Overcoming Three and a Half Barriers to Robotizing Warehouses
in the UAE and Saudi Arabia

Julia Bespala
Head of Marketing, Yango Robotics

Imagine the hum of machinery and the soft whirr of robotic motors. Robotic arms at packing stations, rows of towering shelves moving with precision along polished floors, while drones buzz overhead, scanning barcodes and updating inventory. This vision of a robotized warehouse is both exciting and somewhat unsettling — after all, we’ve all seen sci-fi movies where robots take over the world. Now, it’s happening in real life. Should we be scared?
Ever since Amazon implemented robotics in its warehouses, the entire industry has had to meet new standards, including the previously unimaginable same-day delivery. What used to be a fantasy has become a reality in only a few years. Today, more than 200,000 robotic units operate on various levels across Amazon’s global network, reducing fulfillment time by up to 50%.
At the same time, concerns and fears of job displacement among workers and the general public have grown louder — and not without reason.
Globally, automation has displaced around 1.7 million manufacturing jobs since 2000, and according to the Oxford Economics report, up to 20 million manufacturing jobs are set to be lost to robots by 2030. The latest advancements in AI, including AI-powered machine learning, which is revolutionizing robotics right now, have only accelerated this trend.
Let’s explore the barriers you might face when implementing robots in your warehouse, how to overcome them, and whether the “rise of robots” is truly an apocalyptic event.

If, when imagining a robot, you see a Terminator-like creature smarter and stronger than you, you’re not too far from the truth. It may not look like Arnold Schwarzenegger (yet!), but it will outperform any human in terms of strength, endurance, and consistency.
In other words, if you put a human against a robot to perform heavy lifting and management tasks in warehouses, the robot will win every time.
Unfortunately, it took some time for this fact to sink in. Human workers tried to keep up with the accelerated pace set by automated systems, which sometimes led to increased stress and injury rates among employees.
However, this doesn’t mean that human-robot interaction has to be like this, nor does it mean that a human will lose to a robot in other tasks.
As companies and people adapt to the new, robotized reality, more solutions are emerging that allow businesses to create new job opportunities based on human strengths that no robot can compete with. Here are some of the strengths we, humans, have and robots don’t:

• Adaptability
• Problem-solving
• Leadership and supervision
• Communication

Major players using robotics, such as Amazon, DHL, DB Schenker, and Procter & Gamble, recognize these strengths of their employees and have developed strategies to adapt their business. For example, Amazon has implemented significant training programs to help employees transition into new roles that work alongside robotics. The Amazon Technical Academy and the Machine Learning University are part of a $700 million investment to retrain a third of its U.S. workforce (about 100,000 workers) by 2025.
Apart from reskilling programs, companies focus on human-robot collaboration rather than complete automation of all workflows.
This approach helps address employees' fear of robotics implementation, avoid related risks, and optimize business models for better effectiveness. Despite the alarming stats of automation displacing millions of jobs, a World Economic Forum study offers a more positive estimation, stating that about 133 million jobs will be produced worldwide thanks to advances in technology.
Having a robot do the heavy lifting or complex calculations doesn’t sound so scary anymore, does it?

There are many ways to train your employees, both within your company and by partnering with other organizations. Here are some ideas:

• Develop custom in-house training programs to reskill and upskill your workforce.
• Partner with universities and training providers, such as the Robotics and Automation Society, Khalifa University, United Arab Emirates University, King Abdullah University of Science and Technology, and Prince Sultan University.
• Provide employees with online courses from platforms like Coursera, edX, and Udacity.