, we are testing the Ribus Unloader system that real world operations is producing an unload rate of trailers at about 8k packages per hour (PPH).&nbsp; I&#039;ve seen human unloaders in short bursts hit 1800 pph but on average over a work hour, about 1200 pph is exceptional.&nbsp; The new Mega Hub in Atlanta will utilize label applicators (SPA and SSLA) that have apply rates pushing towards 10k PPH while human operated are half that even the the absolute best of circumstances.&nbsp; That is an economic cost you have to figure into the equation as day one productive output with automation can be double if not triple that of the human labor.&nbsp; From what I&#039;ve seen and kept up with over the last 2 decades working with automation, including some over the horizon technologies, automation is quickly gaining an upper hand in this argument from my own personal experience and observation.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="wkmac, post: 2508688, member: 2189"] As someone who repairs and maintains some automated equipment, price of technology has and continues to drop and thus the cost of automation verses human labor is tilting into the hands of automation. Even factors in initial costs, comparing automation to human, in many respects the automation start up costs may still be cheaper depending on the application. Variables will also apply location to location as it pertains to scale. Obviously automation is more cost effective with 100,000 packages as opposed to 100. You can't just judge the human employee vs automation from a purely wage cost basis but also factor in all benefit costs, various taxation (Social Security excise tax for example) and then the costs of not only training and continuing training but also costs to infrastructure to meet employee needs or regulatory concerns. Also productive output factors in as in the case of UPS, we are testing the Ribus Unloader system that real world operations is producing an unload rate of trailers at about 8k packages per hour (PPH). I've seen human unloaders in short bursts hit 1800 pph but on average over a work hour, about 1200 pph is exceptional. The new Mega Hub in Atlanta will utilize label applicators (SPA and SSLA) that have apply rates pushing towards 10k PPH while human operated are half that even the the absolute best of circumstances. That is an economic cost you have to figure into the equation as day one productive output with automation can be double if not triple that of the human labor. From what I've seen and kept up with over the last 2 decades working with automation, including some over the horizon technologies, automation is quickly gaining an upper hand in this argument from my own personal experience and observation. [/QUOTE]

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