ROBOTICS

gain ground inside

warehouse/DC operations

While the labor crunch and the ability of AMRs to offload

manual travel are central to their success, there are other benefits
to robotics in addition to reducing labor requirements.

CMYK GRAYSCALE B/W

 ROBOTICS
gain ground inside welcome
warehouse/DC operations Robots have arrived
Robotics are being
applied at a rapid pace

contents
inside our warehouse,
distribution center and
fulfillment operations
Mobile robotics descend on warehouse operations 4 around the U.S.—and
Robots, including autonomous mobile robots (AMRs), are seeing rapid uptake in according to recent
warehouses. The labor crunch and the ability of AMRs to offload manual travel are
central to their take-off, but there are other benefits to robotics besides reducing reports, there’s a good
the labor requirement. chance they’re coming to your facility. In
fact, the latest forecast shows that ship-
ments of logistics and warehousing robots
The robots are here 10 will grow from 194,000 units in 2018 to
Long a fixture on the factory floor, a new generation of robots are ready for a broader
range of applications. The only thing standing in their way is end-user adoption. 938,000 units annually by 2022.
The labor crunch and the ability of
AMRs to offload manual travel are cen-
While you were sleeping, robots took over 17 tral to this growth, but there are other
It seems that most everywhere you look in the past couple of months there are robots.
And they are almost always doing something new. benefits to robotics besides reducing the
labor requirement. Today, vendors tout
the synergies of human-to-robot collabo-
The robots are coming to the warehouse dock 20 ration, ease of system scalability, and the
From AGVs to exoskeleton suits, the robotics on today’s warehouse and DC docks
aim to help shippers operate more efficiently in an increasingly competitive ability to refine storage, order fulfillment
distribution environment. and transportation execution as other
facets of the robot value proposition.
In this Special Digital Issue, the
Rochester Drug Cooperative: Robots ready for work 24 Logistics Management editorial team
It’s still early stages, but Rochester Drug Cooperative is proving that mobile robotic
piece picking can get the job done in the right application. has curated some of our best cover-
age on the robotics market including
case study examples that illustrate how
RDC puts robots to work 30 early adopters are putting the various
An early adopter, Rochester Drug Cooperative is using robotic piece-picking
technology to complement picking of slow-moving items. available robotic technologies to work
in their facilities.

Robots at GEODIS 32
The global 3PL turned to mobile collaborative robots to rev up its e-commerce
fulfillment operations. One measurable result: a 2x improvement in productivity.
Michael A. Levans, Group Editorial Director
Comments? E-mail me at
mlevans@peerlessmedia.com
Follow me on Twitter: @MikeLeva

Editorial Staff Peerless Media, LLC

Michael A. Levans John Kerr Wendy DelCampo Brian Ceraolo
Group Editorial Director Contributing Editor, Global Logistics Senior Art Director ® President and CEO
Patrick Burnson Bridget McCrea Polly Chevalier Editorial Office
Executive Editor Editor at Large, Technology Art Director 111 Speen Street, Suite 200
Sarah Petrie Roberto Michel Kelly Jones Framingham, MA 01701-2000
1-800-375-8015
Executive Managing Editor Contributing Editor, Warehousing & DC Print/Online
Jeff Berman John D. Schulz Production Manager
Group News Editor Contributing Editor, Transportation

CMYK GRAYSCALE

2 Robotics gain ground logisticsmgmt.com

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Robotics

o
M bile robotics
descend on
warehouse operations
Robots, including autonomous mobile robots (AMRs), are seeing rapid
uptake in warehouses. The labor crunch and the ability of AMRs to
offload manual travel are central to their take-off, but there are other
benefits to robotics besides reducing the labor requirement.

RR
obotics for distribution centers
(DCs), such as autonomous
BY ROBERTO MICHEL,
EDITOR AT LARGE mobile robots (AMRs) and col-
laborative picking arms, are growing
at a rapid rate, with well over a dozen
robotics vendors aiming at the needs of
DC operators. At the same time, U.S.
unemployment was running at 4% or
under for the first few months of 2019,
dipping to 3.6% in April.
The two trends are interwoven,
with labor scarcity seen as a primary
driver for this market.
But let’s not get carried away with
misconceptions. “Lights-out” DCs, where
human workers are eliminated, is not
where the trend is headed say most ven-
dors. Another misconception: robotics
can’t be combined with more traditional
“fixed” forms of warehouse automation.
In reality, there are plenty of nuances to
the robotics trend, including their abil-
ity to collaborate with humans, and the
ability of some bots to hand off goods to
fixed automation.
For certain, the growth outlook for
robotics in DCs is robust. Accord-
ing to analysis by ABI Research, by
2025, more than 4 million commercial
robots will be installed in more than
50,000 warehouses, up from 4,000
warehouses using robots in 2018. The
ABI study looked mainly at AMRs, but
also considered picking arms, autono-
mous lift trucks, and some types of
automated guided vehicles.
Analyst firm IDC, in a study from
December 2018, forecast that robotics
spending across industries would be
$103.4 billion worldwide in 2019,

4 Robotics gain ground logisticsmgmt.com

AMRs differ in function, ranging from those that focus on material transport to bots with picking capability.
representing a compound annual
growth rate (CAGR) of 18.9% over
2018. While IDC doesn’t forecast just
for AMRs in warehousing, it does predict
robotics for materials handling work-
flows such as “pick and pack,” says John
Santagate, an IDC research director. For
the five-year period 2018 to 2023, IDC
forecasts a 22.4 CAGR for pick and pack
robotics, culminating in more than $9
billion in spending by 2023.
There are several reasons for such
rapid growth, says Santagate, starting
with the fact that material movement
via manual methods is a huge labor
drain. “If you can automate the move-
ment of material, you may still have
the wasted movement, but you are
freeing your human resources to focus
on other tasks,” he says.
This confluence of time-consuming
material moves, macroeconomic factors
logisticsmgmt.com
creating labor scarcity, and rapidly advanc-
ing robotics technology, is fueling the
market. “Perhaps most importantly, the
technology has reached a point where it is
reliable and safe to use,” says Santagate.
People helpers
While there are understandable fears
about automation eliminating certain
jobs long term, for many DCs today,
it’s a struggle to find enough workers
for tasks like order picking, pack-
ing, receiving, replenishment, cycling
counting or cross docking, especially
with the peak seasons involved with
e-commerce. That’s driving operations
to deploy robotics, says Chris Barber,
CEO for North American at GreyOr-
ange, a robotics vendor.
GreyOrange offers multiple types
of robots, including a good-to-person
system that brings goods needed to fill
orders to a light-driven, pick/put station
where a human can pick orders. This
cuts out nearly all the travel involved in
more manual order picking, says Barber.
“The number one value users get is
that [robotics] eliminates the time that
human workers have to spend walking,
which isn’t a directly value-added activ-
ity like picking is,” says Barber. “With
robotics, the human operators are no
longer spending most of their time walk-
ing around—they’re actually picking.”
Because DCs face such a serious
labor crunch, efficiencies gained by hav-
ing robots handle travel and material
moves doesn’t so much eliminate jobs as
it allows warehouse workforce to do other
value-added tasks, while making human
workers at light-driven pick stations
highly productive. Users of GreyOrange’s
solutions include third-party logistics
(3PL) provider XPO Logistics, which has
Robotics gain ground 5
Robotics
Locus Robotics
deployed the bots in multiple DCs.
It’s now possible to pair up a good-
to-person AMR solution with a col-
laborative picking arm at a pick/put
station to augment human associates
at the pick station, says Barber. For the
associates, it becomes a better work
assignment because rather than walk-
ing miles per shift, they can stay at a
more comfortable work cell and gain
experience working with AMRs. “When
you put robots into warehouses it’s typi-
cally a better working environment for
the human workers,” says Barber.
Not all AMRs function alike. Some
solutions work on a good-to-person prin-
ciple, bringing rolling shelves with goods
to a workstation, while others work in
aisles alongside humans, and others
handle material transfer tasks. There are
also mobile robots with sorter mecha-
nisms or roller conveyor attachments on
top, making it possible for a bot to trans-
6 Robotics gain ground
fer goods to fixed automation. Another
variation are mobile bots that have a
picking arm attachment. The exact meth-
ods and order fulfillment logic will vary
within these types, but generally, AMRs
aim at eliminating or drastically reducing
the labor requirement.
The high market interest in robot-
ics has led to well over a dozen vendors
focused on mobile robots for the ware-
house, robotics offerings from major
warehouse automation providers, as well
as continued involvement from Amazon,
which recently acquired robotics vendor
Canvas Technology.
Among the major automation vendors,
Honeywell Intelligrated announced a
partnership with AMR provider Fetch
Robotics last fall, while last year Dematic
launched a Robotics Center of Excel-
lence business unit. Another sign of
AMR momentum: earlier this year,
software provider Manhattan Associ-
Some mobile robots work collaboratively
with human pickers, cutting down on
travel and guiding their picks.
ates launched Manhattan Automation
Network, a partner program with robot-
ics and automation vendors to speed up
deployments.
The increasing difficulties that DC
operators are having finding enough
associates, combined with the rapid
maturity of sensor and guidance tech-
nology, are driving a strong market, ven-
dors agree. “The huge driver for us is the
labor challenge operations are facing,”
says Karen Leavitt, chief marketing offi-
cer for Locus Robotics, an AMR vendor.
“Getting labor has become increasingly
difficult with ecommerce growing at
leaps and bounds, and also because
warehouse fulfillment is such a highly
seasonal business.”
Leavitt agrees with the idea that
AMRs are about making the human labor
you can find more productive, rather than
eliminating jobs. With Locus, she adds,
its bots work in concert with human
pickers, guiding them through picks and
drastically reducing travel by the work-
ers. According to Leavitt, it’s common
for user operations to see a two- to three-
fold productivity improvement for each
human picker, due to the guidance from
the bots and elimination of most travel.
Locus already has two dozen installa-
tions of its AMRs, representing hundreds
of bots, with one site running at least 70
bots normally, and as many as 120 during
peak season. For the users, says Leavitt,
the software and the guidance features
on the bots create a productive interplay.
“What we hear from our customers is
that for their workers, [robotics] is like
working with another co-worker that
just happens to be a robot,” says Leavitt.
“There is a very natural rhythm between
the human and the technology.”
logisticsmgmt.com
Drivers toward flexible automation
• Customers expect rapid delivery times
• Rapid flexibility
SPEED
• Shortage
• Increasing cost
• Seasonal needs
LABOR • Digital transformation
• Mis-connected • Connected operations
MODERN- • Visibility
IZATION • Integration
• High labor cost
COST
• Reduced cost of robotics
• Robot-as-a-service
OPERATIONS INNOVATION Source: IDC
There are multiple drivers for robotics and flexible automation.
Another robotics vendor whose and item detection intelligence, IAM’s
mobile bots work alongside humans is bots can pick on their own, although
6 River Systems. According to Fergal there is one “robot supervisor” person
Glynn, vice president of Marketing for for up to eight bots, and the shelves are
6 River, a 200% to 300% productivity replenished by warehouse associates.
improvement is the typical improve- The ability of IAM’s robots to pick
ment range in deployments, though 200 to 300 items per hour, makes for
levels vary depending on how well the an efficient operation with less manual
previous process was working. work involved, says Galluzzo. “The
What’s more, he adds, with AMRs people who work with our robots have
such as 6 River Systems’ solution, to do less manual work, while the robots
there is no special shelving required, do more of the manual work,” he says.
which helps with rapid return on “We’re quite excited by the fact we are
investment (ROI). “There is always a able to offer people job upgrades [as
human involved with the solutions we robot supervisors] and make the ware-
provide,” says Glynn. “By keeping that house more efficient, so that overall, the
human element and making it more prosperity of the operation goes up.”
efficient, we’re able to deliver technol-
ogy at a low cost so that the rapid ROI Software-driven
is there for our customers.” While mobile robots in some cases have
Even when a mobile bot has an hardware features that allow the bots to
integrated picking arm, and can do the instruct or otherwise collaborate with
actual picking autonomously, as is the humans, the secret to effective bot-to-
case with bots from IAM Robotics, peo- human collaboration is the robotics
ple still play a role, notes Tom Galluzzo, software platform, says Leavitt. In the
founder and chief technology officer for case of the type of collaborative multi-
IAM Robotics. Using its picking arm bot solution Locus offers, the software
logisticsmgmt.com
is responsible for ensuring that workers
don’t have to travel far picks, can inter-
leave restocking and picking activity,
or that picks for multiple channels can
be combined. “For all their cool physi-
cal manifestations, mobile robots are
about 90% software,” says Leavitt.
Barber agrees the secret sauce with
AMRs is the software. For example, he
explains, with GreyOrange’s good-to-
person system, the software analyzes
order patterns so that stock keep-
ing units with are frequently ordered
together (an “affinity” relationship) are
stored in the same shelf unit or very
close to each other.
“It’s really the software that is the
brains of a robotics operation to allow
for high efficiency,” says Barber. “We
have artificial intelligence and machine
learning technology that is able to con-
sider multiple inputs—customer order
patterns, what’s currently in stock, and
how many [robotic] assets you have in
the building—to make the picking as
efficient as possible.”
As Glynn sees it, a good software
platform is central to AMR efficien-
cies. The Six River System solution,
he explains, can be thought of robotic
zone picking with a directed workflow.
Hardware features on the bot such
as a flat screen support the directed
workflow, but it is the software that
dynamically manages zones and
sequences the pick activity. “If you can
have software manage the zone, then
the software will move the robots and
the people into the area of the building
where the work can take place in the
most efficient way,” Glynn says.
Flexibility benefits
Robotics providers say a major plus for
AMR solutions is there high degree of
flexibility and scalability. AMRs scale
quickly by adding more units, which is
Robotics gain ground 7
Robotics
Mobile robots can either replace fixed automation, or hand-off totes or materials to automation like conveyors.
made easier on budgets via “robotics as
a service” payments. Vendors also point
out that rather than replacing all existing
automation, AMRs often work in combi-
nation with fixed automation.
AMRs not only work in piece pick
locations near pack out areas, some are
capable of transporting and handing off
goods to other systems in a DC, notes
Melonee Wise, CEO of Fetch Robot-
ics. “We’re able to move everything from
pieces to pallets [with our robots], and
how we interact with different machinery
is based on the attachment or accessory
on the top of the robot,” says Wise. “If
you look at how we interact with those
[fixed automation systems], we typically
bring material to those systems. There
are many other warehouse processes in
addition to e-commerce order picking
8 Robotics gain ground
with which mobile robots can assist.”
In its simplest deployments, says
Wise, Fetch AMRs can be deployed
without integration to a warehouse
management system or warehouse
control system, using bar code scans to
trigger a bot to move goods. Even with
integration to other systems, says Wise,
it’s possible to deploy an AMR solution
rapidly, without adding special infra-
structure beyond the bots.
“We use the term on demand automa-
tion, which to us, means rapid deploy-
ment, extreme flexibility, no IT overhead
and the ability to scale easily,” Wise says.
AMR vendors also stress that it’s easy
to move units between DCs as needed,
or add a new workflows just by adjusting
some software or downloading digital
map data for a new portion of a facility.
Finally, while the ability of AMR’s to
slash labor-consuming travel time is a
core driver in the market, vendors also
say that by deploying AMRs, operations
should also see high order accuracy, and
have a software platform that is constantly
learning how to improve operations.
These platforms typically govern
how to best sequence picks and move-
ments to reduce travel, and also will
adjust slotting or other inventory loca-
tion decisions to maximize pick density.
“With robotics, what happens is that
the software can slot the warehouse
dynamically, without anybody having
to do anything,” says Barber. “It’s really
the software that understands the little
nuances to order fulfillment that are
going to drive productivity and maximize
storage density as well.” •
logisticsmgmt.com
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Robotics
The Robots are
Coming Here
BY JOHN SANTAGATE
Long a fixture on
the factory floor, a
new generation of
robots are ready for
a broader range of
applications. The
only thing standing in
their way is end-user
adoption.
John Santagate is the
research director for service
robots at IDC. He can be
reached at jsantagate@
idc.com. For more
information, visit idc.com.
10 Robotics gain ground
R
obots have been a fixture of science
fiction books and movies for
decades. Perhaps our infatuation
with them stems from some innate need to
reproduce humanity in the form of a
machine. Or, perhaps, it comes from a
desire to create machines that can take
over the mundane tasks of our everyday
lives. Whatever the reason, the fact is, the
idea of robots has prompted innovators to go
out and build the robots that we see today
and will continue to see into the future.
But robots aren’t just a plot device in sci-fi or play-
things for the nerds in the “Big Bang Theory” when
they aren’t in a comic book store. In the business
world, robots have been in use in industrial manufac-
turing since their introduction in 1962 in a GM auto-
motive plant. But, until recently, they haven’t gotten
much traction beyond the assembly line or one-off use
cases. In part, that’s because the industrial robots
used in manufacturing differ quite significantly from
the new generation of robots making their way into a
broader range of industries and applications. Indus-
trial manufacturing robots are designed to operate at a
high rate of speed, precision and strength. While
these traits are good for automating manufacturing
logisticsmgmt.com
logisticsmgmt.com Robotics gain ground 11
Robotics

processes, they don’t translate well to other areas of the as well as a tremendous amount of movement throughout a
business that require more human interaction. Indeed, facility. Now, it’s not as if robotics have been absent from
they are part of the reason why industrial manufacturing these areas in the past; there are use case examples, but
robots have to operate in “cages:” areas where human work- none at a large scale across supply execution. Those organi-
ers aren’t permitted to enter during operation. zations that have introduced robots into their warehousing
It’s safe to say, however, that the development and matu- and fulfillment operations have delivered added value
rity of industrial robotics has helped to pave the way for the including productivity improvements, efficiency gains, the
capability to better scale up/down with
Referred to as collaborative robots, or co-bots, the new
demand spikes and the ability to improve
generation of robots are safe, smart, collaborative and can customer service levels.
work side-by-side with people. They have become immensely The most familiar example of robotics in the
sophisticated, resulting in modern robots that are increasingly fulfillment process is at Amazon. The e-com-
being used as a mechanism to automate business processes merce giant acquired Kiva Systems (now
that have historically been incapable of automation. known as Amazon Robotics) in 2012 for $775
million. Since then, Amazon has continuously
new generation of robots that is quickly being introduced expanded their use to upwards of 80,000 robots across 25 dis-
across business functions and industries. Robotic technol- tribution centers. Through their deployment, Amazon has
ogy has been on a continuous path of improvement over been able to accelerate delivery times and reduce fulfillment
time as robotics manufacturers look to improve their tech- related costs. According to a note published by Deutsche
nology and layer modern digital technologies onto the Bank, the deployment of the robots equates to a roughly $22
mechanical elements of robots. million per year savings in facilities where they are in use, or
Indeed, over the past several years, robots have increased an estimated 20% reduction to operating costs.
their level of intelligence and flexibility as machine learning If Deutsche Bank’s estimates are close, Amazon has
and artificial intelligence (AI) have been built into the sys- proven that there is tremendous value to be gained through
tems; there have been significant improvements to the the use of robotics within the fulfillment center. However,
mobility of robots, while the ability to connect robots via IoT the acquisition and subsequent privatization of Kiva Sys-
and enhanced safety measures have also been built into tems created a void in the market. Companies that were
robotic devices. The result of these innovations is a new interested in this type of robot for their fulfillment pro-
style of robot that is more suited to work side by side with cesses were no longer able to procure Kiva Systems robots;
humans rather than be segregated in a human free zone. those who were already using Kiva were confronted with
Referred to as collaborative robots, or co-bots, the new the eventual loss of support for their investment. That was
generation of robots are safe, smart, collaborative and can a real disincentive to anyone considering an investment in
work side-by-side with people. They have become robotics from another start-up that might be similarly
immensely sophisticated, resulting in modern robots that acquired and taken off the market. On the positive side,
are increasingly being used as a mechanism to automate business, like nature, abhors a vacuum. Kiva’s exit from the
business processes that have historically been incapable of market created an opening for opportunistic companies to
automation. This next generation of co-bots is one of the create innovative new robotic technologies and solutions to
factors driving robotic adoption in new industries and fill the void, and to improve upon the technology itself.
across new points of use. Some of those companies are offering Kiva-like solu-
tions, but we are also seeing the emergence of new com-
Disruptive processes petitors taking a decidedly different approach to robots in
One business area ripe for business process disruption the fulfillment process from Kiva. The result is that fulfill-
enabled by robotics is supply chain execution, especially in ment operations have a variety of robotic solutions from
order fulfillment processes in the warehouse. These pro- which to choose. And, as with most technologies, the first
cesses typically involve a high degree of human involvement step is for organizations to define their needs in order to

12 Robotics gain ground logisticsmgmt.com

 choose an appropriate technology to meet those demands. all of the non-value-added travel between tasks, associates
For some, a Kiva-type model will work quite well. These on the floor are more productive because they remain in
utilize fast-moving robots that shuttle entire racks of inventory their zone where they are focused on picking items from
from a segregated section of the fulfillment center to a picking the shelves. What’s more, they can typically operate within
station, where a picker selects the inventory needed to fill an an existing infrastructure, which can help minimize the
order. After a pick, a robot returns the rack back to the floor upfront investment and accelerate deployments and go-
and moves on to the next pick. Think of this as a goods-to-per- live. The drawback: The robots sacrifice speed for safety,
son, or better yet, a rack-to-person, solution. Solution provid- operating at slower speeds than their non-collaborative
ers offering this model include GreyOrange and Swisslog’s counterparts. That’s not necessarily a bad thing, but it’s
CarryPick mobile system. A rack-to-person model is best certainly a point worth mentioning.
suited to high throughput facilities where speed is the most Sophisticated navigation systems are also essential in
important element. The benefits include the ability to rapidly the collaborative mobile robot space. That is because co-
move product to picking locations and accelerate fulfillment bots are designed to autonomously navigate their way
cycles. However, the rack-to-person model also has its draw- through a fulfillment center and around potential obstruc-
backs. For example, it requires some facility modification to tions. Once the facility is mapped within the robots guid-
create a segregated area where the robots can safely operate ance system, the robots are free to roam where other sys-
and it requires a guidance mechanism to ensure that the tems require some guidance support, such as a beacon,
robots operate within the appropriate spaces. These systems white line on the floor, or some other type of physical
are not necessarily collaborative because humans aren’t marker to help guide the robots. However, co-bots must
allowed to work in the same aisles where the robots are oper- also be capable of decision making when it comes to
ating. One final drawback is that with these
Because the robot is responsible for all of the non-value-
models, half of the movement is spent returning
racks after a pick, essentially retaining 50% of
added travel between tasks, associates on the floor are more
the wasted movement in the process. productive because they remain in their zone where they are
That is one model. Still other companies focused on picking items from the shelves. What’s more,
have emerged with collaborative robots they can typically operate within an existing infrastructure,
designed to complement traditional picking
which can help minimize the upfront investment and
processes. Some notable vendors in this
accelerate deployments and go-live.
space include Locus Robotics, Fetch Robot-
ics and 6 River Systems, to name a few. The devices from selecting an initial route or creating a new route when the
these companies have been designed to operate on the robot encounters an obstacle, much the way a GPS system
floor in the same spaces where associates are at work, often recalculates to a change in the original route.
in collaboration with those associates. In this model, the As previously mentioned, both approaches are an effec-
robot is assigned a task by the WMS and automatically tive means to deploying robots. The question becomes
navigates to a pick location. When it arrives at a location, which approach is most appropriate for your individual sce-
an associate will pull product from a shelf or carton and nario. Clearly, not all fulfillment center operations are set
place it in a bin or tote on the robot. The robot is then up the same. Just as its common to find more than one
directed by the WMS to the next pick location until all the kind of picking process and technology in a conventional
items for an order are in the tote and ready for delivery to warehouse, different facilities may identify different strate-
the pack station. Once the pick is complete, the robot gies to achieve the increased value. For example, a mix of
moves onto the next pick order rather than returning to high-speed rack-to-person robots and co-bots may be the
drop a rack. way to go. The objective of introducing robots into the ful-
This model can be very effective for fulfillment centers fillment process is to improve the overall operation by
with a high variety of orders, including a significant number reducing costs, improving productivity, improving efficiency
of multi-product orders. Because the robot is responsible for or some combination of the three.

logisticsmgmt.com Robotics gain ground 13

Robotics
Why now?
Regardless of our fascination with robots, no organization
is going to deploy technology for the novelty of it. There
must always be a business case before a company makes a
decision to invest in new technology. Robots are no differ-
ent. The business case for their deployment is being driven
by the value proposition of reducing costs, increasing pro-
ductivity and improving efficiency. Sub-elements that con-
tribute to achieving value include the ability to increase
speed and inject flexibility into the processes, which sup-
port the objectives of improving productivity and efficiency.
Regardless of our fascination with robots, no
organization is going to deploy technology for the
novelty of it. There must always be a business
case before a company makes a decision to invest
in new technology. Robots are no different.
Still, the larger question remains, why now? Robots
have been around for decades, so what is the break-
through that is finally enabling robots to deliver value
across the fulfillment center? There are several ways to
address this question.
The first is to look at how the advances in related tech-
nologies have led to improvements in how robots perform.
They include:
• Artificial Intelligence (AI) and cognitive computing. AI is
often associated with a humanoid robot that looks and
sounds like a person. When thinking about advance-
ments in robotics for supply chain applications, the AI
and cognitive elements are more related to mobility. The
collaborative mobile robots that have made their way into
modern fulfillment centers are able to autonomously nav-
igate a facility because they have the onboard intelligence
to identify an obstruction and make a decision about how
to respond to that disruption. Such an advance in mobil-
ity is quite significant in enabling mobile collaborative
robots to add value to the fulfillment process.
• Internet of Things (IoT). IoT provides a mechanism to
communicate with and capture data about an operation in
real time. Robots are a connected asset and as such create
a tremendous amount of data about the business processes
they are involved in. Through such data capture, organiza-
tions can now capture data about previously manual busi-
ness processes. But, it’s more than just data capture;
14 Robotics gain ground
through IoT, we have the capacity for a WMS system to
deliver a pick list directly to a robot that then knows
exactly where it needs to go as well as the most efficient
way to get there. Finally, consider the inventory manage-
ment capability: Through connected robots, fulfillment
centers have the opportunity to leverage connected robots
to send inventory signals directly to the WMS.
• Cloud. The Cloud is helping to drive improvements in
robotics. Through the Cloud, coupled with IoT, orga-
nizations are now able to monitor, manage and even
operate robots from anywhere they have a connection
to the internet. This point is drastically enhancing the
usability of robots in the workplace and has even
helped robot manufacturers to enhance their service
to their customers. For example, through the Cloud,
manufacturers can remotely monitor the health of
their clients’ robots. They also have the ability take
control of a mobile robot that has encountered a situa-
tion that it can’t resolve on its own and navigate a
robot back towards appropriate operations without
inconveniencing the client.
The second “why now” point is the continuous innova-
tion in the field of robotics. Robot vendors have been able
to build upon the technology over time to develop modern
robots that significantly outperform the robots of the past.
A big part of this continuous innovation is the application
of related technologies (as mentioned above) to the field of
robotics. Additionally, we must consider how robotic ven-
dors have continued to improve the mechanical capabilities
of robots. Consider the recent video from Boston Dynam-
ics that shows an Atlas robot performing a series of box
jumps, ending with a back flip. In fact, if you haven’t seen
this look it up, it’s pretty cool. * While this motion does not
perform a function that is useful in the supply chain, the
display of dexterity showcases the rapidly evolving physical
capabilities of robots, with each new innovation being built
upon the existing set of robotic capabilities.
One final answer to the “why now” question is the
readiness of the market. This may be the most important
point in this discussion. As Daniel Theobold, co-founder
and chief innovation officer at Vecna Robotics, recently
mentioned: “We have been building and improving our
robots for more than 20 years, with the military and in
medical facilities, so that when the broader market was
finally ready we would be ready to meet the markets
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Robotics

needs with a mature suite of products, the market is constant state of innovation in robotic development will
finally ready for this technology.” Companies today recog- evolve here.
nize the value of robots in the supply chain, and are IDC’s 2018 Robotics FutureScape report predicts “by
increasingly looking to deploy the technology to improve 2019, 25% of mobile robotic deployments will include the
their ability to serve their clients and build a competitiveability to add on modular components enabling multiple
position in the market. uses on the same mobile platform, thus delivering up to
Ultimately, the “why now” is not answered by any one of 30% productivity and efficiency gains.” Through this pre-
the aforementioned points independently, but rather diction, IDC is expressing the belief that mobile robots will
through the combination of technology interplay, robotic be able to be outfitted with components that enable multi-
ple business processes to be performed while
Companies that are better able to extract value out of the leveraging a common management platform.
data related to their fulfilment processes will be in a better Melonee Wise, CEO of Fetch Robotics,
agrees with this belief stating: “We are banking
position to drive value for their customers. Robots are pro-
on the future success of the collaborative robot-
viding a mechanism to capture such data to drive this value.
ics market as a combination of common hard-
—Bruce Welty, chairman, Locus Robotics ware platform and custom, task- or industry-spe-
cific software. Anyone can build a robot that
technology maturity and market readiness. When you bring does one thing well; the real opportunity lies in deploying a
together a market that is ready to accept robots, robotic modular platform that can be extended to a wide variety of
technology that is mature and continuing to innovate, and solutions.” As with any technology, innovation in robotics
an abundance of related technology that are helping to and the use of robotics is paramount. A competitor that
advance robots, you arrive at the point where robots in the embraces change will quickly disrupt the company that sits
supply chain will become required to compete rather than idle and believes it’s at the top.
a means to enable competitive advantage. Speaking on supply chain innovation and robotics,
This already happening. Since its acquisition of Kiva Adrian Kumar, DHL’s vice president of solutions design,
Systems, Amazon has leveraged robotics to create a says: “We believe it’s critical to identify and implement
competitive advantage, and its competitors are now these types of advanced technology solutions in the ware-
deploying robots just to keep up in the fulfillment mar- house so we can seamlessly improve our customers’ supply
ket. “The ever-increasing demands for faster and more chains.” He adds that the implementation of a robotic pilot
accurate order fulfillment requires IT tools that accu- program within the life sciences sector at DHL Supply
rately track and measure both human and robotic perfor- Chain “will inform the potential for broader deployment
mance,” notes Bruce Welty, chairman of Locus Robotics. across different parts of our business. This is a natural evo-
Companies that are better able to extract value out of lution of our robotics program.”
the data related to their fulfilment processes will be in a This is a testament to the importance or robotics on the
better position to drive value for their customers. Robots future of the supply chain. Robots are not just an interest-
are providing a mechanism to capture such data to drive ing technology for science projects. They are quickly
this value. becoming a critical technology that is helping supply
chains to innovate and deliver exceptional customer service
The future of robots in the supply chain while improving business performance. Those companies
Based on our research at IDC, we believe the future of that sit on the sidelines, rather than invest now, run the
robots in the supply chain is bright. A growing market risk of becoming obsolete in a market that is increasingly
demand will continue to encourage robotic vendors to reliant on technology—and more specifically robotics—as a
innovate and bring advanced functionality to the supply mechanism to drive value. •
chain. While robots have historically been built and *You can view the Boston Dynamics back-flipping robot
deployed to perform a specific process or function, the at: youtube.com/watch?v=fRj34o4hN4I

16 Robotics gain ground logisticsmgmt.com

Robotics Viewpoint

While you were sleeping,

ROBOTS took over
It seems that most everywhere you look in the past couple of months
there are robots. And they are almost always doing something new.

BY GARY FORGER, CONTRIBUTING EDITOR

Holy robots!
It seems that most everywhere you look
in the past couple of months there are
robots. And they are almost always doing
something new.
To start, look at the news coming
out of the ProMat and Automate shows
in April, where robots dominated even
though there were many more than 1,000
exhibitors with supply chain solutions.
The introductions ranged from collabora-
tive robots to pick-and-place to autono-
mous mobile robots and beyond. Artificial
intelligence and cloud-based systems
figured prominently too.
Meanwhile, you now have to watch out
for mobile robots at your local store. When
you go to Walmart, look for robots taking
inventory storewide. Ditto for grocer Giant
Eagle. Robots in the personal care and
pasta aisles? Really? It’s happening now.
Of course, Amazon’s bots continue
to proliferate to fill your e-commerce
orders. Meanwhile, Ryder Systems is cycle
counting in its smart warehouses with
robots from Fetch Robotics. Hollar, which
Collaborative robots offer a low-stakes way to prove the viability of robotic piece offers products starting at $1 online, has
picking, though safety features can sometimes limit rates. deployed inVia Picker robots at its new

logisticsmgmt.com Robotics gain ground 17

Robotics
Cincinnati warehouse.
Don’t overlook companies like family-owned national 3PL
Barrett Distribution. It’s using Locus Robotics’ order picking
robots to fill orders at its facility in Franklin, MA. “This most
recent busy season we were able to utilize the bots to ship a
record number of packages with less head count than we’ve
had before,” explains Doug Varga, vice president information
technology at Barrett.
That puts robots in a nutshell – higher throughput with
less labor. But don’t expect people to go away. Collabora-
tive robots, those that work alongside people in the ware-
house especially, are at the top of people’s cap ex budgets
these days.
All this robotics technology is having an impact.
“Industry is making the transition from fixed automation to
robotics,” says Christopher Barber, CEO of North America at
intelligent robotics supplier GreyOrange. “We are at a junc-
ture very similar to the mid-1980s when computers were first
taking their place in manufacturing and distribution. Clearly,
big changes are coming,” Barber adds.
Demand for robots is expected to be strong for the fore-
seeable future. ABI research expects today’s automated ware-
houses worldwide to climb from 4,000 to 50,000 by 2023.
The firm says those facilities will have four million robots.
The International Federation of Robotics projects 14%
annual growth in robot sales globally through 2021. In North
America, non-automotive robot sales were up 17% last year
over 2017, explains Jeff Burnstein, president of the Associa-
tion for Advancing Automation, in this month’s NextGen:
The Interview.
Just as important, venture capital is flowing to robot start-
ups. GreyOrange raised $140 million last year, bringing the
total raised to $170 million. Meanwhile, Locus Robotics
raised an additional $26 million last month, bringing total
funding to nearly $70 million. Those are just two examples.
Here’s what a recent investor in Fetch Robotics had to say.
“The warehouse and automation market is estimated at over
$40 billion today, and is poised to double over the next five
years. Our investment in Fetch complements and extends
our portfolio of exceptional leaders who are transforming the
global supply chain,” says Brian Nugent, founding general
partner at Sway Ventures.
Innovation is leading the way here. Clearly, there is noth-
ing static about robots these days. Not only are they mobile
but many are incorporating artificial intelligence to enhance
18 Robotics gain ground
performance and efficiency over time.
At the ProMat show, RightHand Robotics received the
Innovation Award for best innovation of an existing product.
The company introduced its RightPick2, an integrated soft-
ware and hardware platform. The autonomous piece-picking
platform incorporates new skills using artificial intelligence
enabled vision and motion control software with deep learning.
Here are four other recent examples of new introductions
of mobile robots with AI from the recent shows.
InVia offers a cloud-based robotics-as-a-service man-
agement system for its robots. The artificial intelligence-
based system learns the warehouse and improves pro-
cesses over time.
Vecna recently introduced its AI-based platform for
coordinating workflow of piece-picking robots and people.
It analyzes current operations and adjusts processes within
pre-set norms.
Boston Dynamics has acquired Kinema Systems that
enables industrial robotic arms with deep learning technology
to locate and move boxes on pallets.
Geek+ introduced autonomous mobile robots for ware-
housing and order fulfillment. They are powered by machine
learning to improve picking and inventory accuracy.
These and other robots already do or will someday com-
municate with the cloud, which opens up a new horizon.
“I fully expect that learning will be shared across a fleet of
robots using cloud communications,” says A3’s Burnstein.
“That will continuously upgrade the capabilities of robots if
not in real time, in near real time,” he adds.
It seems that as robots meet up with the cloud, the sky’s
the limit for this NextGen technology. •
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FOLLOW THE LEADER
Robotics
 THE ROBOTS
ARE COMING
to the warehouse dock
From AGVs to exoskeleton suits, the robotics on today’s warehouse
and DC docks aim to help shippers operate more efficiently in an
increasingly competitive distribution environment.

BY BRIDGET McCREA, CONTRIBUTING EDITOR

T
o hear John Santagate tell it, in the not-
too-distant future we’ll see warehouse dock
workers wearing robotic exoskeleton suits
and lifting 200-pound boxes in Ironman-esque
fashion with no other assistance.
With very little exertion, and without the typi-
cal ergonomic problems associated with the con-
tinuous lifting and moving of heavy items, these
futuristic “exosuits” will help ensure higher safety
levels—and a speedier process overall—in an
area of the warehouse where hefting heavy loads
is the norm.
This is just one example of how the conver-
gence of humans and robots could play out in the
warehouse and distribution center (DC) of the
future. Made by companies like Sarcos Robotics,
which plans to introduce a powered industrial
exoskeleton suit in 2019, these advanced prod-
ucts will help reduce the number of workplace
injuries and accidents that cost U.S. employers
more than $60 billion annually, according to the
U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS).
According to data from Liberty Mutual
Insurance, the 10 leading causes of the most
disabling work-related injuries account for $49.9
billion of that total, with the top three causes
being overexertion, falls on the same level, and
falls to a lower level.
“Companies are looking for ways to keep
employees safer, extend their workers’ longevity,
and reduce the costs associated with injury risk,”
says Santagate, IDC’s service robotics research
director. This will also help companies more
effectively deal with issues like the rising costs
of hiring and training employees, both of which
can be lessened when you reduce the frequency
of work-related injuries—which, in turn, lead to
more days off.
“Right now, exoskeleton suits with payloads of
around 200 pounds are coming down the pike,”
says Santagate, “which means a human worker
will be able to lift 200 pounds in a repetitive
fashion as if he or she was lifting a pencil.” And
because a person wearing an exosuit can move

logisticsmgmt.com Robotics gain ground 21

 Robotics
Sarcos Robotics
“Shippers can
already use AGVs
to load and unload
full, palletized
truckloads or less-
than-truckloads at
this point, so that’s
the real deal.”
— Norm Saenz,
St. Onge Company
22 Robotics gain ground
around faster than, say, a pallet
jack or a forklift, the entire pro-
cess will be sped up.
As he waits for the superhu-
man exosuits to be ready for
prime time, Santagate is antici-
pating some of the early use
cases for them both on the dock
and in the warehouse as a whole.
“It’ll be far more flexible than a
rigid contraption that’s designed
to do the same thing,” he says,
“and will allow workers to move
in a more fluid manner.”
“Lights out” on the dock
As the picture of the fully auto-
mated, “lights out” logistics
operation continues to come
into focus, the dock is increas-
ingly being seen as an area where
robotics can play a role in the
loading, unloading, staging and
situating of freight.
Rather than using the con-
ventional method of loading and unloading, which typically
requires a forklift or pallet truck, robots of various shapes
and sizes could take the process to new levels of efficiency
and productivity by assisting with the strenuous tasks.
When designing its new 24/7 cold warehouse, for
example, Preferred Freezer Services (PFS) installed an
automatic truck loading and unloading system that includes
a chain conveyor system that can handle 50,000-pound
loads in minutes. In fact, from parking the truck to driving
away, the entire process takes 10 to 15 minutes. The highly-
automated system has also helped PFS reduce its logistics
costs, preserve the integrity of its cold supply chain, improve
loading and unloading efficiency, and directly integrate with
an existing warehouse management system (WMS).
Norm Saenz, managing director at supply chain consul-
tancy St. Onge Company, says that the analysts at his firm
are seeing a “surprising” number of new, dock-centric robot-
ics developments, including several new prototypes that
have surfaced over the last few years. “At first, we saw a few
installations here and there,” he says, “but now we’re seeing
some definite development taking place, with robots being
used to move ‘fluid’ loads or those that include loose cases
transported via tractor trailer or container.”
Saenz points to robots that can be telescoped into a
trailer to grab a case and then turn and place it on either a
pallet or onto a conveyor as one example of how far robotics
technology has come over the last few years.
“This technology isn’t widely used yet, but it can unload
a trailer instead of a person doing it,” says Saenz, who also
sees automated guided vehicles (AGVs) as a good “current”
example of robotics on the dock, where they’ll play a more
prominent role in the near future.
Companies like Fetch Robotics, for example, make auton-
omous mobile robots that can handle “pretty good-sized pay-
loads,” according to Santagate, and that help shippers move
pallets (i.e., into the warehouse, or cross-dock to another
vehicle) once they’re unloaded from the truck itself.
“Shippers can already use AGVs to load and unload full,
palletized truckloads or less-than-truckloads at this point,”
Saenz adds, “so that’s the real deal.”
Managing complexities, overcoming challenges
The dock presents some interesting complexities that aren’t
necessarily present on the warehouse or DC floor, where
automation has been around for years and only getting more
advanced and prevalent every year.
logisticsmgmt.com
 “The dock is a dynamic place that
requires more than just a fulfillment
robot that can traverse the DC floor,”
Santagate points out. “On the dock,
robots have to be able to pick up
pallets, cases, or boxes and then put
them on some sort of conveyance
system that pulls them off the truck.
That’s a lot more complex than other
use cases.”
For example, the typical ware-
house includes multiple bay doors
and plays host to myriad different
types of trucks and vehicles during
the course of a day. Those trucks
come in various configurations and
sizes, and they carry different goods
(also in different sizes and varia-
tions). So, unlike the piece-picking
robot that can be trained to identify
and select among a certain number
of SKUs, the robots working the dock
must be more dynamic in nature.
“Robotics are often very effective
in standardized scenarios,” says San-
tagate, “and less so in more unpre-
dictable environments. That’s prob-
ably why robotics aren’t being used
to unload and load trucks as much
as they’re currently being used in
other areas of the warehouse or DC
right now.”
But that doesn’t mean robotics
vendors aren’t developing solutions to
those complexities, or that shippers
aren’t testing them out on their own
docks. In fact, Santagate says vendors
like Daifuku’s Wynright division, for
instance, designs and markets robots
that are specifically designed for use
on the dock. Its industrial, robotic
arm includes a manipulator or “endo
factor” that can grab material off a
vehicle and place it onto a conveyor
system that, in turn, removes the
products from that vehicle in a highly
logisticsmgmt.com
“On the dock, robots have to be able to pick up pallets,
cases, or boxes and then put them on some sort of
conveyance system that pulls them off the truck.
That’s a lot more complex than other use cases.”
automated fashion.
Yaskawa Motoman’s robotic automa-
tion solutions are also being used for
loading and unloading trucks, Santagate
says. Equipped with a robotic arm and
gripper—the latter of which can attach
to a mobile conveyance system—the
machines enter the back of the truck,
pick up the packages, and “drive” them
over to a conveyance system that then
moves the packages into the warehouse.
The early stages of innovation
According to Bob Doyle, vice president
of the Robotic Industries Association,
robotics in the warehouse and DC is in
the “early stages of innovation” when it
comes to the loading and unloading of
trucks at the dock. “Robots are roaming
around the warehouse floor, but those
applications aren’t typically utilized for
the actual loading and unloading of
freight,” he says.
Looking ahead, Doyle expects some
of the visionary robotics technology
that’s currently under development to
play a larger role on the dock, where
robots will be able to load and unload
boxes. “At this point, I’ve only seen
these in demonstrations of the technol-
ogy, so I don’t know how much they’re
actually being used at the dock,” says
Doyle, who points to autonomous fork-
lifts as having particularly high potential
in the areas of the DC where trucks are
loaded and unloaded.
To shippers who want to integrate
more robotics into their own dock oper-
— John Santagate, IDC
ations, Doyle says now is the time to
keep your eyes open and be ready to
test out and implement these tech-
nologies as they’re being introduced.
“The timing is right, as these
applications are brought from the
research stage to startup to actually
applying them in real areas,” says
Doyle. “It’s an exciting time. And
while we’re still in the early stages,
there’s more and more opportunity
for companies to utilize automation
to help improve their operations,
productivity and worker safety.”
Santagate is equally as bullish on
the blending of robotics, humans,
and freight on the warehouse dock,
where e-commerce and omni-channel
distribution are both pushing the
envelope on order velocities and deliv-
ery speeds. He’s also realistic about
what those robots will and won’t be
able to do. Along with the exoskeleton
suits, he also envisions a time when
robots can either remove full pallets
or build out box- and case-loads in an
autonomous fashion—but probably
not both—at the same dock door.
“Those two robots are going to
look pretty different from one
another, and they’re going to be
configured differently,” says San-
tagate. “That’s where some of the
complexity is coming in on the
design side right now. When you’re
talking about warehousing, you’re
talking about two different types of
deliveries at the bay door.” •
Robotics gain ground 23
Robotics

Rochester Drug Cooperative:

ROBOTS
READY FOR
WORK
It’s still early stages, but Rochester Drug Cooperative
is proving that mobile robotic piece picking can get the
job done in the right application.
Gary Ritzmann, project
manager

BY BOB TREBILCOCK, EDITOR AT LARGE

Up on a 19,000-square-foot mezzanine
in a distribution center in western New York, order selec-
tors at either end of a pick module are directed by voice as
they walk through their zones, picking slow-moving SKUs.
There’s nothing special about that process at the Rochester Drug Coopera-
tive, which goes to market as RDC. It’s the kind of piece-picking solution you
see every day in distribution centers. But in the middle of the pick module,
something different is happening. Dubbed “Adam” because it’s a first of its
kind, a mobile piece-picking robot (IAM Robotics, iamrobotics.com) picks
from 1,200 SKUs stored on static shelves in a four-aisle pick zone.
When a shipping tote representing a store order for one of RDC’s inde-
pendent pharmacy members is conveyed into the robot’s work zone, Mike
Collins, the robotic operator, scans a bar code to send picking instructions
to Adam. The robot then travels autonomously through the zone, using an
arm with a suction cup to pick items to a tote. When the order has been
picked complete, the robot travels back to Collins. He scans the items into
the shipping container, pushes it onto a takeaway conveyor and scans the
next shipping tote to initiate the next order. Asked whether the robot is
accurate and reliable, Collins chuckles: “The highlight of my night is when

Michael Okoniewski / Getty Images for Peerless Media

24 Robotics gain ground logisticsmgmt.com

 it misses something,” he says. Which, isn’t very often.
While the robot was working four aisles during a July
visit, RDC was prepping an adjoining zone that would
double the size of the robot’s area.
While an early prototype of Adam picked 1,100
items an hour stationed in front of a shelf in IAM
Robotics’ test area, this robot is picking between 100
and 110 items an hour, a rate that is similar to human
order selectors working the mezzanine. Whether the
robot can work faster—the robot maker estimates that
at speed it could make as many as 400 picks an hour—
is moot, according to Gary Ritzmann, the Rochester
Drug project manager who oversaw the implementa-
tion of the robot and an industry veteran. The current
rate is all that’s required for the application.
“Downstairs on the floor, our order selectors do
between 250 and 300 picks per hour from fast-mov-
ing items in carton flow racks,” Ritzmann says. “But
upstairs, where we store our slowest-moving items,
the robot is only picking three hours a night. Our
order selectors need to pick about 100 lines per hour
to get their work done, and the robot has no problem
keeping up.”
The robot went into production in January 2017
and picked test orders until March. Seven months in,
Ritzmann says RDC is still learning how to get the most
out of the application. At present, the robot is between
95% and 98% accurate, compared to 99.9% accuracy for
voice-directed associates. “But most of the errors can be
eliminated if we do a better job of putting product away
on the shelf correctly,” Ritzmann says. He adds that if
the next steps they have planned to integrate the robots
further into the automation system pan out, RDC plans
to expand the fleet to four robots. “I’m convinced it’s
going to work,” he says.
The dynamics that convinced RDC to take a
chance on a new, emerging technology, as well as the
cooperative’s methodical step-by-step approach to
rolling out robotics, could very well provide a road
map for other end users who are also thinking about
becoming early adopters of robots.

Early adoption
Let’s face it: It’s a pretty exciting time to be in the
distribution business. Automation is old hat to manu-
facturers, but many retailers and distributors like

logisticsmgmt.com Robotics gain ground 25

 Robotics

Rochester Drug Cooperative have Adam, the mobile piece-picking

robot, automatically picks slow-
long gotten along adding more moving items.
pick modules and throwing more
people at the problem. After all, who were looking for an edge.
traditionally people were plenti- Count Rochester Drug Coop-
ful, flexible and relatively inex- erative in that category. Founded
pensive when compared to auto- in 1905, RDC describes itself as “a
mation. That was especially true marriage of a traditional drug distri-
in facilities with uneven demand. bution company, a buying cooperative
For many, though, that old for- and a private long-term investment
mula is no longer working. New structure formed for the sole benefit
RDC’s robotics supplier developed a high-speed
customer and market demands, cubing and weighing device to capture and manage of pharmacist-entreprenuers.”
especially those related to information about the products picked by the robot. With more than $2 billion a year
e-commerce, have put a premium in sales, RDC provides pharmaceu-
on getting every order accurate and complete, and doing so ticals, over-the-counter health and beauty care products, and
in record time to meet aggressive order cut-off times. At the health care supplies to more than 1,300 independently owned
same time, it’s harder than ever to find a reliable workforce, community retail pharmacies, long-term care pharmacies and
especially for two- and three-shift operations. home health care stores in the Northeast. It currently ranks as
The result has been a slew of new automated offerings to the seventh-largest full-line distributor in the United States. In
solve the piece-picking and packing problem. In recent issues this industry, RDC’s top three competitors control more than
of Modern, we’ve featured shuttles and bots for goods-to-person 90% of the market. Customer service is paramount—all orders
picking at facilities operated by Destination Maternity and are delivered next day.
Johnson & Johnson Vision Care; pocket sorters at REI and RDC did not set out to become an early adopter. As recently
Stage Stores; and mobile robots at Quiet Logistics and GE as five or six years ago, the Rochester facility was relatively light
Healthcare. Many of those projects represent a first-time imple- on automation—a conveyor and voice technology. But, with
mentation of a technology or unique solutions by early adopters business growing, labor was becoming an issue, especially on

26 Robotics gain ground logisticsmgmt.com

 Systems Material
Software Integration Handling
Automation

Inside YOUR four walls…

It’s not about keeping up with the Jones.
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 Robotics
1
2 shift continued to experience constant turnover.
3 two to three times faster than our current pickers and work
In operation, the robot is system directed to a picking location
(1). Using a suction cup arm, the robot picks the required item
(2). It then places it in a tote before the next pick (3).
the second shift, which operates from 5:30 p.m. till 2:00 a.m.
At the time, the facility was processing about 30,000 lines a
night with a crew of 45 people. The slow-moving SKUs on the
mezzanine were the hardest to pick.
“It was a hectic work environment, and we had a lot of turn-
over,” says Joe Brennan, who has been with RDC for 25 years and
recently became CEO. Or, as Larry Doud, Brennan’s predecessor,
28 Robotics gain ground
explained to Modern back in 2015: “Too often, people are sched-
uled to work and don’t show up, or go out for a meal and don’t
come back.” Turnover was as high as 40% a year.
To address the issue, RDC considered expanding the Roch-
ester operation. Instead, it opted to build a new, highly auto-
mated 110,00-square-foot automated facility in Fairfield, N.J.,
since more than 60% of the cooperative’s business is in the
New York metropolitan area. That facility, developed with SSI
Schaefer, represented RDC’s first leap into automation, with
A-frames, carousels and other automation. The new facility
took some of the pressure off the Rochester facility. It also pro-
vided a window into the benefits of automation. Yet, the second
What happened next was as much a matter of coincidence
as design. As Doud, the former CEO, told the story to Modern
back in 2015, he shared his frustration with one of RDC’s phar-
macist customers and said something like: “Someone ought to
invent a robot.” As it turned out, Tom Galluzo, the pharmacist’s
son, was a robot specialist at Carnegie Mellon University in
Pittsburgh and the co-founder of IAM Robotics.
While materials handling wasn’t necessarily top of mind for
Galluzzo, he went to Rochester to learn about the picking pro-
cess for slow-moving SKUs. In the spring of 2014, he made a
pitch. “He asked us if we could get something that could pick
multiple shifts without a break or vacation, would we be inter-
ested,” Ritzmann says. “Well, of course!”
Over the next six months, Ritzmann and IAM Robotics
worked together to better understand just what a robot would
have to do to integrate with RDC’s operation. At one point,
RDC sent IAM about 20 common SKUs to practice on. In
November 2014, right before Thanksgiving, a prototype was
ready for a demonstration.
To get ready, Ritzmann prepped a test area with about
60 items. They were stored next to one another on a limited
number of shelves in one aisle. The prototype showed up on a
Thursday afternoon. A team from IAM Robotics uncrated it,
put it together and ran some tests. “The next day, we were pick-
ing,” Ritzmann says.
The prototype had limited capabilities, and the picking
demonstration was similarly limited, but in that environ-
ment, the robot did what it was supposed to do. RDC
decided to go to the next step.
Next steps
There was risk-taking on everyone’s part, which meant that
part of the next step was a contract, with RDC providing some
logisticsmgmt.com
funding for Beta model of the robot.
Those were corporate issues. From
Ritzmann’s point of view, there were
operational issues to get the robot
ready for prime time.
For one, the prototype had lim-
ited maneuverability. It moved up
and down aisles, but it couldn’t turn
corners. To work in the pick module,
it had to make 90-degree turns so it
could access multiple aisles. The robot
also needed a lift so the robotic arm
could access a wider range of shelves.
To enter new SKUs into the system,
IAM Robotics developed a high-speed,
3D scanner that rapidly weighs and
scans an item, creates a 3D model,
classifies the new product and then
After picking, the robot delivers the items to a
enters it into the database of products tote induction station. At present, picked items
being picked by the robot. are placed in the shipping tote by an operator.
Speed was part of the discussion,
but less of an issue given the applica-
tion. While the roboticists estimated that the robot could pick as
many as 400 pieces an hour and work the same pace at the end
of the shift as at the beginning of the shift, for now, a robot only
needed to pick 100 or so pieces an hour to meet RDC’s needs.
Of course, prototypes aren’t built in a day, and given that
this was a new solution designed for RDC’s picking environ-
ment, this was no exception. By April 2016, however, a team
from RDC traveled to Pittsburgh to watch a demonstration of
the Beta robot. At that point, RDC gave the go ahead to build
a production-ready robot. “We went back in September and
approved what they’d built,” Ritzmann says.
IAM Robotics put the robot through its paces in Rochester,
then took it back to Pittsburgh for tweaking, delivering the
completed robot in late October. “We took a slow approach roll-
ing it out,” Ritzmann says. “Rather than just going live, we used is going to double the size of the robot’s pick zone. “If we’re
the robot intermittently during the day for test orders through
the end of the year. They made tweaks and updates, and then
we’d test again.”
By the end of the year, RDC was satisfied that the robot was
ready to go into production on the mezzanine in January 2017,
after the holidays.
Working with robots
Being an early adopter is no easy task. As Ritzmann puts
it, “If it was easy, someone else would’ve already done it.”
logisticsmgmt.com
Rather than flip the switch last
January, go live, and then install the
other three robots, RDC has taken
a “crawl to walk, walk to run, run
to sprint” approach to minimize the
risk of failure.
For the first several months, some-
one from IAM Robotics was on site to
address any issues and to train Col-
lins, the robot operator. Once Collins
was self-sufficient, he began working
on his own. Still, IAM Robotics gets
real-time feedback from the Cloud
that allows it to monitor the perfor-
mance of the robots and report impor-
tant metrics to RDC.
The robot was assigned to an area
with four aisles and 1,200 SKUs.
And, to get started, the robotic
picking process mimics what order
selectors are doing in the adjoining
aisles. Collins scans new shipping
containers when they arrive in the robot’s zone to initiate
picks for that order, just like the nearby order selectors.
The robot picks to an onboard tote as it travels through
the pick zone; when the order is picked complete, Col-
lins empties the contents into the shipping container and
inducts it onto a take away conveyor. Similarly, order selec-
tors pick to a lightweight carrier that they then dump into a
shipping container and induct it onto the takeaway conveyor.
For now, Collins also scans the items to ensure accuracy
before pushing the container onto the takeaway conveyor. “We
don’t have to do that,” says Ritzmann. “But for now, we want to
make sure that the order was picked accurately and complete.
And, we’re doing it to keep statistics.”
Next steps are already on the drawing board. First, RDC
able to do that successfully, we can double the number of
orders the robot picks for and do batch picking,” Ritzmann
says. In addition, RDC is working with SSI Schaefer to
integrate the robot with the conveyor system. The idea is
to have the shipping container automatically roll on and
off the robot, freeing up Collins for other tasks. Assuming
these ideas pan out, RDC plans to expand the fleet to four
robot zones that could handle most of the slow-moving SKU
picking on the second shift.
Having worked with the robot for six months, Ritzmann’s
Robotics gain ground 29
 Robotics

biggest surprise was the speed of the IT integration. “We’re
piggy-backing off information we’re already sending to our voice
system and the warehouse control system managing the con-
veyors,” he says. “Getting the information from our enterprise
resource planning system to their server and from their server to
the robot went better and faster than I imagined,” he says.
He has also learned that precision counts, as is the case
with most automated equipment. Most of the robot’s mistakes
are the result of how items were put away onto the shelving.
“Those can be eliminated if we put things away correctly,
which ought to be a best practice anyway,” he says.
He says other potential users call and ask if picking from
static shelves is a limiting factor. Ritzmann points out that
the robot was designed to pick from his static shelves—he
doesn’t need robots to pick from case flow rack. While it
is a niche solution, most automation is suited to specific
applications. AGVs aren’t a replacement for all lift trucks;
automated storage hasn’t replaced all pallet and pallet rack
and shuttles; and pocket sorters have not yet made pick-to-
light mezzanines obsolete. “I spent 15 years selling materi-
als handling solutions,” he says. “There are thousands of
warehouses with static shelving.”
There is more work to be done. It is after all, just one
robot working three hours a shift during part of the week. But
Ritzmann and Brennan believe that robots are ready for work
today for those companies brave enough to be early adopters.
“We saw what automation could do for us when we opened
the new DC in Fairfield, New Jersey,” says Brennan. “We all
get that this is the so-called bleeding edge, but I think there
will be rewards in the end.” •

RDC puts robots to work

ers receive a license plate bar code
label and may be placed on a put away
cart and delivered to a storage location
An early adopter, Rochester Drug Cooperative is using (3,4,5,6). Slow-moving items are trans-
robotic piece-picking technology to complement ported to the mezzanine level (4) on a
picking of slow-moving items. vertical reciprocating conveyor (10).
Picking: There are several distinct

I
n its Rochester, N.Y., distribution
center, a mobile piece-picking robot
augments voice-directed picking
operations on a mezzanine dedicated to
slow-moving products, while faster-mov-
ers are picked from shelves and pallets
on the ground floor.
Receiving: Receiving (1) takes place
during the day shift. The facility receives
Rochester Drug
Cooperative
Rochester, N.Y.
SIZE: 60,000 square feet plus a
19,000-square-foot mezzanine
PRODUCTS: Pharmaceuticals and over-
the-counter drugs
THROUGHPUT: 15,000 lines per night
SHIFTS PER DAY/DAYS PER WEEK:
2 shifts per day/6 days per week
EMPLOYEES: 45
mixed cases—never full cases—along
with cases, split cases and some each
deliveries. All incoming deliveries are
scanned against a purchase order already
in the system.
Storage: Putaway into storage is
system directed. The facility has a small
area for pallet storage (2). The rest of
the inventory is stored at the case or
item level in carton flow rack and shelv-
ing (3) on the floor level and on static
shelving on the mezzanine level (4).
Temperature sensitive items are stored
in a small cooler (5) while restricted
prescription drugs, such as narcotics,
are stored in a secured vault (6). Pal-
lets ready for storage, or pallets built
in receiving, are delivered to a pallet
storage location (2), where the putaway
is confirmed either by a bar code scan
or by voice. Carton or individual items
such as canes, wheelchairs and walk-
picking processes in the facility.
1 Full case picking: Order selec-
tors identify the number of cases they
are going to pick on a desktop computer
screen and the system prints out ship-
ping labels. They are then directed by
voice to picking locations in the pallet
storage area (2) based on the most effi-
cient path to pick those cases. Cases
are picked to a cart or to a pallet on a
walkie and the shipping label is applied.
They’re then inducted onto a conveyor
(7) and sorted to a shipping location in
the packing and shipping area (8) based
on the route.
2 Pick to returnable tote: Return-
able totes that are sent to individual stores
may receive inventory from different pick
zones located in the facility. The process
is initiated on the floor level when a tote
is inducted from a tote destacker (9) onto
the conveyor (7). When the conveyor (7)

30 Robotics gain ground logisticsmgmt.com

 MEZZANINE

Static
4 shelving
Vertical
Static reciprocating
shelving 4 7 conveyor
Conveyor (VRC)
Cooler 5 10
6 Vault

Conveyor 7 Tote destacker

9
3 Pallet
3 storage
3 2
3 Carton flow rack
and shelving
1
R
Receiving
7
Conveyor
10
Vertical 8
reciprocating
conveyor Packing
(VRC) and shipping

delivers a tote into one of the floor level
pick zones (3), an associate scans the
tote, the voice system speaks a code that
identifies the storage location for the next
tote and the quantity. Once the associ-
ate has confirmed all of the picks in that
zone, the tote is pushed back on the
conveyor (7) and travels to the next pick
location (3) on the floor level, where the
process is repeated.
Once all of the items for that tote
have been picked on the ground level,
the VRC (10) lifts the tote to the mezza-
nine level (4), where slow-moving items
are stored on static shelves, along with
items for which there was no available
space on the floor.
Order selectors follow a similar pro-
cess on the mezzanine level. When a tote
arrives in their zone, they scan a label
and are directed to picking locations,
where they pick to a handheld container
that is then emptied into the shipping
tote. The tote is then inducted back onto
the conveyor. It is then routed to the
shipping and packing area (8).
3 Mobile robotic piece picking also
takes place on the mezzanine level (4).
For now, the process mimics picking by
order selectors. When a shipping tote
arrives, a robot operator scans the tote.
Order information is then delivered to
the mobile robot. The robot travels to
a pick location and automatically picks
the item from a shelf to an onboard con-
tainer. If another pick is required, the
robot is directed to the next location and
repeats the process until it has picked
all of the required items in its zone. It
then returns to the robot operator, who
empties the contents of the tote into
the shipping tote and inducts it onto the
mezzanine conveyor. It is then routed to
the packing and shipping area (8). The
operator then scans the next tote in the
zone, and the process begins again.
Shipping: In shipping (8), customer
orders are grouped into waves, palletized
and loaded onto a truck for delivery to a
courier destination. The courier breaks
the orders down into last-mile deliveries
to individual customers. •
System Suppliers
MOBILE PIECE-PICKING ROBOT:
IAM Robotics
CONVEYOR: Hytrol and SSI Schaefer
VERTICAL RECIPROCATING
CONVEYOR: PFlow Industries
VOICE RECOGNITION SYSTEM:
Lucas Systems
MOBILE COMPUTING & BAR CODE
SCANNING: Zebra Technologies
WMS: Developed in-house
WCS: SSI Schaefer
RETURNABLE SHIPPING TOTES:
Monoflo International
INLINE PRINTING: Konica Minolta
PRINT & APPLY SHIPPING LABELS:
Weber Packaging
LIFT TRUCKS: Toyota
RACK: Ridg-U-Rak

logisticsmgmt.com Robotics gain ground 31

Robotics

Robots at
GEODIS The global 3PL turned to mobile
collaborative robots to rev up its e-commerce
fulfillment operations. One measurable
result: a 2x improvement in productivity.

M
BY BOB TREBILCOCK, EDITOR AT LARGE

ore than 6.5 million. That’s how many units GEODIS, the global third-
party logistics (3PL) provider, had picked to a fleet of mobile collaborative
robots (Locus Robotics, locusrobotics.com) as of mid-December 2018.
175 and counting. That’s the number of cobots GEODIS had deployed across its
North American facilities as of that date.
2x. That’s the productivity improvements that GEODIS realized since it first
deployed a fleet of 21 bots in a facility outside of Indianapolis in January 2018 fol-
lowing a three-month pilot, according to Alan McDonald,
senior director of continuous improvement, and Kevin
Stock, the senior vice president of engineering.
Those are just some of the numbers that GEODIS
believes make a compelling case for mobile collaborative
robots in warehouse and distribution environments, like
e-commerce, that involve a significant volume of each picks.
In GEODIS’ case, the number of units picked during peak
season increased 30% year over year. But it’s not just the
drive for more productivity that led GEODIS to robotics.
Customers are also demanding innovation.
“The market is definitely driving us to new technologies
like robotics,” notes McDonald. “Our customers are ask-
ing us what innovations we are looking at for the future. In
fact, not a week goes by that we don’t talk to an existing or

From left: Kevin Stock, senior vice president

of engineering and Alan McDonald, senior
director of continuous improvement.

Chris Cone / Getty Images for Peerless Media

32 Robotics gain ground

potential customer who wants to know where we’re headed.”
Adds Stock: “Delivering on KPIs and costs are considered
table stakes for a 3PL. Now, the question is: What else are
you bringing to the table?”
For GEODIS, one of the answers to that question is
mobile collaborative robots, which also help the global 3PL
address the other big issue for warehousing and distribution
operators: How do we staff a facility with reliable and produc-
tive associates at a time when more and more e-commerce
facilities are opening in the same logistics hubs during record
low unemployment?
“There is a lot of competition for associates in the areas
where we have warehouses, so we have to make them a more
desirable place to work,” Stock says. “We’re installing better
breakrooms, better lighting and doing what we can to make
the jobs easier to learn and perform successfully. Robotics is
part of that.”
This is a look at how one of the world’s leading 3PLs chose
and implemented a mobile collaborative robotics solution that
it is now deploying across its footprint.

Investigating robots
With headquarters in Paris, GEODIS is one of the largest
3PLs in the world and generated more than $9.25 billion
in revenue in 2017, the last year for which results are
available. The company services 165,000 customers, with
40,500 employees across 120 countries and 70 million
square feet of warehouse space. It moves more than 100
million parcels a year.
In the United States, GEODIS leverages 140 facilities on
20 campuses, representing 43 million square feet. It serves
six defined verticals, including retail and e-commerce fulfill-
ment, consumer electronics, fast-moving consumer goods,
health care, industrial and automotive.
As with other 3PL providers, one of the key trends impact-
ing the business is the growth of e-commerce fulfillment.
“It’s not pallets and cases anymore,” says Stock. “The volume
of e-commerce orders is soaring and that means a lot more
touches and a lot more people in a very tight labor market.”
And, as with other 3PL providers, GEODIS is looking to
technology to address those issues in an industry that his-
torically eschewed automation in favor of best conventional
warehousing processes. GEODIS has installed automated pick
towers, conveyor and sortation systems, and put walls in some
of its operations—and it is working on a project to use drones
to take inventory in its facilities. But, in its e-commerce picking

Robotics gain ground 33

 Robotics

operations, it still relied
heavily on conventional
pick processes such as
pick-to-cart enabled by
wearable wrist units and a
warehouse management
system (WMS).
In early 2017, the
3PL concluded that con-
ventional was no longer
sustainable, according to
McDonald. That spring,
GEODIS put together
an innovation team to
investigate new technolo-
gies. Important criteria
included: the capital
investment required, was
it user friendly and easy
to operate, was it scal-
able and finally, was it
mobile—if necessary, how
easily could GEODIS
move a solution from one
facility to another?
That April, the new team
went to ProMat 2017 to
see what the industry had
to offer. “We were deliber-
ate about who we spoke
An associate scans a tote to
a robot (top). Order selectors
receive their picking instructions
on a screen (bottom).
to,” McDonald says, “You not only want the right solu-
“and after we narrowed tion, you want the right provider,” says
the solutions we were McDonald. “Vendors visited our site to
interested in down to demonstrate what they could do. More
collaborative robots, we importantly, when we visited them on
narrowed that down to their home turf, we wanted to know what
a few providers.” was on their road map. It was great that
Over the course of they could do something now, but we
the summer, the inno- wanted to know what were their plans
vation team visited for the future. What was in development
sites where cobots that they could tell us about?”
were up and running; By the end of the summer, they had
they visited company chosen a provider for a three-month-
headquarters to long pilot involving 21 bots. The decid-
learn more about the ing factors went beyond the solution.
various providers and “Truthfully, we bounced back and forth
their cultures; and between potential solution providers, but
asked the potential we chose the partner we chose because
providers to develop we not only liked their software, but
a business case. The there was a good cultural match between
fact that this is a new our companies, and they had the same
technology, and that vision as we did. The fact that they had
many of the providers experience in operations helped.”
are startups, made the
evaluation a differ- Rolling out a solution
ent process than if Implementing a new technology, espe-
GEODIS had been cially one for which there isn’t a lot
looking at a conven- of use cases to learn from, is often a
tional, established multi-step process. That was the case
automation solution. for GEODIS, although the technology

The new business model

A utomation-as-a-service is one of the emerging business models in the materials
handling automation space. In this model, a solution provider owns, maintains and in
some cases, even operates, the equipment or an entire automated warehouse for a fee.
The cost is often on a per-pallet, per-case or per-pick basis.
That includes robotics. Typically two or three options are available, similar to the lift
truck industry. They include a purchase option; purchase and rental option, where you
purchase a baseline fleet and then rent additional robots on an as needed basis, such as
peak and a robot-as-a-service model in which you pay a price based on how the robot is
operated, such as a cost per pick.
In this instance, GEODIS chose the service model, which is less capital intensive than
a purchase option. “It’s a very competitive market right now, and we spoke to multiple
providers who were offering a robotics-as-a-service model,” says Alan McDonald, GEO-
DIS senior director of continuous improvement. “I think they all know they need to make it
as easy as they can for people to adopt the technology.”

34 Robotics gain ground logisticsmgmt.com

proved itself fairly quickly.
It began with a planned three-month
pilot program using 21 cobots in an
Indianapolis e-commerce fulfillment
center. They developed a process to
batch pick single line orders to a tote
that would then be sorted out at pack-
ing. “Once we selected a supplier, we
did a deep dive, starting in October
2017,” says McDonald. “We compared
pick rates to the existing cluster pick-
to-cart process we were using in that
operation.” Additionally, there was some
software development for the interface
between the GEODIS WMS and the
robotic control system, along with some
modifications to the pack operation.
GEODIS quickly learned that in addi-
tion to productivity improvements, soft
benefits needed to be factored into the
decision. For one, the training time to get
an associate up and running with a cobot
was quicker than learning how to pick to
cart. They were easy to operate. Today,
the cobots can communicate in the four
languages most common to the facility:
English, Spanish, Burmese and Chin,
which is a language spoken predominantly
in Myanmar. For another, associates liked
working with the cobots, which they were
encouraged to name during the pilot.
“If you watch some of our videos
online, our operators say they often talk to
the bots,” McDonald says. “So, while pro-
ductivity was an important metric, we also
considered the engagement of employees
and the fact that we could make a mun-
dane task more interesting. That leads to
better retention.”
Another soft benefit that could not be
counted out: customer satisfaction. “When
our customers ask us what we’re doing with
technology, we can point to the robots,”
McDonald says.
Here, an associate uses a wrist-
mounted scanner to confirm a pick.
logisticsmgmt.com
In early January on the volume of orders.”
2018, GEODIS for- At present, GEODIS
mally transitioned from uses between three and
pilot to go live. During six bots per associate,
that period, communi- depending on the volume
cation was important: and density of orders to be
It was important that picked in a given day.
the whole team, and In addition to produc-
not just order selectors, tivity improvements and
understand their jobs customer satisfaction,
were not threatened. cobots are easy to imple-
“We held meetings for ment compared to other
all of our operators, technologies. A new
whether they would robot can be received,
interface with a robot unpacked and in opera-
or not,” says Stock. An order selector scans an item to tion in a matter of hours.
one of the order totes.
“The important word Similarly, an associate—
was: collaborative. We or an office employee
made sure our operators knew that a bot helping out on the floor during peak—can
was not going to pick the product, so be picking very quickly. Finally, for the
this was about enabling our people to be distribution team, it’s exciting to be on the
more productive while making their jobs leading edge of an emerging technology.
easier. It wasn’t about replacing people.” “There is a perception that I think is
At the facility level, there have been accurate that GEODIS is on the front line
ongoing learnings over the last year, as of this technology,” says McDonald. “If we
GEODIS works with the cobots. “It’s were to wait until the technology matures to
very easy to learn to pick to the bots. It’s adopt it, we’d be behind the curve.”
longer to learn how to operate them,” says Adds Stock: “We want to be on the cut-
McDonald. “The more you work with ting edge, and as a result, we’re
them, the more you learn about what kind creating new opportunities for our business,
of robot-to-operator ratio you need based and for the people who work for us.” •
Robotics gain ground 35