In the 2001 animated comedy film “Monsters, Inc.,” the city of Monstropolis harnesses the screams of human children for energy. At the Monsters Inc. factory, skilled monsters employed as “scarers” venture into the human world to scare children and harvest their screams through doors that activate portals to children’s bedroom closets. While the work is considered dangerous, as human children are believed to be toxic and capable of harming monsters, energy production is declining because children are becoming less easily scared, and the corporation’s CEO, Henry J. Waternoose III, is determined to prevent the company’s collapse.
Although monsters are uninvolved, in the real world of beverage operations, today’s labor shortage is leading more warehouses to embrace automation to boost productivity. As automated guided vehicles (AGVs) are one type of technology to help overcome labor shortages in the warehouse, experts note that this technology provides operators a means to fill the resource gap, allowing human labor to be allocated to more complex tasks.