In India, robots are increasingly being used to replace manual labor in factories. Some robots have the capacity to fetch objects from the shelves, with five times as high an efficiency rate as a human worker. Other robots "arrange parcels by weight, size and delivery location" with four times as high an efficiency rate.
The advantages of industrial automation are obvious: advanced robots are capable of performing certain manufacturing tasks "more efficiently, effectively and consistently than humans." This, in turn, correlates to "increased output, better quality and less waste." With machine workers, factories can also avoid the additional concerns of health insurance, coffee breaks, maternity leave, or sleep.
According to the economic reports on the number of industrial robots sold in 2014, the biggest consumer of robots was China, followed by Japan, America, South Korea, and Germany. Robot sales in India, on the other hand, "totaled just 2,100." Experts explain that this is due to the fact that "automation makes little or no economic sense in countries where there is comparatively little manufacturing or where abundant cheap labor is readily available." In countries like India with a population of 1.3 billion, there is an abundance of workers who can "make things cheaply." The robotic revolution has been dubbed "Industry 4.0" and promises to affect some countries more than others, and within those countries, affect certain industries and job categories more than others."
So far, the countries in the world that are "most aggressively automating production" are technically classified as "emerging markets." Countries with aging workforces and low unemployment rates are likelier to automate, as low unemployment rates suggest that automation would not threaten the existing workers, and the aging workforce suggests that the workforce will retire more quickly (and hence, need replacing) than it replenishes with younger workers.
For India, bureaucratic hurdles also slow down the process of automation. With automation, comes the inevitable loss of human jobs. In India, companies with over 100 employees "must obtain permission from the government before they fire anyone." However, with rising labor costs and increasing industrialization, it is likely that India will continue along the path of automation, along with many of the other world's emerging economies.
These robots come from India's "largest warehouse robotics startup" called GreyOrange. These robots enable online retailers and logistic firms to deliver products more quickly and at cheaper prices. Having a competitive edge by controlling these two factors are crucial elements to allow for supremacy in the booming Indian e-commerce market.
GreyOrange's clients include the biggest Indian e-tailer, Flipkart, the furniture portal Pepperfry, and the courier service providers DTDC and Delhivery. GreyOrange expects that Butler and Sorter could "even replace 60-80 percent of warehouse workforce." These figures represent the dramatic disruption that robots present to the human workforce in India. Such a disruption is likely to become reality in the "very near future."
In India, a unskilled warehouse worker earns approximately $8 per day. But as "online retailers turn to machines to manage a growing volume of orders," many of these unskilled jobs will become obsolete. Indian e-tailers like Flipkart (currently the "nation's biggest e-commerce site" with support from SoftBank Group Corp [TYO: 9984], Tiger Global, and Tencent Holdings [HKG: 0700]) are currently in competition with Seattle-based Amazon (NASDAQ: AMZN). Such competition triggered "an automation war in the US by acquiring Kiva Systems for $775 million in 2012."
Experts say that the warehouse jobs that existed four or five years ago will likely become obsolete in two or three years. This is due to the slowing down of the "pace of job creation" in warehouses. Given the current state of the e-commerce industry, robots and humans will have to work "side by side," before long. According to expert commentators, India's online commerce industry will be worth $64 billion in four years, which makes a "five year compounded annual growth rate of 31.2 percent."
Both Amazon and Flipkart "opened nearly a quarter of their 71 warehouses in the last one year." Both companies are making use of giving consumers discounts, and both must attempt to meet the needs of "demanding buyers" in a "competitive market." As such, both companies' focuses have "shifted to same-day deliveries and easy returns, to win customer loyalty."
Experts claim that automation will not necessarily result in an increase or decrease of warehouse jobs. However, because of the growth of the e-commerce industry, companies will soon require "more distribution centers" and a greater number of managers.
GreyOrange ships robots worldwide, to logistics companies. They successfully raised $35 million from Tiger Global Management and Blume Ventures, and run eight offices in five countries, with over 650 employees. The courier service DTDC Express Ltd. "has been using the GreyOrange Sorter for three years now." The sorter has reduced the speed of pushing a parcel out of its hub from six to seven hours, down to ninety minutes. Furthermore, by reducing the amount of human engagement in the warehouse operations required in a parcel's journey, the number of errors also went down. Amazon claims it does "not use robotics in India" but does utilize an automated conveyor system in its two largest warehouses.