What is RaaS in a Warehouse?

If you know what SaaS stands for – Software as a Service – or IaaS, which is Infrastructure as a Service, or even PaaS, which is Platform as a Service, then you have part of the acronym RaaS already figured out. But what does the acronym fully stand for and what does it mean for your warehouse or fulfillment center?

What’s the Definition of RaaS?

RaaS stands for Robots as a Service, which is defined as obtaining autonomous mobile robots (AMRs) with a cloud-based subscription service instead of purchasing the robots outright. With RaaS, your facility’s automation costs shift from capital expenses (CapEx), which refers to major purchases that you plan to use for years, to day-to-day operational expenses (OpEx). The minimal initial investment means a simpler budget approval process and dramatically shortens your time to ROI from years to months.

When your warehouse brings on autonomous mobile robots (AMRs) in a RaaS model, you are paying for the robots you need when your facility needs them. That could be during a normal peak season for your warehouse or when a lengthy special promotion is going out and you’re going to need more robots to help your human associates fulfill those orders.

Scale for Peak with RaaS

The peak demand season for a warehouse or fulfillment center can be at any time, with sharp upturns in orders happening before the start of school; on Black Friday or Cyber Monday; in the summer for pool supplies; and the Christmas and Hanukkah season. Warehouse operators know they’re going to be busier at these times, so they hire seasonal, temporary labor to help fulfill the increased orders. Dwindling worker availability has been an issue for the past few years, making temporary hiring a challenge.

So, what can your warehouse do if you can’t find temporary workers to add on to your current associates? RaaS makes it easy to simply bring more robots into your facility. Your AMRs will work alongside your human associates and do the traveling for them, which can be up to 12 miles a day. At the end of the day, your workers won’t be fatigued from walking and can focus on picking more items.

When your peak season is over and demand resumes to normal levels, the extra robots are simply returned to the supplier until they are needed again. This offers a simple, cost-effective solution to the issue of flexibility and scalability.

Locus RaaS

Locus Robots as a Service (RaaS) is a subscription-based program that makes it easy to add powerful autonomous mobile robotics to your operations on-demand. Meet your year-round needs with bots that match your baseline volume and scale by temporarily adding bots when peak demand or seasonal volume increases.

Locus RaaS lets you shift capital expenses for automation to operational or labor expenses. The minimal initial investment means a simpler budget approval process and dramatically shortens your time to ROI from years to months. There are no hidden expenses or maintenance contracts. You’ll always have the latest software updates and hardware. And, you’ll be fully supported by our world-class operations support team that makes sure everything is always running smoothly 24/7/365.

Want to be ready for your next peak season with RaaS?

Let’s talk!