The American retailer Walmart is always more robots to work for you. The automated assistant to relieve employees and reduce costs. The workforce and the trade unions are alarmed.
For Elizabeth Walker it is the beginning of a beautiful friendship. “Every Hero needs a helper,” says the Brand Manager, as you announced at the beginning of April, your employer, Walmart sets in the future to a robot. Man and machine, that was like Luke Skywalker and R2D2, the main characters of the famous Star Wars trilogy. “The correct Form of support to help our employees to be in the Job successfully.”
The American supermarket chain Walmart is one of the first companies to dare the automated advance in the retail business. Since a few weeks, the retail giant has been testing various forms of robots that are to engage the employees under the arms. During the regular Hours, the silent helpers roll through the aisles, scanning the shelves, MOP the floors and log in, should be a article in the wrong place. “It’s not about a fantasy world,” says Walker, “but to save customers in real life, time and money.”
Walmart says the robots help the employees and do not replace
Two billion dollars for efficiency
The automated helpers are Walmarts latest weapon in the fight against Online retailers like Amazon and Alibaba are. With 11,000 stores operating in the retail giant in the world, nearly half of them in the United States. 90 percent of Americans do not live more than ten kilometers away from the nearest Walmart, and that was exactly long the unbeatable advantage to the competition to cope with from the Internet. However, since more and more customers are shopping online and the operating cost of the average 17,000 square meters of large Supercenter are unlikely to refinance still, forcing himself to Walmart for the automated Revolution.
Two billion dollars has been invested in the retail giant last year to trim its markets across the country on efficiency. Much of the money flowed into the automation, which aims to optimize the processes in the stores. The robot is currently just under 4000 pieces are distributed in U.S. stores – are working more than twice as fast as their human counterparts, in individual cases even faster: inventories, for the employees, usually two weeks need to do the machines in just two and a half hours. Cleaning personnel needed now only for hard to reach Places. When unloading of the Goods from the Truck load straps help immediately. Instead, eight employees it needs at the time of freight acceptance only four and it was a good thing, argues Wal-Mart. Finally, it is the staff annoying and monotonous work. “The step into the future is a step in the direction of zufriedenerer employees,” says Brand Manager of walkers.
Preparation of the cleaning wizard
Trade unions are sounding the Alarm
For unions like the United Food and Commercial Workers International Union (UFCW), America’s largest private organization, is this argument a mockery. In the past, workers ‘ associations had criticised the labour practices of the retail giant, the wages are always Low, Sabotage of work, representatives, the questionable handling of sick days and the increasing number of half-day forces, is making headlines. “Don’t you fool yourself,” warned the workers ‘ Association in December last year: “Walmart is not about to make employees and customers happier”.
Up to 5000 jobs could be cut due to automation, at Walmart, calculates UFCW. The robots are so absolute Job Killer, and no satisfaction guarantee. The increasing number of half-day forces to ensure that employees would have to work more, said Andrea Dehlendorf, Co-Director of the Organization United for Respect (OUR) at Walmart. “Not a single Person I talked to said that their work would be easier.”
We call it the Clean Robot: Here at work
Michael Dastugue, US chief financial officer at Walmart, the job losses no secret. “Through our development, there will certainly be some of the tasks and the Bodies cease to be,” he said at an analyst conference in March. Employees would not need to fear for their employment, they would be easy otherwise. “We all need to be flexible and learn with the change, deal with it.”
“The most exciting time in retail”
This is exactly what but many employees are afraid, because not everyone can be as flexible as it could have been Walmart like. Particularly Employees are affected in the low-wage sector, in which the automation will strike a particularly strong. Around 3.4 million people working, according to UFCW in the United States alone as a cashier – Make, the elimination through automated checkouts, where the customer scans his goods, already now, more and more. Education and training sessions are a way to differentiate themselves from the robots. But not everyone have the Talent to be able to make challenging work and to make a career in Silicon Valley, argues UFCW.
Experts like Sterling Hawkings see in Walmarts foray, nevertheless, an important step in the direction of the future. “We are witnessing the most exciting time in retail for more than 100 years,” says Hawkins, one of the researchers at the Center for Advancing Retail & Technology, the magazine Forbes. Unlike in the logistics industry or in the production of things such as automation, artificial intelligence and robotics are only now in the commercial for everyday use and works. “Finally the technology is at a point where it expects a technically and economically for the company.”