Automated Robo-Warehouse in Anheuser-Busch InBev (AB InBev) - Challenges and Opportunities

Automated robo-warehouse in Anheuser-Busch InBev (AB InBev)
Student name and report front sheet
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Contents
Description.......................................................................................................................................3
Literature search..............................................................................................................................3
Challenges....................................................................................................................................4
Opportunities................................................................................................................................5
Scenario development......................................................................................................................5
Introduction..................................................................................................................................5
Industry 4.0..................................................................................................................................5
Supply chain- from lean manufacturing to virtual reality............................................................6
Research description and methodology.......................................................................................6
Social research.............................................................................................................................6
Case study....................................................................................................................................6
Conclusion.......................................................................................................................................7
References........................................................................................................................................7

Description
The company considered in this paper is named as Anheuser-Busch InBev. It is situated in the
UK and has stores in various corners of the world. This is the world’s largest beer brewer which
has deployed the warehouse technology at its largest UK brewery in Magor, South Wales. The
company aspires to imitate the same in various other stores present worldwide, making the
technology global (Iqbal & Shalij, 2016). The robo-warehouse is developed by consoveyo and it
will reduce the carbon footprint of the particular brewery by 605 tonnes of co2 as it will lead to
the replacement of transportation with the use of robo-warehouse (Goffnett, 2016). The
technology will enable to retrieve any one of the stored pallets in 60 seconds. In addition to this,
the robo will help meet the demand of customers of the company. Its customers are affluent
people demanding Budweiser and Stella Artois. So the robo-warehouse will fasten the work,
reduce carbon footprint, and meet the demand. The company has the commitment to reduce its
carbon footprints by 25% against 2017 baseline by 2025. This is equal to taking 1.5 million cars
off the year. Thus it has a sustainable future and good for customers, company, and the
environment (Szozda, 2017).
Literature search
The phrase ‘fourth industrial revolution’ was first used by the Klaus Schwab, chairman of the
World Economic Forum and it was first discussed in the World Economic Forum (WEF) in 2016
(Aqlan et al., 2016). The beginning of the industrial revolution took place in 18th to 19th century

in Europe and America (Barky, 2016). This period was marked by the development of a steam
engine that led to the conversion of rural and agrarian society into an urban and industrialized
society. Iron and Textile industries played important role in this revolution known as the First
Industrial Revolution (Ambilikumar et al., 2016).
The second Industrial took place between 1870 to1914. Before the First World War, the
technological developments like phonograms, telephone, light bulb, and the internal combustion
engine took place in the developed countries. It led to further industrialization and expansion of
industries like iron and textile, oil and electricity etc. the consumption of electricity was
increased and the technology of electricity reached to mass population (Birhanu et al., 2016).
The Third Industrial Revolution is the phase currently going on. It started in about 1980s and
continued in the 21st century. It is characterized by the digital revolution (Bottani et al., 2015).
This age is related to advancement in life with computer and information technology. The
technology entered production and services sector. It reached worldwide and people got
connected with each other. There have been various technological developments which brought
digital revolution (Carranza & Valdivia, 2018). Various search engines like google, yahoo etc.
became a popular name and use of social media sites have reached the zenith. The way the
organizations work or operate has also been changed with the change in sophisticated
technologies.
The fourth industrial revolution is the phase characterized by further development in the
technology (Goffnett, 2016). It includes robotics, artificial intelligence, internet of things, cloud
computing, digital transformation and many other technological advancements. According to
Klaus Schwab, this age is less concerned with the technology itself, more concerned with
communication and advancement resulting due to this technological feat. This industrial