Honeywell to open advanced warehouse automation R&D center In Czech Republic

Honeywell recently announced plans to build a new advanced research and development (R&D) testing facility for its Honeywell Intelligrated warehouse automation business to meet growing demand for technologies that enable faster, more accurate supply chains.

The 150,000-plus square foot (14,000 square meter), state-of-the-art facility will be built on Honeywell’s Brno, Czech Republic, campus – home to Honeywell’s existing research and development hub for Central and Eastern Europe – and is expected to open in mid-2022. The facility will enable Honeywell hardware and software engineers to design, prototype and test innovative warehouse automation systems used by logistics companies to improve the accuracy, efficiency and throughput of packages within distribution centers and warehouses.

Toward the latter part of 2022, Honeywell will open a customer training facility at the new site. The company will hire dozens of highly skilled technical specialists over the next 18 months as the facilities come online.

“For businesses and consumers alike, expectations regarding e-commerce and logistics have changed rapidly, spurred on by the impact of COVID-19,” said Ben Cardwell, president of Honeywell Intelligrated. “This means a growing reliance on cutting-edge technologies that can automate and accelerate distribution centers, warehouses and other parts of the supply chain. The emerging technologies we are developing in Brno will help meet that demand head on.”

The facility is Honeywell’s first European test and development site for its portfolio of digitally enabled technologies for supply chains, which spans conveyors, sortation systems, palletizers and robotics, automated storage and retrieval systems, warehouse software and voice- and light-directed picking technologies. Once fully operational, warehouse and logistics companies from across Europe will use the facility to test, prototype and train on Honeywell’s technologies to help them maintain an advantage in what is an increasingly dynamic and competitive market.

The new facility extends Honeywell’s warehouse automation capabilities in Central and Eastern Europe, following this year’s opening of the company’s Intelligrated advanced manufacturing site in Chorzów, Poland, where many of the systems being developed at Brno will be assembled.

Honeywell Intelligrated operates multiple testing/customer training facilities in the United States, including a robotics innovation hub in Pittsburgh, a customer demo loop in Mason, Ohio, and software innovation arm in Atlanta.