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I had a fascinating conversation with Brett Wood, the president and CEO of Toyota Material Handling North America (TMHNA). Wood noted that if you based your view of the economy on television news, you’d think we’re in the doldrums. Now, the long-predicted recession may be coming – we’ve never had this many consecutive years of growth without a downturn in…
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It’s always about timing right? I met Yaro Tenzer, one of the co-founders and former CEO of RightHand Robotics in Las Vegas at a conference hosted by the system integrator SDI Element Logic. When I spoke the other day to Yaro and Brian D. Owen, the newly-appointed CEO of RightHand, we couldn’t figure on the exact year, but it was…
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No one questions whether warehousing and distribution is in the midst of an automation boom. The last decade or so witnessed the introduction of goods-to-person picking technologies like shuttles; autonomous mobile robots for robots-to-goods picking; and now technologies for autonomous lift trucks and robotic trailer unloading. Then you have piece-picking robots, which hold the promise of automating the most labor-intensive…
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Radial Louisville, Ky. Size: 500,000 square feet Throughput: 20,000 parcels per day, with capacity to process 50,000 parcels per day during peak Products Handled: Health and beauty products SKUs: 3,000 Shifts per day/ Days per week: 2 shifts per day, 7 days a week Read the full feature article on Radials robotic putwall operations here. Radial’s Kentucky facility was designed…
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Back in 2013, Medline worked with Swisslog to become the first company in the United States to implement a robotic goods-to-person solution from AutoStore. The original site was a 600,000-square-foot distribution center north of Chicago in Libertyville, Ill. That first implementation, featured in the June 2015 issue of Modern, sported 43 bots in a relatively small area plus four goods-to-person…
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Bowery Farming, a vertical farming company based in New York City, is using automated storage and retrieval system, or ASRS, technology to meet changing consumer food preferences driven by freshness and sustainability. “We’re building the future of food through smart farms and proprietary technology that is simpler, safer and vastly more sustainable than traditional agriculture,” said Justin Frankert, vice president…
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Listen to this episode wherever you get your podcasts. Sure, it takes a great robot to create a materials handling solution. But, as more robots are deployed in warehouses and distribution centers, operators are coming to realize that the software is as important – maybe even more important – than the hardware to get the most value from robotics. On…
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Back in 2013, Medline Industries LP worked with Swisslog to become the first company in the U.S. to implement a robotic goods-to-person system from AutoStore. The original site was a 600,000-square-foot distribution center north of Chicago in Libertyville, Ill. That first deployment, featured in the June 2015 issue of Modern Materials Handling (a sibling publication to Robotics 24/7), sported 43…
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Back in 2013, Medline worked with Swisslog to become the first company in the United States to implement a robotic goods-to-person solution from AutoStore. The original site was a 600,000-square-foot distribution center north of Chicago in Libertyville, Ill. That first implementation, featured in the June 2015 issue of Modern, sported 43 bots in a relatively small area plus four goods-to-person…
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In late August, Gap Inc. opened its newest Customer Experience Center in Longview, Texas. The 850,000-sq.-ft. distribution center is dedicated to e-fulfillment for Old Navy in the Southwest and is part of Gap’s continued focus on enhancing the quality of its customer service. Earlier this summer, the San Francisco-based retailer expanded operations at its facility in Fishkill, N.Y. It added…
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In late August, Gap Inc., a company I’ve covered over the years in Modern Materials Handling, opened its newest Customer Experience Center in Longview, Texas. The 850,000 square foot distribution center is dedicated to e-fulfillment for Old Navy in the Southwest and is part of Gap Inc.’s continued focus on enhancing the quality of its customer service; earlier this summer,…
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I will never forget ProMat 2007. That’s the first industry event where I saw what we now call autonomous mobile robots (AMR); more importantly, these were robots targeting warehousing and distribution. The exhibitors were Kiva Systems, now part of Amazon; RMT Robotics, now part of Cimcorp; and Seegrid. Each had relatively small booths where their vehicles moved around the space…
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I will never forget ProMat 2007. That’s the first industry event where I saw what we now call autonomous mobile robots or AMRs. More importantly, these robots were targeting warehousing and distribution. The exhibitors were Kiva Systems, now part of Amazon; RMT Robotics, now part of Cimcorp; and Seegrid. Each had a relatively small booth in which its vehicles moved…
Found in
I will never forget ProMat 2007. That’s the first industry event where I saw what we now call autonomous mobile robots (AMR); more importantly, these were robots targeting warehousing and distribution. The exhibitors were Kiva Systems, now part of Amazon; RMT Robotics, now part of Cimcorp; and Seegrid. Each had relatively small booths where their vehicles moved around the space…
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Businesses have never been under more pressure to keep their customers satisfied. They’re still contending with the aftershocks of the COVID-19 pandemic, ongoing labor and supply shortages, and a never-ending string of disruptions. These challenges will pass. Other changes, like the exponential increase in e-commerce sales and direct-to-consumer deliveries, are permanent, and automation can play a role. Distribution centers (DCs)…
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
