Labor management in an automated world

摘要

Making the move from a mostly manual operation to one dominated by automation can be daunting. And when people who have been through it smile at that comment, others who have not often think it's all about the equipment. It's not. Just ask the people at Norway's largest grocery cooperative Coop. Automation success "requires a management, organization and cultural revolution," says Ove Bjorgum, director of logistics operations at Coop, one of the most automated and complex grocery distribution centers in the world. Prior to building a highly automated DC in Jessheim, Norway, Coop relied primarily on labor-intensive conventional handling and processes (Modern Materials Handling, December 2019).