When Amazon purchased Kiva Systems in 2012, the interest in Autonomous Mobile Robots (AMRs) for the warehouse soared. For a while, Kiva, now rebranded Amazon Robotics, continued to sell robots to other companies. But, after piloting the robots in some warehouses, and figuring out the optimal way to deploy them, Amazon stopped selling robots to other companies and took everything their robotic division could produce for their own distribution centers.
Today there are several alternatives to Kiva. In addition to good return on investment, these autonomous mobile robots are more flexible and scalable than traditional automation.
inVia Robots
Recently a new competitor in the warehouse AMR market emerged. They have robots that approach picking in a couple of different ways. One robotic solution directly picks light stackable items that can be stacked or arranged on shelves into totes on another robot platform using light arms with suction cups; the robot then carries the tote back to a pack station where a human is located. The CEO of inVia Robotics, Lior Elazary, explained to me that using this methodology, the robots typically operate in the warehouse aisles. “But humans can walk in. It is perfectly safe. But we prefer keeping the humans out, so the robots can move faster.”
For items that cannot be easily arranged on shelves or for customers who stage items in a tote or bin, a goods to person automated storage and retrieval method is available. For example, smaller, flexible items like apparel can be staged in plastic totes or even cardboard corrugated bins. The inVia Robots do all the walking and bring the totes directly to a human for picking.
In some cases, humans work alongside the robots, picking goods too heavy or too small for their robots to handle. Humans pick items into a tote or totes on the robot. When the tote or totes are full, the robot carries the goods to the pack station.
The robots are operated by a Robotic Management System (RMS) that helps to optimize picking operations by the agents – which could be people, inVia Robots, or any other robot. The RMS looks to optimally place the totes, based on how high the demand is for the various items in the warehouse, to minimize travel time. The system also seeks to ensure that multiple robots work together smoothly, that many robots are not heading go to the same aisle, and ending up waiting for other robots to finish their tasks before being able to do their job.
The company offers innovative pricing. With their “robots as a service pricing mode,” they charge as low as ten cents for each pick or each time a robot travels to a pack station. “In certain parts of country, costs for a typical fulfillment operation “can be as high as 80 cents per pick. More commonly,” Mr. Elazary said, “we can cut the costs of a pick from 20 to 25 cents per pick down to ten cents.”
Tony Dobson, the CEO of Snapfulfil, a UK based Warehouse Management System (WMS) provider, explained to me that they are also working on new AMR solutions. In their case, their WMS solution will provide the software layer that controls the robots and other forms of warehouse automation. They will partner with a hardware company for the robots. Snapfulfil is the first WMS company I’ve talked to who has a control layer for managing AMRs built into their software.
In many ecommerce warehouses, pickers work in zones automated with pick to light shelving. What Snapfulfil is piloting are mobile pick-to-light and put-to-light pick faces on trollies that will travel to the zones where pickers are working. Or alternatively, a pick face can travel to a pack station. “The automatic trollies will transfer goods to different zones to maximize utilization,” Mr. Dobson said.
Mr. Dobson refers to “liquid warehouses” that contain few fixed inventory locations that are far more fluid than existing warehouses.
I recently completed our global warehouse management system market study, a study we do annually. One of the themes that emerged from doing this study is that autonomous mobile robots for the warehouse are here to stay; there will undoubtedly be more entrants to the market.
Tomorrow is Halloween. Pumpkins have been carved, pumpkin seeds have been roasted, candy has been bought (and opened, eaten, and more has been bought), and costumes have been purchased or made. And tomorrow, children across the land will go door to door asking for candy, while dressed in these scary, funny, cute, or ridiculous costumes. It’s certainly one of my favorite holidays of the year. But there is so much planning that goes into the holiday, especially when you look at the supply chain implications of pop-up Halloween stores. They run for a month and a half at most, and disappear on November 1. So many costumes and accessories to ship around the country, with anything leftover to be put in storage or sold at discount prices. It’s actually mind boggling to think of all the effort and planning that goes into a theme store like this. That’s why I prefer to sit back and just enjoy the day.
Wal-Mart is jumping on the drone craze, becoming the latest retailer to ask permission to use drones for customer deliveries. The retailer applied to the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) for an exemption from current regulations to make deliveries to customers in its parking lots and at customers’ homes. Wal-Mart is also hoping to use drones to check on buildings, warehouses, and DC’s. This aspect of the request makes sense as surveillance equipment cannot see these buildings from all angles, which is something a drone could fix.
UPS announced rate increases will take effect January 2, including the second boost this year to its fuel surcharge and a near-doubling—to $110 from $57.50—of the fee to deliver oversize items, such as mattresses and patio furniture. The company’s new round of rate increases includes a fee to help make up for cybershopping sites and big-box retailers’ sharing of generous shipping discounts with vendors. This will be done through a move that charges for third-party billing. This new fee also will affect retailers that allow vendors to use the discounts to ship directly to consumers—skipping the middleman—or direct goods to their own shelves for restocking.
Best Buy has announced that it will offer free shipping on online orders from November 1 through January 2. This means the company is waiving the $35 minimum threshold to receive free shipping. For many consumers, this sounds like great news. However, how many orders will this truly affect? The home electronics retailer sells a wide array of goods, but the majority of those items, especially big ticket items, would already qualify for free shipping. The company is betting on the fact that a perceived discount will bring in customers.
The carrier handling Amazon’s same-day delivery services has been hit with a lawsuit by California truckers who claim the company has misclassified them as contractors. By not classifying them as employees, the suit claims they are thereby denying them wages and benefits. Four truck operators filed the class action litigation earlier this month on behalf of themselves and hundreds of other delivery drivers employed as part of Amazon’s Prime Now service. With Prime Now set to expand and put the pressure on competing retailers to meet same day delivery expectations, this lawsuit could potentially derail plans.
Doorman is coming to Chicago. The startup is aiming to eliminate the problem of consumers missing deliveries. Basically, the company allows consumers to schedule their own deliveries, as late as midnight. Instead of taking delivery whenever the shipper arrives, Doorman users provide an online retailer with their personal “Doorman address” (a location in the Doorman warehouse). The company then signs for you and holds the package until you’re ready to receive it. Users are alerted through a notification in the Doorman app, and can schedule their delivery from 6 PM to midnight, 7 days a week. The company is now live in Chicago and will be live in New York soon. It is certainly an interesting business plan for congested cities, allowing consumers to schedule a pick-up time instead of having packages left on their doorsteps.
As I wrote about in last 
