BUSINESS INSIGHT
BUSINESS IN THE AGE OF ROBOTICS
A panel session at the CBI Annual Conference 2016 exploring the impact of robotics on business gave insights into current practice and a tantalising glimpse of the future. Relocate’s Fiona Murchie was there.
A
t the CBI’s 2016 Annual Conference, Tom Cheshire, technology correspondent for Sky News, led a panel discussion exploring the impact of robotics on business. If we accept the premise that, to create a truly great business,
humans and machines will need to work together, it makes sense for all organisations to start considering the application of technology in their business and what skills and knowledge will be wanted for the future. The panel members brought different perspectives to the
discussion. They were Professor Chris Melhuish, director of the Bristol Robotics Laboratory, Tom Athron, group development director of the John Lewis Partnership, Chris Allam, managing director of future programmes and services at BAE Systems, and Ian Funnell, UK managing director of ABB.
John Lewis now has three automated warehouses in Milton
Keynes. Tom Athron explained that automation and robots provided the opportunity to enter new markets and look for new revenues. They allowed the company to offer new things to customers, such as the ‘click and collect’ service, whereby, if a customer ordered an item by eight o’clock in the evening, they could pick it up the next day in Waitrose. On the issue of data for a brand like John Lewis, which has
‘love and trust’ at its heart, Tom Athron felt that protecting data had to be at the top of the agenda. The challenge was to find ways that were secure and safe, and to use information collected in a way that was intelligent and ref lected customers’ needs. Chris Melhuish introduced the topic by speaking brief ly about the technologies most of us are not even hearing about. A good
20 | Re:locate | Winter 2016/17
Carolyn Fairbairn, CBI
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