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You didn’t have to walk far at Modex 2018 to see some type of material handling robot edging by. There were many small, cart-sized autonomous mobile robots (AMR) moving around tugging carts or rolling shelves, collaborative robotic arms that do piece picking, robots with tilt tray sorter attachments or roller conveyor sections on top of them, and bigger robots to…
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Lift trucks are still the work horses of materials handling. For all the attention on autonomous mobile robots and other forms of robotics, nearly every DC uses manually operated lift trucks to receive goods, crossdock, build pallets for retail store replenishment, or for truck loading, with other duties in between. Lift trucks also happen to be heavy pieces of equipment,…
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Fully autonomous lift trucks aren’t in that many DCs just yet, but they are seen as a high-growth solution given issues like labor shortages and escalating fulfillment pressures. It’s estimated by research firm Interact Analysis that approximately 10,800 robotic lift trucks shipped globally in 2021, or about 0.6% of the total lift truck market. Still, the day may come when…
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Crown Equipment Corporation, one of the world’s largest material handling companies, today unveiled a new e-commerce site for U.S. customers. The online store, at shop.crown.com, provides customers with the ability to purchase select Crown products and thousands of forklift parts and supplies at any time from a computer, tablet or mobile device. More than 4,000 forklift parts and supplies from…
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Everyone knows forecasts are always wrong, however… When it comes to peak periods, a wrong forecast is not nearly as debilitating as a maintenance failure that shuts down equipment for any period of time. Whether peak is a few months, weeks or days, maintenance has to be up to date and out of the way of operations for the duration,…
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Brothers, Carl H. Dicke and Allen A. Dicke, founded Crown Equipment Corporation in New Bremen, Ohio, in 1945 with an unwavering commitment to customer service. Seventy-five years later, Crown is a widely-recognized, global material handling equipment manufacturer and technology provider with more than 16,100 employees worldwide serving many of the world’s most recognizable brands and category leaders. The fourth generation…
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NewCold Burley, Idaho Square Footage: 180,00 square feet footprint, with AS/RS storage reaching to 140 feet high Products Handled: Frozen food SKUs: 2,000 SKUs Throughput: Facility was designed to handle 3,500 pallets per day in and out. People/Shifts: 100 employees. Facility operates 24/7. NewCold’s 190,000-square-foot distribution center in Burley, Idaho, makes the most of automation to reduce handling. But some…
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Last year marked the fourth-straight year lift truck sales increased, with more than a quarter million units sold, according to the Industrial Truck Association. Meanwhile, the pace of fulfillment work continues to quicken, with multiple surveys showing pressure is being felt around shorter cycle times and increased customer demands. As a result of these trends, distribution center managers have more…
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You might wonder: What’s up with automatic guided vehicles (AGVs) these days? And it would be a good question. Some would say it’s all about automating labor out of inventory movement activities. Others would point to new options for optimizing workflow. And then, someone else would bring up the autonomous mobile robot (AMR). Really? Yes, AGVs have been around for…
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Kerry Logistics Network Limited, a leading logistics service provider in Asia, sought to improve picking operations for e-commerce where high volumes of small and irregular orders predominate. After introducing seven fully automated and programmed robotic butlers at its flagship facility in Hong Kong, the company has enhanced fulfillment efficiency and accuracy to meet the ever-growing consumer demands in online shopping.…
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HAI ROBOTICS, a global leader in Autonomous Case-handling Robotics (ACR) systems for warehouse order fulfillment, is celebrating its fifth anniversary at its new headquarters as it ranks among global unicorns according to this year’s unicorn ranking list from the Hurun Research Institute, the company recently announced. The company, a logistics warehousing automation solution provider that secured three rounds of funding…
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Pick-to-light remains a great picking technology, but it hasn’t remained the same. That is actually a good thing, as it’s evolving to become more flexible. Providers of light-directed solutions say the technology is no longer necessarily hardwired to shelf cubbies or used only for order picking. Light-directed solutions are also being paired with other technologies like wearable scanners—or can be…
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The newest thing in data capture isn’t so much a device people use to “capture” data with, it’s the autonomous gathering of data by sensors and other edge technologies. Even companies that provide mobile handhelds and other data capture devices are onboard with the notion that autonomous capture of real-time location data will be a boon to warehouse operations. “Data…
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When it comes to software for maintenance in distribution centers, being integrated is not the same thing as being rigid. While the trend is toward adding more data and functionality into a single computerized maintenance management system 〈CMMS〉, insisting on having everything in one CMMS may not be the answer for every DC. On a practical level, many DCs have…
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To protect profit margins and succeed in this ultra-competitive environment, operators are introducing more automation into their DCs. This requires the integration of new material handling equipment, processes and distribution software — daunting prospects to many operators. The increasing need for automation has helped to carve out WES’ role among other legacy distribution software. While WCS and WMS still play…
From geometry preparation to AI-assisted analysis, integrated CFD workflows…
Software-based GripperAI manages mixed picking through basic geometry
Safety, communication and motion control components enable smooth operation
North America’s largest robotics and automation event winds down
