【英文】美国智库报告：为什么政策制定者应该支持机器人自动化来解决物流设施的生产力紧缩（31页）

The average age of warehouses suggests that many do not have the layout or infrastructure to  support modern systems that can enable workers to produce more output in the face of growing  e-commerce demand. Installing robotic technologies is a time-consuming, expensive, and  disruptive process that often requires logistics facilities to adjust or temporarily suspend full  operations. Logistics facilities generally experience high levels of cost-based competition that  result in low profit margins and volatility and risks in the supply chain. As a result, many may be  risk averse to cost exposures.

Together, the average age of warehouses and the challenges facility managers face in installing  robotic systems likely have led managers to hire more workers to meet demand as e-commerce  has grown. However, output has not increased as much as employment. As a result, as seen in  figure 3, labor productivity (which is the ratio of output to hours worked) within the general  warehousing and storage industry has declined compared with employment levels and real  sectoral output. The response to the COVID-19 pandemic likely exacerbated this trend, as  workers implemented social distancing measures that disrupted operations.25 To increase labor  productivity, warehouses would need to pursue more automation instead of only hiring more  workers.