Robots-as-a-Service in the Warehouse. Want PEAK with that?

By: Trey Bell

As a teenager growing up building lake houses and piers, I never thought about robots but they certainly would have been useful. I had a side gig cutting grass for many of the folks in my Grandad’s neighborhood. a knock on a door, a 30 second negotiated rate, and someone could wake up on Saturday to either the summer scent of their fresh cut yard, or the automated rumbling of a non-propelled lawn mower being pushed across their yard, with the occasional shot gun sound of a pebble that was being processed. While to me it was money for cutting grass, the actual value being delivered to my customers was completely outside my realm of understanding at that time. Implied and included in the grass cutting service was 1) delivery of the lawn mower (capital equipment) and me to the cutting site, 2) fuel for the lawn mower, 3) expenses associated with getting the blades periodically sharpened so the grass wasn’t brown from a coarse cut, 4) standard consumable expenses like new mufflers, new blade guards, new oil and air filters, and new oil, and 5) a commitment to making sure the service was performed on-schedule (thanks to my Grandad’s help). Eventually with a new weed-eater, a set of manual hedge clippers, and an edging device, the grass-cutting activity evolved to a yard maintenance service. It was a win-win situation where my clients were able to pay a single amount and get a delivered aesthetic enhancement, and the accompanying pride, to their homestead, without the need of ownership of all the components required to deliver the result. The client paid a few dollars for turn-key reliable execution of something they were not necessarily skilled to do, or “garage-enabled” (e.g. lawn equipment) to complete. It was a foundational service model.

Back then, the yard maintenance service was being delivered using equipment that was likely specified, designed, assembled, and shipped by a single company. Today, it’s possible that the design of the lawn mower was outsourced to a design house by the manufacturer of the device. If the lawn mower is an autonomous cutting device, driven by wireless communication to a logic controller, then it’s likely the electronics manufacturing was outsourced to a contract manufacturer, and the selling company now only worries about intellectual property