The 8 Warehouse Jobs That Robots Can’t Do 

• Robots are not yet a complete solution for ecommerce warehouses. Human workers remain essential for decision-making, problem-solving, and quality control.

• Many core warehouse tasks, such as buying, returns handling, and inventory control, still require human judgement and flexibility that robots cannot replicate.

• Software automation, particularly warehouse management systems (WMS), delivers immediate efficiency gains by improving accuracy, visibility, and workflow execution.

• The most effective approach today is a hybrid model, using automation to support workers, not replace them, to drive productivity and reduce errors.

Robots have the world at their metal fingertips. The potential of robotics is massive. The promise that they give to improve efficiency across all areas of the warehouse is impressive. So, what’s the catch?

• At the moment, they’re not the easy cure that everyone wants them to be. They’re largely unproven.
• They’re not yet fit for use in most ecommerce warehouses, where people will remain the most important resource for the foreseeable future.

What are the jobs that robots can’t do? And how can automation be employed to support human workers in the warehouse? Click through the slides, or scroll down this blog, to find out.

1. Buying
2. Picking
3. Receiving inbound
4. Put away
5. Replenishment
6. Returns
7. Stock control
8. Inventory counting
9. FAQs

The responsibilities involved with buying can be split into three separate functions:

• Deciding which products to buy.
• Deciding which supplier to buy from.
• Deciding on the freight that should be used.

There are some pretty cool picking robots out there. If you haven’t seen how Ocado’s incredibly impressive ‘swarm’ of robots handle picking at its distribution centre, check out the video below.

These robots look cool, and they undoubtedly improve efficiency, but they aren’t yet ready to deliver on ROI for the majority. Ocado’s investments haven’t had a payoff in real-terms; profits and share values are decreasing and the grocer still needs an additional £150m from their shareholders to make sure that the march of the robots is well oiled.

Until these robots can prove that they can deliver on ROI, they’re useless to most ecommerce companies. Far more useful: intelligent software like a WMS which speeds up the picking process and makes it 100% accurate every time.

Robots will have a role to play with inbound deliveries, but that role will be very much supportive. Breaking down the responsibilities at this stage and it’s clear that some functions require a level of concentration, physicality and tact that robots don’t have (yet):

• Measuring compliance.
• Managing human resource requirements.
•  Determining whether items were delivered as expected.
• Breaking down boxes and rebuilding ready for put away.
• Quality control assurance.

This area needs an overhaul to increase accuracy and speed. Software automation can help with the more administrative tasks. And physical automation with the breaking down of boxes, all aspects will still need people to work.

Here, physical automation will be a great help in speeding up the put away process. But again, it won’t be able to run autonomously. It should work hand in glove with a human workforce. Walking is the biggest time-waster in a warehouse. That’s why why physical automation will be such a godsend.

• Physical automation that speeds up the movement of goods, and people, from point A to point B should be welcomed.
• This doesn’t need to be complicated: it could be something that a worker rides on around the warehouse, or a conveyor belt that helps to transport goods.
• More complex robotics will need to prove return on investment (ROI) to have any viability.

Replenishment, or the act of moving items from bulk to pick locations, is a job for a man or a woman with their machines in tow. They need to know the right amount of stock to bring across from bulk, and they need to transport this stock in a timely fashion.

While there are robots in development to take over all replenishment tasks, the overall benefits are not yet strong enough to justify the investment.

But improvements still need to be made. That’s where software comes in to help out with:

• Improving warehouse layouts and organisation.
• Eliminating stock-outs from inaccurate forecasts.
• Delivering real cost benefits through removing human error and increasing efficiencies.

Currently, this is a job that is almost exclusively being handled by the ground staff in the warehouse, albeit in some cases with the assistance of a WMS that helps to keep track of subsequent inventory changes. It’s a process that needs to be speeded up.

Physical and software automation should be introduced here to help move things along a bit faster:

• Conveyors can speed up the movement of goods from when they were received to the returns desk.
• Software can help out greatly with quality assurance.
• And more physical automation can transport goods for sale to the appropriate area within the warehouse.

So, humans are still very much needed at returns; they could just be helped out a bit more with the right technology.

Here’s how stock control works in too many ecommerce warehouses:

• People see that items are running low or have run out in a particular bay.
• Then the decision to restock is made, on the fly.

Not every warehouse is as bad as this. Many have rules in place to ensure that stock levels are regularly checked and topped up, but there’s still a huge reliance on humans. Robots can’t help here. But software can.

Clunky, manual methods should soon die out. Technology currently exists, like a WMS, which makes controlling stock levels far easier for the people responsible. This isn’t technology which will replace humans; it’s technology designed to make their lives easier. 

Humans are needed for inventory counting. This isn’t something that robotics can feasibly handle in the majority of warehouses. Neither is it the best use of funds or resource. But the amount of time spent counting inventory, and the resource that’s dedicated to it, needs to be reduced Inventory counting can, and should, be made more efficient with the help of intelligent software.

With a WMS in place, the role and the responsibility almost disappears. It deals with real-time inventory counts, so the data is continually being updated within its system each and every time an item is scanned.

This means that the job’s already being taken care of as warehouse workers engage with their other tasks. Here, physical robotics won’’t lead to a more streamlined workforce. But software just might.

If robots can’t deliver the results your warehouse needs, it’s time for a smarter solution. Book a Descartes Peoplevox demo today.