March 1, 2024
At ProMat 2023 Phantom Auto had remote operators working from the show floor in Chicago, remotely moving materials and driving forklifts in customer facilities located around the country.
One Phantom operator was remotely driving a forklift 489 miles away at a Kenco Logistics facility in Chattanooga, TN.
We sat down for a chat at ProMat with Kristi Montgomery, Vice President, Innovation, Research & Development at Kenco, to discuss how Kenco is working with Phantom Auto's remote operation technology to expand employment opportunities in the supply chain.
Solving Customer Problems through Innovation
Kenco Logistics has been ranked a top 10 third-party logistics (3PL) company in the U.S. for the past 10 years. Since its start as a single warehouse in 1950, Kenco has prioritized innovation to "identify new technologies that could potentially transform the industry," Montgomery says.
Two ways Kenco sees Phantom Auto's solution transforming logistics? For solving the persistent labor problems that plague the industry today, and helping companies move toward the automated supply chain solutions of the future.
"Automation is not capable of doing a lot of tasks because they require human thought processes," she says. "I see [Phantom] as truly a bridge to automation."
Diversifying the Labor Pool with Phantom Auto
Expanding the labor pool is a big focus for Kenco.
Phantom Auto's remote operator solution can solve this problem by providing access to remote drivers from anywhere, connecting people who want to work with jobs that need to be filled.
Remote operation technology allows companies to access a broader range of qualified operators, and opens up opportunities for people such as individuals with disabilities or those living in remote areas.
Another challenge? While a number of warehouse workers are moving into retirement years, fewer younger workers are joining the supply chain workforce.
"There's not nearly as many people coming out of college that want to be in our industry," she says. "We as an industry have not made ourselves attractive to the outcoming workforce."
With Phantom's technology, remote operators can work from home or office environments behind video consoles, instead of out on the potentially hazardous production floor. The modern nature of these digital jobs can appeal to a younger audience.
"If I can make it fun, if I can make it more like a video game environment, now I can start attracting a lot different generation," Montgomery says.
What Attracted Kenco to Phantom Auto?
Besides solving labor pain points, Phantom's remote operation technology helps with one of Kenco's core tenets: safety.
"We want to make our employees as safe as possible," Montgomery says. "When I move a person from being out on a production floor in an industrial environment to sitting behind a desk, that's a huge change from a safety perspective."
Phantom's human-in-the-loop solution was another attraction for Kenco.
"As we see customers trying to transform to automation, there's a little bit of a fear factor to going fully autonomous," she says.
"What Phantom brings to the table is there's still a human in the picture. There's still somebody that can intervene and make sure if anything goes wrong, it's not a drastic failure with a piece of automation crashing my racks."
"There's still a human in control," Montgomery says. "And that's a comfort factor for a lot of my customers."
For the full video interview with Kristi Montgomery, visit Phantom Auto's YouTube page.
About Phantom Auto
Phantom Auto specializes in remote operation of all logistics vehicles. Phantom’s human-centric interoperable solutions enable people to remotely supervise, assist, and drive vehicle fleets from up to thousands of miles away—including forklifts, robots, trucks, and more. By decoupling labor from location, the company increases labor access and retention, safety, productivity, and resilience across the supply chain. For more information about Phantom, visit www.phantomauto.com.
