These terms are frequently tossed around quite in most discussions about industry, production, and retail, and more often than not, they’re used interchangeably. However, the supply chain and material handling are not the same, and a clearer understanding of each is useful when business owners and management discuss how to address and fix pain points in their operations and workflow.

First, rest assured that the robot revolution is not like the zombie apocalypse conspiracies that have been turned into countless movies and TV shows. The robot revolution is related entirely to the advancements in automation that are beginning to dramatically affect (we won’t say “infect”) corporate America.

Currently, in the world of manufacturing, material handling, and logistics there are companies that are actively embracing automation and there are those who eventually will be forced to in order to survive.