It is clear that drones are the wave of the future for big box stores with large warehouses full of inventory. Walmart is the perfect example of this changing business landscape as they are implementing fleets of drones, at some point in the near future, to catalog inventory in their massive warehouses. According to the New York Times article by Rachel Adams, Walmart’s use of flying drones are far more efficient than the average human worker. The American company, and the country’s largest retailer, demonstrated that drones could complete a human worker’s monthly task in a single day. It makes sense, of course. Human beings are inherently prone to fatigue and are considered to be especially high-maintenance compared to the fully task-focused drone. For Walmart, their implementation of using drones in the warehouse capacity will work with flying colors as the strategy will increase productivity, minimize errors and in-wharehouse injuries, and cost less. This all occurs because human beings are subject to on-the-job conversation or downtime (i.e. lazinesss), physically capable of injury, and require those pesky human rights necessities like fair pay. Drones, on the other hand, experience none of the conscious realities or physical realizations that a human being experiences and therefore are able to operate according to their programmed direction.
Amazon’s drone strategy is far more complex as it occurs, for the most part, outside of their warehouses and in public skies. It is very interesting that over 100 collaborators have organized with NASA to create “high-speed transit zones” and segmented zones specifically for drone deliveries. This is a very complex issue as it would only, in the immediate, be applicable to cities in close proximity to Amazon warehouse hubs, as this would maximize drone delivery efficiency. However, the rampant use of drones creates a safety and security concern for cities, and many cities around the United States have already banned the personal use of drones within city limits. I personally think that drones are the wave of the future in terms of delivery, but there is a lot of red tape to overcome to make drones a regular and secure part of daily life.
- http://www.nytimes.com/2016/06/03/business/walmart-looks-to-drones-to-speed-distribution.html?_r=0
