Found in Robotics News & Content, with a score of 64.20
December 30, 2020
…thrive in 2020. Ship-from-store and curbside pickup have pushed micro-fulfillment centers—smaller sites that leverage goods-to-person automation to fill online orders closer to customers—from a fringe concept to mainstream. Warehouse/DC operations and materials handling automation providers are not standing still. Starting on page 26, senior editor Roberto Michel takes a closer look at the supply chain challenges brought on by micro-fulfillment as well as how automation vendors and warehouse/DC operations are working to meet this new, complex demand. “The thing that strikes me is that the trend involves much more than whether or not one can ‘shrink down’ goods-to-person automation for…
Found in Robotics News & Content, with a score of 1.43
December 28, 2020
If ever a time was ripe for robotic lift truck sales to take off, right now might be it. With the COVID-19 pandemic accelerating e-commerce for many types of goods, fulfillment centers and manufacturing plants need to move a high volume of pallets to keep stores stocked up and e-commerce order picking systems or manual pick locations topped off with goods. And while unemployment has risen since last year, it remains challenging to secure enough workers—including skilled lift truck operators—to keep goods flowing to consumers. Sales of driverless robotic trucks stand to benefit under these conditions. Vendors say that return…
Found in Robotics News & Content, with a score of 20.20
December 28, 2020
Markforged has launched Onyx ESD, a new high-strength composite material for the electronics manufacturing industry. This year, many industries have leveraged additive manufacturing to withstand supply chain disruptions due to COVID-19. Use of this technology for the production of electronics, however, has been limited due to barriers. Electronics manufacturers must use materials that meet electrostatic discharge (ESD) safety requirements to avoid damaging a product or critical component during production. Now, with the launch of Onyx ESD, electronics manufacturers can utilized additive manufacturing. This material is a high-performance static-dissipative version of Markforged’s flagship composite base material Onyx, a micro carbon fiber-filled…
Found in Robotics News & Content, with a score of 4.70
December 16, 2020
Berkshire Grey, a robotics and artificial intelligence company delivering retail, ecommerce, and logistics fulfillment automation technologies for global companies, today announced the Berkshire Grey Partner Alliance program to offer supply chain customers more options for advanced robotics solutions. The partner program allows customers to work with world-class solution providers, accelerate the benefits of AI-based robotics in their distribution centers, and flexibly scale their businesses when and where they need it most. “The need for advanced robotics has never been greater and the skills and technology required to implement intelligent robotic solutions are pronounced,” said Berkshire Grey CEO Tom Wagner. “The…
Found in Robotics News & Content, with a score of 7.07
December 14, 2020
Getting orders to customers quickly, accurately and at a competitive price attracts customers to omni-channel retailers like Office Depot. As one of the biggest providers of office supplies in the U.S. market, Office Depot ships about 600,000 packages each day to customers across the United States in what involves a mix of e-commerce, retail and business-to-business (B2B) orders. Fulfilling orders on that scale, however, can be a labor intensive, physically demanding job without technology solutions to help lessen the amount of walking and other physical tasks. With demand shifting across e-commerce, B2B and retail, Office Depot is fulfilling more customer…
Found in Robotics News & Content, with a score of 7.30
December 14, 2020
Los Angeles-based Port Logistics Group (PLG), an omnichannel logistics services provider, recently announced it has teamed up with Wilmington, Mass.-based Locus Robotics, a provider of autonomous mobile robots for warehouses for a major initiative at PLG’s facility in Chino, Calif., in which PLG will deploy more than 150 autonomous mobile robots, or LocusBots, for its fulfillment processes. The companies said that this collaboration will augment warehouse productivity, order pick accuracy, and workplace ergonomics and safety. And they added that PLG and Whiplash, PLG’s end-to-end e-commerce platform are well-positioned to meet the ongoing surge in e-commerce demand, which has been a…
Found in Robotics News & Content, with a score of 15.97
December 01, 2020
According to World Economic Forum, over 1.2 billion children are out of the classroom, propelling a rapid move to online learning. A similar change is also happening among the professional adult learners, The pandemic is changing how engineers learn the tools of the trade, according to two leading CAD training and education providers. The shift from in-person classes to remote learning was incremental before the Coronavirus, but the shutdown and travel restrictions are accelerating it. “We started transitioning a few of our courses to online instructor-led delivery, but [the pandemic] brought it to the forefront,” said Kevin Kuker, VP of…
Found in Robotics News & Content, with a score of 4.02
November 23, 2020
Renowned as the company behind the leading direct-to-consumer brand for premium adult incontinence supplies, NorthShore Care Supply has evolved from a catalog Internet retailer to a direct-to-consumer brand of high-absorbency adult diapers and incontinence supplies in the United States. In doing so, NorthShore’s brand has undergone significant expansion, as the company has grown by more than 30% annually during the last three years. With this extensive growth in mind, the timing was right to make proper investments, which would allow for scale down the road. One such investment was a move into a new 173,000-square-foot facility. However, just as the…
Found in Robotics News & Content, with a score of 12.03
November 23, 2020
Locus Robotics, a leader in autonomous mobile robots (AMR) for fulfillment warehouses, today announced that it has passed the quarter-billion (250,000,000) units picked volume level heading into the 2020 holiday peak season. Locus robots now pick more than ten-thousand units every 15 minutes, a 263% increase in units picked vs. the same period last year. Locus’s 250 million pick milestone reflects the rapidly growing volumes at customer sites throughout this pandemic-impacted year, with some customers’ daily orders often reaching Black Friday levels. Across the installed base, Locus is now regularly exceeding volume levels of 1 million picks per day. “Our…
Found in Robotics News & Content, with a score of 3.93
November 23, 2020
I live in a state whose motto is “Live Free or Die.” If the third-party logistics (3PL) industry had a motto these days, it might be “Innovate or Die.” “At NFI, we have followed the guidance ‘if you’re not growing, you’re dying,’” says Sid Brown, CEO. “Throughout each generation since our founding in 1932, we have been strategic and creative in how we grew. Today, innovation is essential in how we grow and enhance the value we bring to customers.” That is especially true of the e-fulfillment side of the industry, where shippers are counting on 3PLs to compete with…
Found in Robotics News & Content, with a score of 3.11
November 20, 2020
Non-profit food rescue organizations City Harvest and The Greater Boston Food Bank (GBFB) have joined forces with industrial automation pioneer Berkshire Grey to bring much-needed food to thousands of families this Thanksgiving. The partnership will help feed thousands of New York and New England families through special packages of Thanksgiving foods such as potatoes, beans and stuffing that are in high demand. As part of this effort, Berkshire Grey is donating 40,000 pounds of food. In addition, Berkshire Grey’s robotic picking, packing, and sortation technology will efficiently select and rapidly package the shelf-stable food into ready-for-distribution boxes. Since its creation…
Found in Robotics News & Content, with a score of 22.90
November 20, 2020
In early 2000, Dr. Karthik Ramani experimented with a shape-based search system that allows engineers to use visual references to identify and search for mechanical objects, but it soon became clear to him the computing power was insufficient. Twenty years later, with far more computing power at his disposal, he revived the project, applying machine learning (ML) to crawl through a database of gearboxes, bearings, brakes, clutches, motors, nuts, bolts, and washers. The outcome is an open-source annotated database of more than 58,000 3D mechanical parts. Using machine learning to sort mechanical parts Ramani, a Distinguished Professor in Mechanical Engineering…
