These environments are as inhospitable as can be and removing people from them is a common objective. The long-time leader remains freezer and even refrigerated facilities. Not everywhere,” says Mike Khodl, Dematic’s vice president of global solutions management.īeyond that, there are a few types of facilities where lights out has much more than casual cache. “What matters today in the lights-out story is making it happen in all functional areas possible. Most experts now look at facilities in terms of functional activities and the opportunity to run lights out only in certain areas of the facility. Simon Drexler, director of product at Otto Motors, says “if you can get to 80% lights out, you are doing phenomenally.” That said, others put the percentage even lower. The last 5% is just not financially worth it, he says. Instead, companies should make it a goal to automate 80% of their materials handling operations in the near future and up to 95% eventually. “Lights out is now a North Star metaphor for extensive use of automation, not a tangible deliverable in and of itself,” he adds.Ĭhristensen goes so far as to say that he doesn’t recommend a dark facility without human workers because the business case just isn’t there. Nada.īut “lights out no longer literally means lights out,” says Jeff Christensen, vice president of product at Seegrid. Historically, the working definition of lights out is a facility without people. But it does shine differently in 2018 than it did some time ago. So, the lamp is still lit for lights out. Furthermore, the new tax laws are making it easier to justify automation now than it was a few months ago. That puts the spotlight squarely on automation for a broad range of industry sectors. But they are all clearly interested in using automation as extensively as possible.Ĭustomer demands for better-faster-cheaper along with rising labor costs and low availability are powerful motivators here. Industry experts say that few companies start out asking for a lights-out facility design. And that path goes right through the world of automation. But rather than focusing on dark facilities, the story now is about the path to lights out. That doesn’t mean lights out is not a good idea. But let’s face it, these facilities are still few and far between. Neither the concept nor the existence of a lights-out plant or warehouse is new.
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