Over the past three weeks we looked back at 2024. I first wrote about what I thought were the biggest or most interesting supply chain stories by month. (See The Top Supply Chain Stories by Month 2024.)
Next we analyzed the performance of supply chain and logistics-related stocks in 2024, based on SCDigest's weekly index. (See Supply Chain and Logistics Stocks Performance 2024.)
Finally, last week ran our popular look at Supply Chain 2024 in Numbers and Charts.
Now we start to look forward, with some supply chain predictions for 2024 and beyond. We start with some of what analyst firm Gartner calls "predicts," more specifically its predictions for “Supply Chain Operational Technology.”
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Klappich predicts that over the next three to five years, next generation humanoid working robots will approach the level of adaptability that humans now have.
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First up: Gartner analyst Dwight Klappich offers thisprediction: By 2030, one in 20 managers will manage robots rather than humans, forcing companies to develop new management methods.
That’s pretty interesting.
Klappich notes interest in warehouse robotics remains high, with one recent Gartner survey finding a full 92% of respondents said they were already investing, or planned to invest, in robotics over the next two years. Robots deployments are growing 20% per year, he adds.
However, “the road to robotics adoption is not smooth, and supply chain leaders need to start now to build the organizational structure needed to support their robotics journey,” Klappich writes.
He cites another data point from the Gartner study that 32% of companies that have already pursued intralogistics smart robots (ISRs) identified “lack of internal robotics expertise” as one of the top three obstacles they faced when considering robotics.
Klappich also notes that “While most companies have well-established human capital management methodologies, they have few for managing robots.”
He adds that companies at the forefront of robotics adoption are addressing the challenges by creating robotics competency and collaboration centers (competency centers).
“Companies can use competency centers to formalize their processes and make them focal points for driving successful robotics adoption across their organization,” Klappich writes.
What to do? Among other recommendations, Klappich says companies should build internal robotics expertise with an emphasis on business value, rather than technical design.
Next, Klappich offers another prediction on warehouse robotics: By 2027, some humanoid robots will verbally receive and respond to human-prompted work instructions via AI agents.
I Robot may be right around the corner, it seems.
To date, however, Klappich observes that “there have been few successful examples of robots that offer human-like mobile manipulation (for example, moving around, picking up and carrying things), or that can handle varied or unpredictable terrain.”
 But that is changing. Klappich says that the next generation of humanoid working robots “will combine sensory awareness with mobile manipulation and dynamic locomotion to perform productive work that was previously relegated to humans.”
What is still lacking today, he notes, is the ability to interact with the robot as if it were a human, providing instructions and getting responses verbally. But that too is changing. Klappich predicts that over the next three to five years, next generation humanoid working robots will approach the level of adaptability that humans now have.
That includes being able to dynamically move from process to process and taking on new activities without special programming.
And coming with that will come the ability to allow verbal and bidirectional interaction between human and robotic agents. An example from Klappich: humans could provide verbal instructions like “go to location A21-06 and pick three cases,” and the robot would respond back with verbal replies to instructions or completed actions.
Of course, to get there will require massive doses of AI.
Klappich has recommendations for companies here as well, including this: Before pursuing humanoid robots, companies must first map their functional processes to determine which, if any, of these processes can be addressed with current generations of robots and which will benefit most from human-centric design.
Yes, that’s a good idea, says I. Here’s another recommendation: companies should identify processes in need of high degrees of flexibility and adaptability and focus on learning how the human workforce performs these tasks to understand what capabilities a humanoid robot will need to support.
Switching away from robotics, Gartner analyst Brock Johns offers this prediction: Through 2027, 75% of large shippers will struggle to manage their fragmented transportation application portfolios, despite strategies to support a single solution.
Johns notes that as shippers grow in size and expand globally, the complexity of their transportation operations increases, requiring additional technological capabilities to support operations.
The basic message: while Transportation Management System (TMS) vendors have expanded their offering through internal development and acquisitions, no vendor has it all.
“With a lack of one-size-fits-all applications, platforms or suites, shippers will largely continue the current approach of selecting individual technologies from different vendors,” Johns writes.
Given all that, Johns recommends that companies “embrace an ecosystem approach to your transportation technology strategy by focusing on solutions that meet your specific functional and technical requirements.”
So there you go, summaries of three predictions from the gurus at Gartner in the supply chain execution domain.
More Gartner predictions in other areas of the supply chain next week as we close this out.
What is your reaction to these Gartner predicts? Let us know your thoughts at the Feedback section below.
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