Micromobility to rescue warehouse efficiency
With a growing population and swelling cities, it’s no surprise that the average warehouse size has more than doubled over the past 10 years. People need more goods and quickly. Huge warehouses and mega-factories (even giga-factories) are becoming small cities on their own. However, larger territories require new solutions for people to get from point A to B.
Micromobility is revolutionizing last-mile travel around the world. It’s no more one-size-fits-all 5-seater car solutions but a mixture of built-for-purpose vehicles. Since 60% of car trips worldwide are less than 8 km (McKinsey Center for Future Mobility) they don’t require a heavy 2-ton vehicle to drive a 70kg person for 1–2 kilometers. The same is valid in the warehouse and factory environment. Warehouses typically use special utility vehicles or car-shaped personnel carriers. Needless to say, these are not cost-effective nor small enough, so a busy warehouse worker typically walks. But walking takes time. The travel time in a warehouse is responsible for half the total order picking time. When we convert these numbers into salaries and overheads, we see that a lot of costs are related to moving around the building or closed territory. Huffington Post has revealed that a picker at Amazon could expect to walk more than 12 miles over the course of a shift. This particular article was also about an unfortunate case that resulted in the death of a warehouse worker due to exhaustion. This seems to be an industry-wide problem. Closed territory travel solutions have been the same for the past 140 years while territories have increased many-folds. A factory worker today can take about 989 steps per hour and a custodian even 1,624 steps per hour.
With the move from facility management towards workplace management we now have the means to provide factory and warehouse workers with the solution — micromobility vehicles! With the change from a 2-ton car to a 13kg scooter, we can save 95% energy (and be more sustainable). With the micromobility vehicles, we increase the speed of travel 4 times. These numbers are irrefutable evidence for the need of small bikes to increase the efficiency of inner territory travel. Companies like Helge Nyberg, Stigo Fleet, BMW, and many others are already working on built-for-purpose, small (usually electric) vehicles to make these rapidly growing mega and giga warehouses even more efficient. And sustainable. And healthier for the workers.
