Kiva Systems was absolutely fundamental to the germination of the robotics community in Boston. The organization and its culture spawned many knowledgeable people and served as a feeder for Mass Robotics and many successful robotics start-up companies in the greater Boston area, and actually, globally. Prior to his time at Kiva, Mark Messina, currently CEO of Addverb Americas, began his career as a mechanical engineer working in the medical device and consumer products fields. It was this experience working at Philips – a company with and amazing process and dedication to quality, that attracted Kiva to Mark’s capabilities. In a meeting shortly after the acquisition, an Amazon senior executive bluntly said that anyone below director level exit the room. He then explained […]
Note: Today’s post is part of our “Editor’s Choice” series where we highlight recent posts published by our sponsors that provide supply chain insights and advice. Today’s article comes from the team at KNAPP and explores the use of warehouse robotics. Does this sound familiar to you? Customers want their goods ASAP as competition and […]
ProMat 2023, for those that could not attend, this is a great overview of some of the exhibitions I found most interesting, including Pickle Robot’s container/trailer unloading robot, HAI Robotics 32 ft ACR, Addverb’s extensive robotics portfolio previously unknown to me, and the warehouse optimization capabilities of Manhattan Associates, Blue Yonder, Lucas Systems, Koerber Supply Chain, and […]
An Interview with Warehouse Robotics Veteran, Jon Schechter. Jon shares the insights and knowledge he has obtained from Kiva Systems, RightHand Robotics, and AutoStore. Jon’s experience with internal processes and customer needs sheds light on the sources of value delivered by warehouse robotics companies, the necessary perspective for sucess, and how these systems differ and complement each other.
The Intersection of Warehouse Growth and Employee Scarcity The combination of continually growing consumer and business demand, a supply chain permanently altered after adapting to Covid, and the Great Resignation has cumulatively impacted the nation’s warehousing landscape like never before. The US Bureau of Labor statistics reported over 500,000 job openings in warehousing and transportation […]
The Productization and Scaling for Next Generation Automation roundtable discussion at the Autonomous Mobile Robotics (AMR) show included valuable insights from the expert panelists. The panelists provided their perspectives on what is holding back the next generation of automation solutions, and what approaches would enable the process to evolve at a proper pace. Advice included the criticalshift to a customer-centric approach, include the people that will work on the floor with the automation in the decision-making process, and […]
MASSROBOTICS hosted a meeting on September 8 to discuss the proposed scope for version 2 of its AMR Interoperability Standard. The envisioned architecture will include an InterOp Facilitator that provides a connection point for all agents (AMR or fleet manager for AMRs) and facilitates message exchanges between the agents. A list of readily supported missions, defined […]
